On Day 9 of the #GrandWalkOut we managed to complete the Coventry Canal.
We left our glamp and went to the Co-op for supplies in Atherstone. Bob started walking from there towards Nuneaton.
I went to Nuneaton and started waking at bridge 15 and walked to Bridge 11 at Marston junction. This is where the Ashby canal branches off. But Bob carried on from there down to Hawkesbury Junction, which is where the Coventry Canal meets the Oxford Canal, which we will take tomorrow.
It was an overcast and humid day and it reminded me of many days on the End to End in 2019 when the walk seemed quite ordinary but was extraordinary for all that. The canal is alive with waterfowl, edged by flowering plants and populated by all sorts of people. Each small track of woodland is currently alive with bluebells, a quintessential British Spring wild flower.
To be doing this walk we had planned to do in 2020 yet had to postpone due to the Covid19 Pandemic also makes it extraordinary. As we touch each town or village, I wonder how people have managed. We see shops that have closed, pubs too. Graffiti still adorns the bridges that I count off as I pass under them.
We finished at Hawkesbury Junction and then drove onto our new glamp which is south of Rugby at Braunston, over looking the Grand Union Canal. We will fill in the gap as we walk to here over the next few days.
But today I think only of this day. As with the End to End, on any long distance walk you can’t think too far ahead. You don’t want to miss anything.
In the Rule of St Benedict everyday is marked in the same way. The same hours are celebrated in the Office each day. The the psalms are repeated in a particular cycle. This is all part of the stability of the community every day. As I walk along the footpath is my work, the trees and hedgerows are the walls of my oratory and my remembered bible keeps me company in my daily celebration.
As I rest at days end, God grant a quiet night and a just one.
From my remembered bible : Every creature praises God.
Just for today.
From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.
Janet Lees, from Atherstone to Hawkesbury on the Coventry Canal. 2nd May 2022