Via Francigena 2019 - England - Canterbury to Dover

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Kent » Canterbury
July 15th 2019

Published: August 22nd 2019

Hiking from Canterbury to Dover This year we decided to take the first week of our vacation to go on a hike. The trail we chose is an ancient pilgrim route called Via Francigena. The route goes from Canterbury in England to Rome in Italy. We have no intension of walking all of it. We don't have the time. Walking all of it would take maybe three months. But also, it wouldn't be fun. We enjoy hiki... Read Full Entry

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Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

Ake Och Emma

We are Emma Holmbro and Ake Dahllof. We live in Stockholm, Sweden. We have travelled more or less regularly since the mid 1990-ies and it seems like the more we travel the more difficult it is to decide where to go next. Not because we are running out of places to visit but because we find more places we want to go to faster than we manage to travel to them. Some of the things from our travel bucket list we have ticked off since we started this blog in 2006 are Angel Falls in Ven... full info

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Railway tunnel with an interesting history

In this railway tunnel they kept one or more railway guns during the Second World War

The trail

The trail mostly goes through farming country. Right through fields sometimes

A mansion?

We think this is a mansion, but we are not sure. The trail went just outside this building and we found it worth taking a photo of.

Waldershare

The cemetery is overgrown with shrubbery and ivy

Waldershare

It really looks like a good setting for shooting a horror movie

Emma hiking in a wooded section

A few sections of the trail went through wooded areas

Actually a failed photo

This photo is actually failed. But still it is a bit interesting, isn't it?

Dover castle

Dover has an impressive castle overlooking the city

White cliffs of Dover

The white cliffs of Dover as seen from above

White cliffs of Dover

The white cliffs of Dover as seen from the ferry to Calais

Something a bit funny at the end

We try to post something a bit funny at the end as a gift to those who make it all the way here. This is the funniest we managed to find this day.

22nd August 2019

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

ahhhhhhh pretty poppies!

22nd August 2019

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

With its sheer cliffs of white chalk, it marks the closest part of England to the continental landmass. The White Cliffs of Dover are 300 feet tall and stretch for 10 miles to the east and west of the town of Dover.

23rd August 2019

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

Impressing sight
They are an impressing sight from a distance. Even from the French coast they are quite visible. It must have been so easy for the Germans to shoot at Dover during the WWII: "Fritz. Aim to ze left of thoze cliffs." Oh, tasteless joke perhaps... /Ake

22nd August 2019

Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht

Thanks for sharing!

23rd August 2019

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

Thank you
And thank you for reading. Without readers it would be pointless to write anything. /Ake

23rd August 2019

Home and Away
Bob Carlsen

I now agree with your philosophy about hikes...
they should not be a project but fun. I walked to Canterbury back in May and loved the very English villages and inns. I'm pleased the weather was better for you. I had to curtail my walks when the afternoon thunderstorms hit.

23rd August 2019

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

We were so lucky with the weather
We had almost perfect weather. Nice temperatures and hardly any rain at all. We had to take cover under some trees for an hour one day. That was all. /Ake

25th August 2019

D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley

Hiking
Best not to turn it into a chore. A beautiful part of the world.

26th August 2019

RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew

Stranger Danger!
After mentioning that one of the villages looked straight out of Midsomer Murders, I would have been very suspicious if a local invited us into their house in one of the next villages! Only kidding, how lovely of them to do that :) The fields and wild flowered countryside looks absolutely enchanting.

29th August 2019

alex waring
Alexander Waring

British Countryside!
Ah, I love the British countryside! Thank you for posting your impressions of it ? Wow, well done! That was a long walk you did from Canterbury to Dover! I love the black and white cemetery shots, and the "failed photo" looks amazing! Like a hiking action shot! Well done ?

29th August 2019

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

Thank you
I felt the same way about the failed photo. I just couldn't put words to it. Maybe I'll steal your way to describe it. /Ake

8th September 2019

Mumtraveller
Lynne Brown

Whit cliffs and Flint
You have inspired me .. I should do that hike. I live in Sussex the next county to Kent where you walked ... the white chalk cliffs here are famous too the Seven Sisters . There are bands of flint in the chalk and that was a very important material in the Stone Age ...it was exported all over Europe because of its properties ..it’s very sharp. So there were arrowheads and spears and cutting tools made from flint. How long was the hike ?

8th September 2019

Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro

Distance hiked
The section we hiked in England was unusually long. It was around 31 km or 18.9 miles. But it is possible to do it in two days if you can find accomodation on the way. We decided to push it that day and did it all in one go. In total we walked 42 km that day. That's the equivalent of a marathon. Other days we typically walked between 15 and 25 km each day. I would recommend people to go on a hike in their vacation. Via Francigena was good, relatively flat, good trails, easy walking. The only problem was that you have to be OK with hiking up to 25 km in a day because in some places the only places where you could find hotels were that far in between. /Ake

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Via Francigena 2019 - England - Canterbury to Dover

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