Homer's Travels: Great Britain 2024 - Part Three - Champing

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Great Britain 2024 - Part Three - Champing

Day Seven (cont.) - 18 September

We arrived in Rochester and taxied to our hotel the Ship and Trades in nearby Chatham.  The fifteen room hotel sits on the waterfront with views of the marina.  The rooms are above a pub with outdoor seating.  It was a very nice setting.  We spent time outside eating, drinking, and, after talking to the front desk staff about transportation options, arranging our transportation for the next couple of days - Rochester/Chatham have Uber.

The view out our window at the Ship and Trades.
Day Eight - 19 September

Rochester Cathedral.
We ordered an Uber and went to the Rochester Cathedral.  In the cathedral we were met by a docent who was half history scholar and half comedian.  He was hilarious.  (To get the idea about the caliber of his humour: He pointed at something across the room and asked "Do you know what this is?"  When we said we didn't know he said "It's my finger." - non-stop dad jokes)  We walked around the church and went down to have lunch in the crypt ... yes there was a snack bar in the cathedral crypt.

We walked from the cathedral to Rochester castle located on a hill overlooking the cathedral and city.  The castle is hollow, the wooden floors between levels long gone.  We climbed the stairs to each level until we reached the top.  We admired the view before returning down the stairs and exited through the gift shop.

We took a taxi back to the Ship and Trades where we checked out and had some drinks at the pub.  An Uber picked us up and took us to the nearby town of Cooling.  We'd expected it to be a long drive out in the country but, while it felt like it was out in the middle of nowhere, it turned out to be a fifteen minute Uber drive.  We were dropped off at the Saint James church where we would be spending the night.  In the graveyard surrounding the church there is a cluster of children's graves.  This church and these graves were one of the inspirations for Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations".

Inside the Rochester castle.
This night we would be champing - CHurch cAMPING.  There are around twenty-four retired churches no longer being used.  The churches are maintained/renovated by the Churches Conservation Trust.  They pay for the maintenance by renting them out for the night.  It is a popular cycling tour from church to church.

I expected someone to meet us but we were alone when we arrived.  There was an outhouse next to the church entrance.  We used the code from an email to open the outhouse and another code to retrieve the church key from a lockbox inside.  We put our bags in the church next to the camp cots we would sleep on, locked the door with the key (the key was big enough to be a deadly weapon), and walked the block or so to the village pub - the Horseshoe and Castle.

Saint James Church, Cooling, Kent, UK.
We made a reservation for dinner and went outside with drinks while we waited for our time.  We chatted with a local couple about traveling and champing until it was time to go inside for dinner.  The food was pretty good and the place had a nice lived in feeling.

We returned to the church and explored it.  The walls of the vestry were covered in shells, the symbol of Saint James (and on the Camino).  There was an organ but it could not be played.  We locked ourselves in and we went to bed expecting it to be cold overnight and it was chilly but we brought what we needed to keep warm (our sleeping bag liners and warm clothes).  I slept surprisingly well.

The next morning our Uber came and picked us up and dropped us at the train station.  Are you ready for some Futball?!?

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

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