VWPilgrim

First published 7th June 2023

To Durham Cathedral, if I went the most direct route, is 218 miles, turns out that the slightly less direct way I took in Molly was 311!  This is a long way for a 40 year camper van, so I decided to break the journey into manageable chunks. There was no rush as the service is not until 12:30pm on Mon

day. The ‘plan’ was to drive for an hour or so, find somewhere nice for lunch, and then, only then, find a place to stop for the night.  I love planning a holiday.  It’s the most organised I ever am, in fact I enjoy the planning as much as the holiday itself.  This trip I deliberately wanted to go with the flow and see where the journey takes me.  This has been exciting, liberating and a bit terrifying all at once.

Friday morning we set of, Spotify chose Ami Stewart ‘Knock on Wood’. You’re not getting. superstitious on me are you Spotify? Molly is fixed she will be fine! We set off North. The driving was going well and I decided to stop for lunch at a National Trust property, an ideal spot. I am sure it would be, but as I pulled up I realised it was half term. What gave it away, was the screaming hordes of children and the sight of increasingly exasperated parents trying to get the kids to look at the scenery and the wildlife, as they charged towards the adventure playground. Having had the joy of dragging three small children around National Trust properties like this in the past, I decided to beat a hasty retreat and find somewhere else for lunch. I ended up in rather a grubby supermarket car park in Sleaford. Still, it was quieter, and slightly more preferable.

I looked in the Park4Night app and saw if I continued north for about an hour I would come to a pub called the Water Front inn.  There I could stay in the carpark with access to loos all night and an electric hook up. Perfect.

On the way though a near disaster. I spotted too late something in the road, which looked like a paper bag, as I got closer I realised it was a chopped log.  My heart sank as I heard it hit  the underneath of Molly.  It was quite a bang.  I pulled over as quickly as I could and I looked to see if there was any damage, thankfully not. Then it occurred to me, the starting song that day was Knock on Wood!  Did Spotify know? Was God speaking to me through the Bluetooth speaker? And if he was, the next song that Spotify shuffled to play, as I left Cambridge, was ‘Anarchy in the UK’ by the Sex Pistols – this doesn’t bode well.

I arrived at the pub just before 3pm and got a very nice welcome from the landlady.  She told me about local walks and said it was pool night, with the lads, in the pub later if I wanted to join in.  I set off on a leisurely walk along the canal and then back down to the river Idle.  The village wasn’t very big, three pubs (one with a micro brewery) a church, village store and a large boat yard.  That was it.

When I got back I decided to get Molly set up for the night, which is a bit of challenge, and like everything with Molly, can’t be rushed. I looked slightly enviously at the huge grey Fiat camper that had pulled into the car park. Within minutes they had pulled up, got themselves sorted and started making themselves what seemed like a three course meal, whilst having a pint.

No such convenience here. Molly has a spectacular roof but it’s a bit of a job to put up and down on your own. So for this trip, with the woodworking skills of the local baptist minister Matt, we made it possible to turn the ‘downstairs’ into a bed, recycling old futon slats I got free from Facebook marketplace. It works great, but to set up for the night there is a slightly complicated sequence which involves removing all the cushions, getting the bed parts out of the cupboards and putting it back together, in order. It’s a bit like the ribbons in Ely cathedral, do this, then only then do that, I’ve got it down to about 20mins, but you can’t rush it.

That’s what, surprisingly, I’ve enjoyed about the pilgrimage so far, not rushing. I like being busy. Since my brain aneurysm, I have to manage the busyness but I do get bored easy, so days are often full. On this trip there are only the 5 fixed points, the services in the cathedrals, how long it took me to get there was up to me. Because getting there in Molly is slow I have to give myself a large margin for error, I have to give myself more time. Which feels like a gift.

Taking time in a way was the purpose of this pilgrimage. In theory I could do the whole trip, non stop, in 15 hours. That is according to Google maps who have never driven an ancient Campervan on Britains roads! Driving Molly, like any classic car, takes patience. She only has four gears, and you have to change down to 3rd or even 2nd for a particularly steep hill. I can’t rush anywhere and I have to stop. Which has given me that gift of time, to see old friends, go on nice walks, pray, read, do things that bring me life. And for this I’m really thankful. I’m also being reminded how much that giving time to others, this precious gift, can also bring joy.

I decided to eat in the pub, but not join in the pool.  It soon became clear that it was actually a competition between the three pubs in the village and the rivalry was a bit intense.  I slipped out with my book, in search of the pub with the micro brewery.  Very nice, but then the pool players returned, obviously upset that they lost, so I slipped away again, at least knowing that things would be happier in the pub I was staying at! 

It’s been great having people follow the pilgrimage on the blog and social media, thank you for your nice messages about my writing. That evening I got two messages, one from Caroline who I went to college with and one from Linda, who was at Holy Trinity where I was a curate.   Both said that I would be literally passing by their doors on my route. So I arranged to see Caroline after my visit to Durham Cathedral and I messaged Linda back, lunch tomorrow? 

Linda and her husband Dave were a great source of prayer and encouragement during my curacy, as they were for the whole church. On Saturday she treated me to lunch, which was Yorkshire rarebit (with bacon), the cafe owner did admit that it was Welsh rarebit “just with Yorkshire cheese!”  Tasted great.  Afterwards Linda showed me the church where she is now Church Warden (as well as a whole variety of other hats) and I heard about what God is doing there and the plans they have. St Gregory’s is an extraordinary church with an amazing ‘Lady Chapel’ that has a beautiful window, possibly rescued from a nearby abbey.  People have worshipped in that spot since Saxon times, the chapel particularly felt very holy indeed. 

We bid farewell, thanking Linda for being part of Molly’s journey and set about looking for somewhere to camp.  It had been a long drive to Linda’s (nearly 2 hours) so I didn’t want to go far.  The app suggested a campsite nearby that had some sacred stones, sounds intriguing, I called, they had space – “oh we’re on a bit of a slope” they said.

Sentry Circle Camping was an interesting place. Not only did it have it’s own sacred stones, communal fire pit and numbers for local takeaways who would deliver to the site, you could also ring for a psychic. There was plenty of wood available and individual ‘fire pits’ made from recycled washing machine drums, which most campers had outside their pitches. The ‘bit of a slope’ was actually quite an angle, but I managed to get some bits of old pallet from the communal fire pit to prop Molly up a little, at least I could just about pour a cup of tea straight and stood the chance of getting a reasonable nights sleep at a reasonable angle.

At sunset I climbed the hill to the stones to watch the sun go down over the beautiful view. I really liked this campsite, it had a hippy feel to it. The smell of the fire pits, mixed with a variety of smells of exotic food, and equally ‘exotic’ tobacco added to the ambiance. But it wasn’t as friendly as you might imagine, I definitely felt like an outsider and a bit uneasy with the spiritual vibe. So once the sun went down, I went to see the communal fire, but, disappointingly no one had lit it, so I turned in for an early night.

I need to go to church tomorrow, I thought, and I am so glad I did.

Part two to follow..