This blog is chronicling our walk along the river Thames,Thamesis, or ‘Isis’ a part of it has been called in the past, (and which is also an Egyptian Goddess and the matron of nature and magic!), from source to mouth, which will take place at the beginning of September 2011 - and any related material that comes our way in preparation.
Hopefully this will be inspiring for you to read!
We will be starting the walk in near Kemble in the Cotswolds. The actual 'springing' or source of the river Thames is disputed, so we have decided to stick with the stated place on the Thames River Trail Website and various other reading material. Supposedly a stone marks the source, as in the summer a large part of river's beginnings lie underground. We will see when we get there! Also, as we can see in this picture, naturally an Ash tree can be found by the source.
We envisage this walk as a kind of 'pilgrimage' to honour the river and place (in my case London), where we have lived or come from, for what it has given us. Hopefully we will also collect untold stories, experiences and wisdom from people we meet along the way.
The river is 294 km (184 miles) long. Altogether it will take us approximately 2 weeks to complete walk, I reckon, with approx. 6-8 hours of walking a day. So get your walking shoes on!
At the source we will start the walk with a small ‘ceremony’. Along the way we will be passing many historic sites and landmarks, for example Runnymede, the place where the Magna Carta was agreed on 15th June 1215 and the Ankerwycke Yew, to which we will pay our respects.
At the end of the journey I will read out a letter that a friend will send me from a far away land, where she is doing a similar walk.
