A pub to pub walk: Dorset–Somerset–Wilshire, England
The narrator, a 46‑year‑old solitary writer, sets out from Gillingham, Dorset, to walk a planned route across the Dorset‑Somerset‑Wiltshire borders over four days. On day one she traverses private roads, passes through Guy Ritchie’s estate, and encounters countryside details—hounds, pheasants, lambs, and brooks—before reaching the King John Inn. There she eats devilled kidneys, chats with locals in tweed and riding boots, and notes their initial distance and later warming. She reflects on being a perpetual nomad, recalling an earlier experience in Japan where she was isolated at a communal breakfast table, reading a newspaper article about pronatalist policies and “no‑talking” cafés for single people.
She brings Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love along, reads a quoted Virginia Woolf diary entry about a woman’s “shadow of a sword” and the perils of choosing an unconventional life. She connects Woolf’s admiration for Thomas Hardy, who once signed her book with a misspelling. The narrator muses on the exhaustion of making all decisions alone and the yearning for shared companionship, while also recognizing that seeking connections can lead to deeper bonds.
Recalling a Bali shaman’s admonition that monogamous marriage would hinder her, she wakes to a British breakfast of asparagus and kippers, then walks through mist‑filled blue‑bell woods, hearing her steps echo. After squelching through muddy fields she arrives at a lunchtime pub, noting the solitary, soggy trek. Later she spends a night at Buckhorn Weston—essentially a village centered on a single pub—sitting in the window seat and eating a farm‑raised roast.
The following day she walks 16 km through boggy terrain to Corton Denham, then follows a pilgrim route to Salisbury. In Salisbury’s beautiful Saxon abbey she sits in a pew lit by stained‑glass, writes notes, and waits for the train back to London. Upon reviewing her travel journal she discovers she has circled the phrase “I choose perilous and interesting,” encapsulating her resolve to continue her nomadic, solitary path.