End.

I should probably put a capper on the whole thing, and point out that with sore feet and a heavy heart I made it back to London without any hassles.  It's true what they say about the grass being greener on the other side.  Some nights sleeping in my tent I wished for nothing more than be wrapped up in a warm duvet at home, but now I missed the wandering and having everything I need to live on my back.

Still a great trip.  And I'm already planning the next one a little bit.

Day 14 - Amsterdam

Had a great day yesterday. Managed to find my way to Anne Frank's house without too much trouble, and then after an hours queue I was in!

It was definitely worth the wait. I've been a big admirer of Anne Frank ever since I read her diary as a teenager, and getting to see the space she lived in while she wrote it was fascinating. Obviously it was also extremely moving and depressing at times, but the house/museum is laid out in such a way that you're made to consider wider issues of social injustice and the concept of freedom as well as the personality and story of Anne Frank. V much recommended if you're ever in Amsterdam.

After a quick falafel lunch I hopped on a ferry and crossed the waters to The Eye film institute where I went to a Stanley Kubrick exhibition. A bit of a change of pace to go from the emotional to the analytical, but a nice one. Was an excellent exhibition, with lots and lots of great props and costumes from his entire body of work. They had a big nuclear bomb prop from Dt Strangelove, but to my dismay it had a sign next to it saying "Please Do Not Ride The Bomb". Awww.

It turned out that with an exhibition ticket you could get a discount on a film. So I went out to one of Ansterdam's fine coffee shops for a quick bit of relaxation, then I went to see 2001 on a huge screen with quadraphonic sound.

It was great! Definitely the best way to see the film. It was all a bit overwhelming at times.

Right, I've got a train to Brussels to catch at 14:13, then soon after a Eurostar to St Pancras. See you later, London!

Day 12 - Amsterdam

Woop! Finally made it. I'm staying in a campsite about 3km from the city centre in a v small town called Zonderdorp. It's very strange, 30 minutes on the bus from a bustling city centre and I'm out in some tranquil rural paradise with cows and goats and whatnot.

The campsite itself is some kind of alternative commune. There's yurts and tepees, and many interesting and, to be frank, stoned people about. It's a bit like being at Glastonbury without the music.

I've made friends with these two old Russian guys called Yuri and Alex. I met them when they were playing chess and drinking vodka. We all had a drink and a smoke together and collectively put the boot into Yeltsin (and at one point Brezhnev, but I was a bit out of my depth there). So it's all very pleasant stuff, nice that the last place I camp is probably the friendliest.

I had a good look around Amsterdam yesterday. It is, obviously, lovely. Im sure I must be the last person I know never to have been before. I sat around drinking Amstell, eating falafel and listening to jazz music.

Today I'm heading for Anne Frank's house, and then afterwards to cheer myself up there's an exhibition of Stanley Kubrick props on.

Day 11 - Utrecht

I've had a wonderful day in Utrecht today - made all the nicer by the fact that I had nice people to spend the day with rather than wandering around aimlessly on my own.

I woke up in a warm and soft fold out bed in a flat on the excellently named street Johncoltranestraat (next to DukeEllingtonstraat and off the Jazzsingel).  Much nicer than waking up in a field in some sweaty and increasingly unhygienic smelling tent.

I spent the morning drinking coffee and catching up with all the internet stuff I'd missed in the 11 days I've been away.

Later I borrowed one of my friend's bikes and cycled into Utrecht with them.  Cycling around the Netherlands compared to London is like night and day.  No-one screamed insults at me, no-one tried to crush me with a van - I didn't even get randomly assaulted once!  The omnipresent and wide-ranging network of cycle lanes means you can get around both easily and with pleasure.

When we got into the city centre I was surprised - Utrecht is absolutely beautiful.  We had a look around a half destroyed cathedral (a C18 hurricane this time rather than Nazis).  Afterwards we headed to a coffee shop and spent a relaxing hour listening to jazz in the basement.  Then we headed out to a park, sat in the sun, fed ducks and drank beer.

Cycling home in the sunset was perfectly lovely - and then we watched some Black Books and In Bruges.  Today I'm hitting the road again pretty soon and heading to Amsterdam.  Can't wait.

Day 11 - Short Picture post.

A few pictures so far of my trip:

An average campsite and my gear.

Nazi machine gun bunkers slowly sinking into the sand at Dunkirk

A nice old building in Bruges.

The view from the top of the clock tower in Bruges.

One of the canals in Bruges

More canals in Bruges

Me, on the Breskens to Vlissengen Ferry

View out over a lake near Westkappel

Typical walking view as I head down the beach to my next destination.

Sherman Tank at Westkappel - I later ate my lunch sitting on this.

