Battle

A place in Kent which mumbled to the sound of invasion in 1066 when the French walked ashore and  gave Harold a walloping in half a day. Poor old Harold and a few of his men having marched from Scotland, good time to invade when the guard is away elsewhere.  However it changed England.
Lots of houses changed hands.
So here I am again for more walking.
I have been off the air. No decent email in most of rural England and certainly not in the small tent I have been camping in.
My walking exercise based in East Mean came to an end. I had walked the best part of 40 miles from the start of the South Downs Way from Winchester in several days of hard slog on pretty bad paths.
So I gave up and resorted to do day walks in Kent.
The walkways were a bit better but just as confusing. The English are preparing for another invasion from the sea. Forgetting that they now come by train truck and air !
So the cunning brits have taken all the reference points off the walkways. Roads still have destinations but not walkways. Some of them have a coloured arrow, some even point the right direction but woe betied the council that actually maintains the muddy overgrown walkways ( but at least I got a good supply of blackberries and plenty of scratches and muddy boots in high summer  by telling the walker the direction or destination !  No just an arrow sometimes with a Local Body proudly inscribed on it, why they own up bemuses me.
However I had another several days of walking. Clocked up a hundred miles plus and happy about that. I learned that the towns that end in ....den as in Biddenden were places when Kent was covered in Oaks on which pigs fed, the clearing into which pigs were driven was yes a "den", well of course it was.
The summer is now apparently autumn. Damn near frost a few days back, but a pleasant day followed.
My exposure to the "weird ways of the Brits" continues. I have to buy insurance but can only buy it in the UK if I live here bearing in mind it is compulsory, so it can be purchased from a motorcycle tour operator in Italy or Germany to enable me to ride legally in the UK. If that is not as silly as not having proper signposts on walkways I remain confused. But they do not have a compulsory ACC which in my experience takes money under false pretences, but that is my experience, may be totally untrue.  Having said tat, those that know I had a knee replaced after it was rammed by a Ram, which was not the problem according to ACC it was "age", well the walking is doing me a world of good, not the physiotherapy which was not part of the replacement, $25,000 can only cover so much !

Back to the present, do not for a moment think the walkways are not good, the good ones are magical, and the good ones have Pubs that are open. Often they are not.

A bonus bit of luck, where I have been camping in my wee tent shivering through the night my host took his family and me, down the road to an outdoor presentation of Hamlet. What great fun. So we sat in camp chairs in a field and celebrated Shakespears wonderful dialogue with cups of cider and a walk home for a home cooked dinner of roast Pork. What great pleasure.

So the Tennis has been, the Grand Prix, the Athletics, Womens cricked, and now the womens rugby, they love their sport here.
One thing is they do have a housing boom not of course caused by immigration, but greedy speculators. Maybe just maybe the councils that used to build houses and allow other people to do so as well, much like another place I know, have played a part.
The other interesting follow up research from last year, is that BREXIT as I  thought I discovered was an ANTI vote.  In their case the imposition of EEC Law, and immigration, most Brits have had enough of the invasion, no jobs no houses and a breakdown in law and order, like acid attacks, to live in the UK one needs 20 acres, high fences and a dog, somewhere in the country.
I was astonished to hear a TV commentator suggest the London housing crisis could be solved by moving people to jobs in other cities ! Yeah right, what jobs. A bit like suggesting Immigrants to Auckland could move to Dargaville.  

Back to the anti vote.....like the one NZ will see. I will leave it to you to determine what most of NZ is sick of, and watch for the backlash. Remember Theresa May, I will go to the people and get a mandate.....well maybe. One thing is apparent that Labour in UK and NZ seem good at selecting unpopular leaders !

So perhaps tomorrow I will walk the vast battlefield where the French prevailed in 1066, since it took half a day it will not take long.
Then it is either more South Downs Way from Eastbourne, or the Pilgrims way to Canterbury, or if the weather breaks make a run for Scotland. Been waiting for a clear patch of weather......and waiting still.
At last a picture.
1. On my walk.
2. After 4 days in the tent a soft bed with a view.  The Battle memorial.

The news here has plenty on the US sites that charge for accommodation and do it poorly. Hardly a surprise.
We are being "monetarised" by the US corporates. We let them take control, and let them exploit us and wash the money to avoid taxation that should be paid in NZ, and maybe just maybe this will be a factor in the election......... the anti election.