Sunday, May 15^th, 2016

Day -8

Today we be departed London for Exmouth in Devon, to start, in 8 days time, my coastal journey.  After a beautiful stroll in Hyde Park we caught a train from Paddington Station and being a Sunday, there is (of course) extensive work being carried out on the rail lines so that the normally 2 hours journey will take 4 hours.  Generally I enjoy train journeys and the ride down to Devon is one of my most favourites, so perhaps I ought to be thankful that I was able to experience it for twice as long as normal.  We did not follow the normal route, which I much prefer.  This cuts across Berkshire and Wiltshire to south Somerset and then down to Exeter.  Our route took us across north Wiltshire through Swindon, Bath and Bristol and then joins with the other route above Taunton.  We basically took two sides of a triangle. with our preferred route being down the hypotenuse. Either route shows off the the rurality of southern England and its glorious countryside. The scene is one of newborn spring lambs running and playing in the fields and calves jostling each other and chasing their tails.  Bright new grass is all around, with many different shades of green, dependent on whether it is lush on low fields by the water or darker and drier higher up on the hillside.  The emergence of the shoots of the wheat and barley that will be harvested in August adds further shades of green and as you get closer to Devon, this is contrasted by the rich red soil in which it is grown.  The dazzling yellow fields of mustard light up the countryside and with the red ploughed fields and the green meadows, they make for a glorious patchwork, especially as you see them more prominently rising up among the low hills.  An English national treasure is the hedgerows, some hundreds of years old.  Not only do they separate the fields but they are the homes of countless wildlife.  Along with the deciduous woodland they support the abundance of the wildlife.  The woodland and the hedgerows are currently glorious with lots of white and pink May blossom.  At their base and on the railway embankments is the yellow of the wild primroses contrasting with the bright blue of the bluebells, which are now beginning to fade. 

Cattle both dairy and beef are very prominent in the West Country, but farmers remain concerned about TB getting into their cattle.  If it is detected than the animals have to be slaughtered.  The government have organized culls of the wild badgers, which are thought to harbour the disease which is spread to the cattle.  There is a public outcry over the badger cull, which has been vocally supported by the RSPCA.  However, when you see a herd of beautiful guernsey cows that are being sent off to the slaughter house, as an animal lover you are terribly torn as to which animals should die.  If it were possible, perhaps a program of catching and vaccinating the badgers might have some effect. 

Early into our journey we crossed the River Thames at Maidenhead, close to Wargrave, where we used to live and from where two of my journey companions will come from.   This is also where I, at one time, shared an aeroplane with a friend, and the railway line and adjacent M4 motorway, were always reliable markers of where you were in relation to locating the grass runways at White Waltham aerodrome.  Flying was something that I thoroughly enjoyed and flying in the UK is a real pleasure and easy to do.  

(Wargrave from the air - with our house)

Britain has numerous airfields, a legacy of World War 2 and though many are no longer in service, those that remain provide ideal opportunities for short day trips to almost anywhere in Britain.  Towns, many of them quite small and some only villages, would never have had an airfield built if it were not for the war.  These give you access to almost all of the British Isles; places to explore without the hassle of traffic to contend with.  We would often fly to the Isle of White (my intended first night destination on my coastal trip next week) just for a lunch and a walk on the beach.  France was just over an hour away; different language and culture and excellent food of course.  We greatly miss the opportunity of easy getaways and access to so many different places.  British Columbia is spectacular of course, but flying is much more restricted in its options.  You have mountains on one side that are high and formidable to fly into.  The vast Pacific Ocean is on another side and apart from Vancouver Island, offer a pilot very little options to land.  To the south is the United States, but this requires a landing and customs clearance, just across the border in Bellingham, before flying on to somewhere.  It was partly for these reasons that when my wife and I moved to Vancouver we took up boating and gave up flying.  Boating though in BC is said to be the best in the world with hundreds, indeed thousands, of small islands to visit in mainly very protected waters with a climate that allows for year round boating.