Day 10 - Hellevoetsluis to Rotterdam

Am posting this just outside the modern art museum in the centre of the city.

Hellevoetsluis proved to be a total bust as a town/city. It doesn't seem to even have a centre as such, just a slightly run down shopping centre. After two hours walking around trying to find something interesting I gave up and returned to the campsite. It was a weird place, kind of reminded me of a Midwestern US town, all long straight roads, and low kind of industrial buildings. At least the campsite was pleasant and grassy though.

I'm surprised at how modern Rotterdam is - I was expecting the usual spattering of old buildings in the centre, but it turns out that nearly everything was flattened in fifteen minutes on 14th May 1940 by the Luftwaffe. Yeah, cheers Hitler.

What remains (sort of) is a nice church (St Lawrence's) which I spent an hour wandering around reading about the history of the place. It looked real nice prior to WW2.

Now the place is filled with glittering, glass skyscraper and more upmarket fashiony shops than you can shake a stick at. If you're in the market for a pair of trainers or a trendy t-shirt then this is the place to be. I'm not, so it feels a little corporate and soulless.

Later I'm hopping on a train to Utrecht to meet up with a friend. After nearly two weeks of solitude on the road it'll be pretty weird to see someone that I know.

Day 9 - Renesse to Hellevoetsluis

A baking hot day here. The kind of day where you get little shimmering mirages over to the top of roads. I walked between a long land bridge between two Dutch islands and it was like walking through a vast concrete desert. I thought my shoes were going to stick to the ground. Kept myself watered though, and I put loads of suntan lotion on so I should be fine.

Am now in Hellevoetsluis, where I'm camped at a very nice campsite just outside of town. Am heading in now to find something for dinner and maybe a pint of beer by a canal.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Rotterdam, and after that I'm going to Utrecht to stay at a friend's house. I can't wait, life in a tent has its positive points, but I miss beds and pillows and stuff.

Day 8 - Westkappel to Renesse

Things worked out pretty good last night. There were two 17 year old dutch girls, Carmen and Janine, camping next to me, so we got talking and ended up going out to swim in the surf as the sun set. Afterwards we had vodka and orange juice on the beach.

Got to sleep pretty easy, but it rained a hell of a lot over the night and early morning so I had to take my tent down in the drizzle. Not much fun. After that I walked up the coast, and hopped on a bus to take me over the bridge to the next island. Wasn't much fun walking today, the clouds were grey and omnipresent, so I decided to stop in this place.

A kindly old dutch woman gave me permission to camp in her garden. I'm going to assume she gave permission anyway, her English wasn't so great. I'm currently in the town square having a look around. Seems nice enough, although my feet are very, very sore, which is distracting.

Day 7 - Vlissengen to Westkappel

It's been a long and hard few days on my feet. After Bruges I walked along the beach out of Breslane and up the coast to Blankenberg. Unfortunately, when I got there I discovered that Zeebrugge docks was in the way, so I walked through it, taking a bit of an industrial detour, eventually making it to Knokke, where I stayed the night.

Not much to write home about in Knokke, I slept behind a petrol station, and the cars kept me up a bit, but at least I could buy some hot coffee in the morning.

The next day I'm ashamed to say I hopped on a bus over the Dutch border. In mitigation it was drizzling, and the coastal route appears to take me through a marsh. I hopped off the bus ASAP though, and began walking through the beautiful Dutch countryside. Looking for a place to camp I tried a few places, but they were all ridiculously expensive (37€ for a place to put a tent up?!). I walked into Breskens to try and find a campsite there, but managed to get directed to a caravan sales park, which looked exactly like a campsite from a distance. Seething with tiredness I decided "sod Breskens", and got the ferry to Vlissengen.

Vlissengen was absolutely lovely. The campsite was nice and cheap, the sun was shining, there was a cooling breeze, and the coffee shops were doing a roaring trade. Much pacified I went to bed.

This morning I got up and continued trekking down the coast, eventually stopping in Westkappel. I'm camping in what essentially is some old lady's garden, but to her credit she has excellent wifi coverage. Westkappel is pretty cool - it was one of the first places stormed by the allies in 1944 so there's ww2 stuff rusting everywhere. I had lunch sitting on top of a Sherman tank.

Tomorrow I'm going to head north, and see if pedestrians can get over the huge bridge to the north of me...

Day 4 - Bruges

Am writing this sitting next to the bell tower in the centre of Bruges. Wow, this city is amazing. There are so many medieval buildings preserved intact that almost everywhere has some interesting piece of architecture. It's a lovely sunny day at the moment, and after I've had some lunch I'll head to the park and do a bit of reading, or maybe check out one of the art galleries if it isn't overly pricey.

