Through Britain

This is a non-walking day. I've decided to do the section from Market Harborough to Leicester directly from Bury St Edmunds without going via London. The main snag with that is that all my walking clothes and rucksack are in London. Somehow I'll manage to do without them.

Much depends on the weather. If it rains I'll be largely unprotected. All I have in Suffolk is an old jacket which might once have been waterproof. The forecast indicates a good chance of rain so I must take a robust umbrella. The pointed end will stick out of the top of the very small rucksack we have in Suffolk, jeopardising any passer by who comes too close.

In one other way this is a watershed moment. For the first time I'm so far from home that I have to arrange an overnight stay. The plan is to travel to Market Harborough via Cambridge and Leicester by train. With time spent waiting for connections the journey will take just under three and a half hours. I've therefore booked in at the Market Harborough Travelodge and plan an early start on Saturday morning. As I intend to get back to Bury at a reasonable time on Saturday evening, I've booked myself on the 16.12 train from Leicester via Ely. With only one change that journey should take just under three hours.

The small rucksack will take only a change of clothes (in case I get soaked), the umbrella, the phone charger, my razor and toothbrush plus medicines and first aid essentials. I'll have to carry a separate bag for my water bottle and Saturday's lunch time snack.

Rose at 5.48 a.m. Ate my croissant and cinnamon bun with a cup of tea and thought it a very stodgy breakfast. Late in the day there was little choice at the bakery. Left hotel at 7.30 a.m. which should give me a safety margin for the 1612 at Leicester Station. Made a bad start by struggling to find the road near the station leading to Great Bowden. Missing it, I decided to head north on a road on the far side of the station. Danger signs indicated a concealed sharp drop just off the road to the right. Eventually I found the road barred by a padlocked gate. Still, I'd allowed time for the odd mistake.

Great Bowden, when I reached it, turned out to have a thriving centre with people having their breakfast on tables outside a cafe. Also there was a proper baker. I decided to top up my water supply with some fruit juice as the day looked set to be warm and dry.

As I approached Thorpe Langton, I encountered a local man with an accent I found difficult. We exchanged pleasantries and he then complained about a group of twenty people who'd rebuffed his attempts at conversation. I suggested they might have been foreigners but he insisted they were British. This put me under some pressure not to be labelled myself as standoffish. When I thought I'd been sufficiently friendly I told him I was walking the Roman Road to Leicester where I had to catch the 1612 train. His eyes widened as if he may not have believed me. We parted amicably.

Just beyond Thorpe Langton I overtook a boy walking his dog. He had a plastic sling which he used to fling a ball for the dog to catch. The dog then placed the ball on the path and lay flat on the ground. As the boy approached, the dog picked up the ball and ran down the path with it. I prepared to greet the boy but he opened the conversation himself in a very relaxed and easy manner. I asked him about the route immediately ahead which the map told me crossed a stream. The boy told me there was a ford but also a bridge beside the ford. The bridge had a hole in it but the boy thought it quite safe. I established that the boy played football for the Market Harborough Under 11 team in the midfield.

The path beyond the stream climbed upwards and a couple of runners passed me. A few people had taken to the path to walk their dogs. The other end of the track was accessible by road. Just beyond the road I went through the hamlet of Stanton Wyville. A road continued on rising ground but was deemed unsuitable for motor vehicles. The road turned into a track which climbed through fields of sheep and reached the Roman Road. To the right of the intersection the Roman Road soon became just a course marked on the map but not visible on the ground. To the left the road survived. Some sections were tracks, one very rough, but other sections were asphalted and used sparingly by traffic. I passed one or two walkers but it was mostly unpopulated.

It's hard to walk such a lengthy section of Roman Road without imagining conditions nearly 2000 years ago. Leicester was a Roman town called Ratae. Evidence has been found of a forum (open area for a market and public gatherings) and a basilica (building used for law courts, public assemblies and commerce) but no trace of a fort has so far been discovered. I thought that most of the traffic on the road would have been horse riders but the legions must have marched along it also. There would have been wagons to take supplies to the town and maybe a few chariots. Slaves would normally have walked and might have been sent on ahead to minister to their owner's requirements on his subsequent arrival. No one could now advocate slavery but the Romans must have thought it entirely normal that they didn't have to worry about servants' wages.

At Little Stretton I had a problem as I'd only photocopied those areas that I was to walk along. By not including neighbouring areas, none of the places indicated on the signposts meant anything to me except for Stoughton. Stoughton was nearer Leicester so I decided to go there passing to the north of Leicester Airport. This meant that I missed Great Stretton which, I later discovered, was on the Roman Road. Unhappily it was not on a the section I'd copied. This added a mile or two but, ultimately, this didn't matter.

I entered Leicester and made for the station. The ethnicity of the areas I walked through was mainly non-white. I passed a large mosque with four minarets and subsidiary buildings. Houses near to the mosque flew Palestinian flags. Most of the businesses I saw were run by non-whites. My understanding is that Ugandan Asians, when expelled by Idi Amin, were attracted by Leicester's knitting industry.

The journey home was made difficult by trespassers on the line near Peterborough. Our train left Peterborough but had to return there. There was no information to be had from the staff who, themselves, were kept in the dark by the emergency services called out to deal with the problem. For a while a night in Peterborough seemed a possibility but then, almost without notice, the train resumed its journey. In the end I was barely 45 minutes late when I reached Bury.

Distance today 18.13 miles; total 205.06.