Walk for Homes - Week 4 -Housegirl makes their way down the country

Housegirl made their way through the Coventry canals, encountering a very nice gent in a narrowboat who offered them £20 and a peach : ) They chatted for a while, turned out the guy used to squat old barns. Housegirl found themself once again amazed at the openess of people they encountered and the variety of stories they were willing to share.

They made their way to Coventry Peace Co-op and their lovely host who was waiting with a jacket potato. It was interesting hearing about the amount of people who had passed in and out of the Peace Co-op. There were no original members, so people no longer had the skills to manage the finances and day to day running of the co-op, so they had to go to Radical Routes to be retrained and apply for financial support to renovate their properties. The co-op is made up of individual houses, all quite old and in need of various repairs.

The following day, on the advice of their host, Housegirl had a wander around Coventry cathedral, thankfully the tower was closed as you know Housegirl would have squeezed their way up there for the pics. Much to their delight, (perhaps more so than the cathedral) Housegirl found a Portuguese cafe in the canal basin and topped up energies with a bolo de arroz before heading on their way again.

Next stop was Northampton and Blackcurrant Housing Co-op, which is about as typical a co-op as it gets - a shared house with many mutual aid activities by it's members and communal cooking. A table full of gleaned veg from local grocers was waiting to be turned into a hearty stew. Housegirl approved their poster game (photo: Solidarity Not Charity). They had a long chat in the morning with one of the newer members who talked of shedding the privilege they grew up in to the point of having nothing, and the battle to find ease or balance in having nothing, which got Housegirl thinking a lot.

Off they went with their thoughts along to Adderbury in Oxfordshire, and to stay with Gail, who was found very last minute through the infinitely wonderous and generous call out network. Gail was an ex colleague of an ex colleague of an old university friend! Who also, like Housegirl, happened to be a morris dancer! So they spent the evening chatting all things morris. Apparently Adderbury was the main revival spot of morris in the 1970s.

Gail recommended a museum to stop off at about morris revival, but Housegirl got a bit confused and ended up wandering lost down the side of a main road. Along the way they spotted some kindling for sale outside someone's cottage and took a pile for their next co-op.....Kindling Co-op!

They dragged themself into the small village of Dedington, which felt appropriate given the way they were feeling that day. One of the low days, Housegirl really couldn't seem to work out where and what they were doing, and just walked round the village green several times eating far too much bread. Finally they headed to Blenheim Palace, only to find themself in the middle of a car show. Revving motors all over the palacial grounds, and not a single wealthy person stopping Housegirl to donate some of that spare car cash to a wee co-op! They stopped for their final doughy snack of the day, a scone, which seemed appropriate by the palace. Housegirl then tried to find the rivers into Oxford city, and were spotted by a guy and his dog Otto, who offered Housegirl a lift in their canoe. They paddled into the city, but struggled somewhat after the sun set, and were then blocked by a fallen tree, so had to leave the boat by the riverbank, and scale the walls of Oxford university. The friendly chap walked Housegirl through Oxford City, pointing out historical information of various points of interest, and ended up coming with them to their co-op, much to their host's confusion.

Housegirl had one fo their soundest nights sleep in the fancy insulated shed in the co-op's garden. And it turned out one of the co-op members there had done a very similar walk years ago to draw attention to equal rights for gay marriage.

Oxford City in the day time was mesmerising, deeply impressive, overwhelming institutional and expensive. You even had to pay to walk up a mound. £3!

Housegirl took off in the general direction of London, but was walking very slowly, desperately needing a day off from walking. They made it to a small town in the Chilterns, but it was getting dark, so they called time on the days walking, and was scooped up and taken to their next bed.

A 24 hour pitstop in North London was just what the doctor ordered. And it happened to be the birthday of Housegirl's pops and twin brothers! The 3 Bleinhem Palace caps were all gratefully received.

They emptied as much of their backpack as they could for the last few days walk, and somewhat reluctantly headed off from family and familiarity, back on their journey.

London was quite an easy one as it's so well signposted, basically a straight north to south road, so there was no need for maps, which meant no need to hold their arm up under the weight of their backpack strap, which meant no pain!!

Housegirl arrived at Sanford Housing Co-op late at night, which was a shame as there had been a group waiting to receive them with food. The following day they caught up with the co-op members in the house they had stayed that night, and learnt more about evictions, and troublesome co-op dynamics. These things exist and need confronting and there must be processes for these situations because it can cause enormous upset and ruin of co-ops if they go unaddressed.

The walk continued to Sevenoaks, which has no co-ops or friends of friends! So Housegirl was forced to stay in a Premier Inn. Not a bad end to the week, sometimes it is nice to just rest somewhere quietly and have a little time to their little house self.

Walk for Homes: Week 4 back down south - missing the accents