Coincidences and comings together

When I began my planning almost a year ago, I didn't realise that in deciding to Walk Home I'm following in the steps of John Davies and Roy Bayfield. All through the planning I've been making discoveries and finding the blogs of these two has been fascinating, instructive and inspiring.

John's Walking the M62 has become a legendary tale of cross-Pennine adventures among the ordinary and everyday. He blogged as he went in poetry, prayer and prose, showing affection for places which are often uncherished. His compilation of diary entries and other thoughts has been published as a book and I'd recommend it.

Roy's walk home is a long distance affair, over a longer period, studded with intriguing photos. In his Walking Home to 50 blog he explains why a walk should begin at Southport Pier and end at Brighton Pier. He presently lives near Southport but the 'home' of Roy's journey is his birthplace, which while not on Brighton's Pier isn't far away. Cunningly, Roy's spotted that connecting these two is a kind of 'pier to pier networking', which is a clever move. His walk is to be completed by his 50th birthday, and he sets off to walk a new stage every now and then.

So rather than being solitary, I'm walking in very good company.

I met up with John a couple of weeks ago and we compared notes. Though we've never lived in the same town, we share a similar outlook on the urban landscape.

Roy and I almost met yesterday as he's just described in a post which recounts an early morning adventure in central Leicester. A conference brought him within a mile of my house but sadly our urgent schedules kept us apart.

Not all meetings are appointments and they may or may not occur according to chance. Google Latitude is a step towards discovering people on the move. I signed up a few weeks ago and not yet found anyone. But if coincidence keep occuring like this, who knows who I'll bump into next.