Back to our rail journey!  The railway on both routes, follows beside a number of canals, now used purely for pleasure by small boats and barges.  It was the construction of the canals that gave a lot of impetus to the industrial revolution allowing easy delivery of goods from the midland and northern towns to London and various ports.  Indeed china ware from Stoke On Trent, where factories such as Spode are located, could be transported more securely on a slow moving, gentle, barge rather than by cart along a bumpy road, with much more chance of breakages.  However, ironically, by opening up easier transport of goods and speeding up industrial growth the canals contributed to their own demise and the subsequent arrival of the railways, which would often be located right alongside the canals.  After falling into decades of decline with many silting up, in the 1970s changes in working practices brought about longer and more flexible holiday times for workers. This spurred a renewed interest in the canal networks with people forming societies to work together to restore them and provide highly relaxing new leisure destinations.  It is wonderful to now see the many coloured barges, some of which people live on full time, plying up and down the restored canals.

Wiltshire leads on to Somerset, which is a county almost entirely given over to farming.  Of course it has the world famous city of Bath, but Cheddar Gorge with its deep cave system and Glastonbury with its large and eerie church tower on the Tor are places that tourists love to visit.  Glastonbury in June, in a farmer’s fields, becomes the site of the famous music festival to which the worlds best musicians perform on a number of stages, seemingly set in fields of mud.  I have not yet been to the Glastonbury Music Festival, but the photos in the newspapers are usually revelers caked in wet sticky mud, as no matter that this is high summer, it always seems to rain during festival week.  But the music must be good for people to put up with such conditions, or is that part of the reason why they go there?

The Somerset levels are flat drained areas providing very rich arable soil.  In the winter of 2013/14 the canals and ditches, which are essential to draining the land, were overpowered by record rainfall.  Villages were either marooned as islands or, under feet of water.  Hundreds of homes were wrecked by the water, which stayed for weeks.  The government were accused of not having provided enough money and resources for the maintenance of the waterways which allowed the silt to build up and make them too shallow to carry the excess volumes of water that fell that summer.  I have huge sympathy for the people whose homes were damaged, but at the same time natural disasters cannot always be completely forecast or allowed for.  Money is certainly often spent on seemingly crazy projects where politicians look for public acclamation.  However governments rightly have to take criticism also.  It is not always about the new big thing, or even pandering to public whims from vocal minorities, but thought and planning has to go into maintaining those things that are important to everyone, like the countryside.  Determining where moneys should be spent, especially on things that are extremely rare occurrences, are a hard thing for a politician to do as they are often not obvious or bring any immediate benefit which can be seen. The temptation is to do the big newsy new thing and take money away from the equally necessary maintenance and preservation, which is unlikely to be newsy.   One result of this severe flooding, which also has occurred along many other rivers as well, including the Thames, the Severn, the Avon, the Ouse, to name but a few, is that many householders now find it difficult to get affordable insurance in areas where flooding may occur.  This then makes it harder to get a mortgage on a property, which in turn hits the value of the property.  However, memories are short  and people continue to want to live in idyllic places close to water and thus these properties remain in high demand.  I suppose it is the optimistic spirit of the British, or maybe it’s just the belief that it surely can’t happen again!

As the train entered Devon the red soil becomes even more prominent.  Here it is hillier with low, gently sloping hills and woodland valleys.  The final approach into Exeter is always glorious as we entered through fields with Devon Red cattle lying down (a sign of good weather) or standing with their feet in the water of one of the many tributaries that drain into the River Exe.  Arriving at Exeter we had to change trains to complete our journey.  Normally this is just going to another platform, but today (being a Sunday) we had to do that and then take a train one stop to another station where we had to change platforms once again,  Not easy on a very hot day with four bags (and a bad wrist).We then got on one of Britain’s most glorious branch lines for the final leg of our journey.

(The river Exe at Topsham)

The Avocet Line runs along the northern bank of the River Exe, which is tidal at this point.  When the tide is out, which often seems to be the case when I go there, it leaves huge expanses of mud flats that are a haven for birds of all types. But the black and white Avocet, with its long curved beak for digging in the mud, was selected to give its name to the line.  A couple of years ago a footpath and cycling path was completed that runs all the way from Exmouth, close to the Avocet line and on into Exeter.  It is made up of tarmaced paths along wth numerous boardwalks and wooden bridge.  The path crosses the River at Countess Weir to the East of Exeter and then continues on the opposite bank past Powderham Castle and on to Starcross, where you can catch a ferry back to Exmouth.  I have not yet walked or cycled much of it.  We frequently though like to walk about two miles along it to the village of Lympstone and have lunch at the Swan Inn before walking back again.  Perhaps one day I might follow it all the way.

