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https://www.medievalists.net/2025/01/struggles-travel-middle-ages/

I mean mean, you may think it's a long way down to the chemsists......

Quote from: Imperial Dave on January 18, 2025, 06:19:14 AMI mean mean, you may think it's a long way down to the chemsists......

Even further now Boots closed our local one, but ay least I have half distance on cycleways (with pot holes) for half before that vanishes abruptly into a road with potholes and parked cars causing a need to slalom about creating more damage and danger. That's progress for you. 

Reading about

Quote...mounted riders seem to have travelled with a valet or two—who walked while they rode.

I am reminded again how pedal power is very effective and humans quite capable of putting in the distance, just such a pity it does require quite a good surface that judging from this article was not at all certain.

I was reminded of the story of Sir Robert Carey, who carried the message of Elizabeth I's death from London to Edinburgh in approximately 60 hours, despite having an accident where he fell off his horse and got kicked in the head.  What I hadn't realised was, as a younger man, he walked from London to Berwick for a bet.  It took him 12 days apparently to cover 342 miles, which fits well with the 30 miles a day sustained pace in the article.

With a little digging, I found A Day's Journey in Mediaeval France

Marjorie Nice Boyer.  Available for free reading on Jstor.

Good find

The state of the roads could certainly be a challenge to wheeled transport.  The shot below is the Old Tokaido Road near Lake Hakone in Japan.  (Yeah, there are flatter bits not too far away, but you still need to negotiate this stretch.)

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