Still staying at Camp Astrid at the moment, but will continue to wind my way up the coast tomorrow morning. I'll see if I can make it to somewhere near Knokke, or maybe Zeebrugge.

Am a bit tired, sore and bugbitten, but in pretty good spirits still. I am however getting a bit tired of sleeping in a tent. Can't wait to spend my first night in a bed.

Day 3 - Dunkirk - Oostende

Hello again to everyone, I'm writing this from an internet cafe in Oostende, Belgium.  Also I'm typing this on a damn azerty keyboard, so if there's some typos that's why.

Things are going very well on the trip so far, although my legs and feet are horribly achy, and with some blisters.  I'm quite glad to be out of France to be honest, the northeast of the country is a bit of a dump - Nazi graffiti everywhere and loads of campaign pictures of Marine Le Pen.  I guess its probably something to do with all the people trying to sneak through the ports.  Anyway, it's a pretty depressing environment.  Dunkirk in particular was very bleak, and mysteriously the streets seemed to be empty the whole time I was there.  

Fortunately the campsite was nice, and I had a very nice time watching the sun set over Dunkirk bay.

This morning I got up early and set off down the coast - walking qlong the hard sands for about 15 miles or so until I was in Belgium.  The beach was great - big old concrete machine gun bunkers poking out of the ground, quite post apocalyptic. Belgium is much nicer thankfully, everyone's polite, speqks English and is very helpful.  Also, after the blitzed out postwar qrchitecture of Dunkirk, Oostende is lovely - lots of old buildings.  I'm camped just outside the town, in a place called Camping Astrid.

After I got there this afternoon, I took a dip in the sea, very refreshing.  Now I'm planning the next few days - I think off to Bruges tomorrow, stay there for 2 nights and move on.  More updates to come, when I find a keyboard that has its As and Zs etc in the right places.

Day 1 - Calais to Gravellines

Apologies for the brevity of this message, but I'm writing on an iPad in a tourist office and can't type very fast.  I'll edit this once I find a place with a proper keyboard.

So far everything is going fine, although I've learnt that while it's easy to draw a line between two places on a map, it's a different thing having to walk between the two - especially with a heavy backpack on. But, after some mild difficulty, and some slightly frustrating inadvertent detours I made it to a campsite "Camping des Dunes" last night where I slept pretty well.  Also it rained and my tent held up very well, which is good to know.

Right now I've made it to Dunkirk, and am writing this in the tourism office.  I've set up camp in "la Licorne" near the beach.  Dunkirk is alright, alTthough all the older buildings are still covered in shrapnel and bullet damage from WW2.  Might head to the Durkirk Evacuation Museum this afternoon for the full story.

Tomorrow I'll head to Belgium, to Oostende I think, where fingers crossed they will have a proper Internet cafe with a real keyboard.  After that, to

Bruges, which I'm looking forward to.

Right, I'm off to find some lunch, bye!

Day 0 - Preparation

Hello relatives (close and distant), friends (ex or otherwise), lovers (again, ex or otherwise) and last but by no means least, curious strangers,

I'm due to set off tomorrow morning on this walk:

That's 239 miles of fun and frolics, from the ferryport at Calais, up through Dunkirk and Oostende, with a stop off in Bruges for a day, then up the coast to Rotterdam, through the Hague before finally winding up in Amsterdam hopefully in about a fortnight or so.

Tomorrow morning at about 0500 I'll wake up, and at about 0530 I'm heading to Barbican tube station, which which I'll head to Victoria Train Station, where I'll get a train to Dover Priory.  From Dover I've booked passage on the Spirit of Britain to Calais:

With captain.

Following this, if all goes to plan I'll head up the coast until either I reach Dunkirk, or it gets dark - at which point I'll set up camp somewhere.  My aim is to walk between 30-40km a day, and try and camp in designated camp areas, although I would like to camp in the wilderness at least a few times.  When I get to the three cities on my route, Bruges, Rotterdam and Amsterdam I'll probably check into a hostel for a night or two, or even a hotel if I'm feeling particularly flush.  As I don't really have anything to rush back to the UK for I'm going to try and take my time, there's no real hurry to get to my goal - and if I get sidetracked here and there, well -that's all part of the adventure.

As I don't know when I'm going to want to come back, I don't want to book a trip back from Amsterdam in advance, although once I'm there I'll get a ferry to Harwick, a flight or even a Eurostar straight back into St Pancras.

Anyway, without further ado - here is my gear:

There is everything that I hope should be to get me through a fortnight or so on the road.

I'll break it down here:

1. Gelert Tryfan 300m DL Sleeping Bag

2. Black hoodie

3. Army Surplus rain hat (reversible)

4. Gelert Solo one man stealth tent (with design fault that I have corrected for)

5. Military Assault backpack 50L (I do not plan to assault anyone incidentally, it's just the slightly trying-to-hard name of a backpack - it's nice enough as it is really, it doesn't need to puff itself up with testosterone like this).

