Ellie Bennett's Blog

The road section out of Niihama is busy and not the most scenic and it is a relief to turn onto quieter suburban roads with beautifully manicured gardens. A less scenic section... This ...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/05/end-of-roadfor-now.html

Friday 20 April After our efforts yesterday climbing to Yokomineji, today we decide to be content with a 15k amble to Saijo. Along the route today are temples 61-64 Temple 61, Koonji, is unu...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/saijo-and-niihama.html

Monday 15 April - The breeze off the sea is welcome  - the temperature is beginning to ramp up now and is in the mid 20s although the nights are still a bit chilly in my summer climate sleeping...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/imabari-to-yokomineji.html

Thursday 12 April. We walk out of Matsuyama heading northwest towards the coast. Soon the square concrete blocks of houses and neon lights give way to square rice fields and wooden houses with r...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/from-matsuyama-to-imabari.html

Temple 51 of the 88 Temple Shikoku Pilgrimage is Ishite-ji . Situated on the edge of Matsuyama, not far from the famous Dogo Onsen, it is one of the most fascinating and intriguing temples on th...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/ishiteji-temple-51-matsuyama.html

Saturday 7 April - It is still cold but at least it has stopped raining. My leg is almost back to normal and we have formulated a plan to head to Matsuyama on Sunday, stay there a few days and t...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/gardens-and-castles.html

Sunday 01 April. Having realised that there would be no walking the henro michi (pilgrim road) today I limp back to the nearest town, Kainan, where we sit in a henro hut and decide what to do. ...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-best-laid-schemes-o-mice-men.html

It is Tuesday 27 March and we are walking the road out of Tokushima. We have spent a pleasant couple of days here and feel refreshed and ready for the next stage. The walk is such that the first...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/from-tokushima-to-hiwasa-and.html

Tuesday morning we catch the bus from Namba bus terminal to Tokushima. An accident on the Expressway out of Osaka means we sit for an hour in traffic out the outskirts of the city but finally we...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/03/beginnings.html

I've just remembered that in a previous post I promised to post our kit list. Now I've written it down I am not sure that publishing it is a good idea (cue howls of laughter/derision...) It se...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/03/preparation-for-shikoku-kit-list.html

'A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH A SINGLE STEP'  LAO-TSU 'A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH PUTTING OFF THE FIRST STEP AS LONG AS POSSIBLE'  ELLIE BENNETT Having flown fro...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-hiatus-in-osaka.html

The last couple of days have been pretty exhausting and we haven't even started walking yet. The flight from London to Hong Kong went smoothly and we were looked after very well (thank you Cat...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/03/we-reach-japan-via-hong-kong.html

It is four years since my friend Mick and I walked the 88 Temple pilgrimage walk on Shikoku, Japan and today we find ourselves at Heathrow airport waiting for a plane to go out and do it all ov...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2018/03/returning-to-shikoku-japan.html

Brendon Valley Mick had been so right to insist we did not camp yesterday evening. It had rained all night and had we been out on the green we would have woken up feeling damp and grumpy. As...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2016/03/walking-coleridge-way-day-4.html

This morning when we came round  the rain had eased a little and the tent was dry which makes a massive difference to the weight. Mick then discovered that the tent bag which we had spent twent...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2016/03/walking-coleridge-way-day-3.html

We had planned to be up and gone before seven o'clock reasoning that anyone who was not in the pub last night would then be none the wiser but the plan didn't quite work. It was gone eight when ...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2016/03/walking-coleridge-way-day-2.html

Coleridge Way signpost Well, its been a while - over the winter I have been posting at The Other Place - my blog recording my research into the portraits of Jane Austen which you can find HE...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2016/03/walking-coleridge-way-day-1.html

View of St Michael's Mount looking back After leaving Marazion the path soon chips away from the road as it trails round Mount's Bay at the top of the cliffs, and all the while I am treated ...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2015/08/marazion-to-porthleven.html

Well it's been a long time coming. The next section of the South West Coast Path I mean. It's been two years since I reached Penzance on the South West Coast Path. Somehow the last 24 months hav...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2015/07/penzance-to-marazion.html

If you've been reading about our walk on Shikoku then you might be interested in some stats from the trip. Or then again you might not. In which case please feel free to leave now. But you never...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2014/07/some-vital-statistics.html

We were on day 59 when we left the Chisun Hotel and walked the short distance to Konzōji, Temple 76. We had already been walking longer than most people take to finish the pilgrimage and we ...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-road-to-ryozenji.html

With Matthew and Noriko at the wonderful Sen Guesthouse, Matsuyama Perhaps we had stayed too long at Matsuyama. It felt so hard to get going again after our four day mini-break. On the ot...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2014/06/shikoku-88-almost-there.html

Well, my plans of a regular blog of this trip were thwarted by the fact that the southern half of Shikoku and the wifi network are apparently strangers to one another. I suppose it may have be...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2014/05/making-our-way-to-matsuyama.html

After a restful afternoon at Hiwasa, the next morning, day 11, we had the long walk ahead - 75 kilometres down the coast to Cape Muroto, the first of Shikoku's two southern 'pointy bits'. We ...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2014/05/shikoku-gets-serious.html

A henro rest hut The day after 'The Pilgrim Crusher' trip to temple 12 we took a day off and lounged around all day in the Michi-no-eki, in Kamiyama onsen and the camp field doing nothing in...

https://elliestravelstories.blogspot.com/2014/04/reaching-pacific.html