Day # 17 Sittingbourne to Gravesend.

        Thank you Julius Ceasar. The long straight flat road, known as Watling Street that you constructed two thousand years ago, right across Albion (England), in order to move your Roman armies of occupation about quickly, effectively ensuring that rebellious minions were quickly thwarted, served me well today. Departing from my B & B Sittingbourne at the crack of dawn  (6.45am), I made steady progress through increasingly dense conurbations as London was approached. Particularly pleasant, apart from the cool, dry, sunny weather was the presence of sidewalks for all 27 kms., making it so much safer and reducing the attention level that one is compelled to pay to oncoming traffic. Stopped for refreshment at an attractive pub in Rochester, an old Roman fortress town later fortified by a castle and a still very significant city wall constructed by the Normans circa 1200AD. Certainly a candidate town I shall place on my to be re-visited list.

A place to water the horses.

          The walk is going well in most respects to this point. The concrete is grinding down the rubber of my jogger tires, rather faster than I had imagined that it would, and sometime soon I will have to replace the tire casings. Having reached London on the 4^th March, I am 11 days ahead of where I thought that I would be at this time, ie: before departure, I had projected to cross the River Thames on the 15^th. March.

Gravesend, is the most easterly crossing point on the Thames and tomorrow I shall take the 10 minute pedestrian ferry across to Tilbury.

27.9 Kms. walked today per pedometer: Cumulative kms covered: 407.6
Hours of walking today including rest stops:  7.0
Type of accommodation: Pub-hotel.
Cost of bed & breakfast: pounds.40.00 no breakfast.

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