6.  Pillow Case - to fill with soft things and use as pillow during the night)

7. T-shirts (the top one has Rosa Luxemburg on it and says "Those who do not move do not notice their chains." on it.  P sweet and appropriate I think)

8. Rosetta Stone British Museum bag - a side pack for keeping things I might need more immediately on it.

9. Hiking shorts with side pockets.

10. Combat trousers with multiple pockets (I may cut the bottoms of these at some point on the walk).

11. Hi-Tec Men's Eurotrek Waterproof Hiking Boots (I hope to god these don't let me down - they have good reviews though)

12. Rainsuit, Top and bottom.

13. 6 pairs hiking socks.

14. Pants (I am unsure as to whether they should be loose or fitting, so have packed a few of each).

15. Kelloggs Special K cereal bars.

16. Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce Cheese & Broccoli x 2

17. Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce Macaroni Cheese x 2

18. Batchelors Savoury Rice 'Golden' x 2

19. Batchelors Supernoodles 'Chicken Flavoured' x 2  (does not actually contain any chicken unsurprisingly and is veggie friendly)

20. 2l Waitrose Still Mineral Water

21. Roll of binbags

22. Small pots for food I may pick up en route (cheese, eggs etc)

23. Toilet roll.

24. 10x individual sachets of instant coffee (I hate instant coffee, and seriously considered bringing a cafetiere before realising it wouldn't fit.  Instant coffee is, I suppose, better than no coffee at all).

25. 3x Ronson LED torches all with batteries with spare pack of 8x AAA Duracells

26. Ronson multitool.

27. Vaseline (to rub on feet and also on various other body parts that might chafe)

28. Compass

29. Headphones (I don't expect to listen to much music to save the battery on my phone, but you never know).

30. Mercury Backpack Stove (has the cheery motto "Go anywhere, do anything" written on it, I'm sure this will allow me to cook some excellent meals.)

31. Small white towel.

32. 2x stainless steel camping pans/plates (for cooking and also eating food out of) also a knife, fork, spoon and scissors.

33. Cash - 235E (hopefully enough to get me through most of this trip - I don't plan on being overly extravagant)

34. Casio F-91W digital watch (as worn by Al-Qaeda)

35. First aid kit (containing "plasters, gauze, dressing pads and more" I figure this will my salvation if I get into a 127 hours type situation)

36. Safety pins

37. Passport

38. Propane Cannister for stove (burn time, 4 hours)

39. Bungee cords 2x

40. Duct tape (this can solve almost any problem I encounter if I think hard enough about it)

41. Toothbrush and toothpaste.

42. 2x books '23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism' by Ha-Joon Cheung and 'Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class' by Owen Jones.

43. Sure antiperspirant stick.

44. European plug adaptor.

45. iPhone mains adaptor and USB lead.

46. 2x packs of Ibuprofen (32 tablets)

47. Insect Repellent.

48. Water purification tablets.

49. Razor and razor blades (I don't really expect to shave on this trip, but you never know.  Also the razor blades themselves may come in useful.)

50. Zippo lighter.

51. Lighter fluid.

52. Alcohol wash gel.

53. Baby wipes.

54. Sun tan lotion.

55. 2 books 'Leonardo da Vinci - Notebooks' and 'The Tiger that Isn't: Seeing through a World of Numbers' by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot'.

Whew.

Things notable by their absence:

iPhone - used to take pictures, and therefore impossible to photograph on the bed.  The phone is configured for data use in Europe.  I will be keeping it switched off most of the time, checking for messages once or twice a day and charging it at internet cafes.

Digital camera - I have been told I can borrow one from a friend, and will try to sort this out this evening.  If this falls through I'll use my iPhone, although ideally I would like to have a dedicated camera.

Mug - the specialist camping mugs were extremely overpriced (£11!) so I'll improvise with whatever plastic cups I can get my hands on.

Radio - I wanted to buy a bare bones AM/FM radio - but the cheapest I could find was £20!  What gives?! If I come across a decently priced one along the way I'll pick it up.  Would be nice to be able to listen to the world service at night.

Maps - I have full offline maps of Europe loaded onto my iPhone, so I'll be able to use that.  If things 'go bad', I'll use the compass to find my way to civilisation and, I guess buy a map if I need to.  I looked into buying maps, but I'm covering such a weird distance that I'd need to drop about £40 on three maps of France, Belgium and Holland - and frankly the whole affair seemed too complicated.  I may yet regret this decision.

Right, I'm going to pack, I'll post a picture of it all in a bag later.


edit:


Woop!