Across on the opposite bank of the river the main line to Cornwall continues on from Exeter.  This is part of Brunel’s famous Atmospheric Railway.  He designed the line to have long tubes, filled with compressed air delivered from a series of pumping stations, which would be used to drive forward locomotives, thus removing the need for coal fired engines that needed to refuel.  A great idea, but in practice it failed due to the common brown rat.  Where the tubes were joined together and sealed with cloth, grease was applied to make them air tight, which was much enjoyed as a free meal by the rats!  They quickly ate what had been applied and the tubes then could not hold the air, so the trains would not run.  So they had to go back to coal, but today the line only operates diesel or electric trains.  The line is constructed for a number of miles right on the edge of the ocean and is an extremely pretty journey with red cliffs or small towns on one side and the sweep of Torbay on the other.  Unfortunately the extreme weather of recent years impacted this also and just across from the Avocet Line and Exmouth, severe storms in February 2014 washed a way a large segment of the foundations of the line at the opposite seaside town of Dawlish.  The rail track was left hanging in the air with just the sea beneath it.  Trains were halted for about 3 months, as the seawall was rebuilt and strengthened and new tracks laid.  Travellers had to take to buses for a number of miles to circumvent this area of the track and continue their journeys down into Cornwall.  

(The Dart Valley Steam Railway)

We arrived in Exmouth in time for tea with my Mother-In-Law, who I look upon as more of my Mother than my Mother-In-Law.  This month, like the Queen she is celebrating her 90^th birthday.  My children and the grand children will all be travelling across to England in July for a big family celebration.  I think she will have 9 great-grandchildren in total at her party.

The remainder of this week will be spent in gathering my essentials for my trip.  Importantly a small stove and kettle so I can be assured of a cup of tea in the afternoon, along with a bottle of HP sauce so that I can treat myself on occasions to a very English pork pie for a snack lunch! 

Two events at the end of this week have influenced the starting date of my coastal journey.  The first is the Devon County Show, which is one of the finest and largest agricultural shows in England.  It has displays of everything country.  The livestock shows for best in breeds of cattle, sheep, goats, shire horses, chickens, pheasants etc are colourful and highly competitive.  There are special sections just for young people to nurture their interest in and encourage them to make a career in farming.  There are multiple marquees with entrants for the best flower arrangements, the best cakes, photography etc., all with a message that says – this is the country.  Other marquees have stall traders selling Devon pasties, cheese, ice cream, biscuits, cakes, pies, meat products and anything that can be home made and eaten.  This is very much a foodies paradise.  There are dog shows, horse shows and displays of huge pieces of farming equipment. This is truly a wonderful place to be, with something for everyone and I am glad to report, no funfare rides that somehow would not seem right in such a setting.

My other event, on Saturday will be the rugby semi final match between the Exeter Chiefs and Wasps, in the Aviva Premiership.  The Chiefs are currently second in the Premiership league table and the champion will be decided in a final at Wembley stadium in a couple of weeks. This is remarkable in that just six years ago Exeter were in a much lower division.  The fact that they are now a leading Premiership team is possibly actually down to me!  A few years ago my cousin Wesley invited me to a match which Exeter won by 50 points.  Every time from then on, when I came to Devon, Wes and I would go to a game.  Even if they had been trounced the week before, if I was there, they won by a handsome score!  Clearly I was having an effect.  Wes said that he had spoken to the owner of the team who was considering flying me over from Canada on a regular basis just to help them get promoted!  In the end this did not happen and they got promoted anyway, but its good to know that I made the difference (at least I’d like to think so).

Finally, I have to go back to comments on London.  On Friday Marilyn and I walked to view the Wallace Collection.  This was of course fantastic, but the walk there, though less than a mile from Oxford Street, reminded us again of just how lovely London is and it was such a contrast to my experience of Thursday.  (Perhaps I was jet lagged and feeling grumpy?!). The side streets are full of the most incredible architecture, which once were homes of very wealthy people who spared no expense in building them.  There are numerous squares with oases of green gardens (but with access only to key holders) in the middle of them.  

(Connaught Square - where Tony Blair lives)

The streets also seemed to be filled with the Londoners who were elusive on Oxford Street and clearly knew to stay away from the hubbub there.  There were numerous cafes and restaurants and boutique shops.  We even stopped and had afternoon tea at a tea shop which had a piece of grass approximately 8 feet by 4 feet in front of it, on which there were two deck chairs and a small table.  Despite being right on the street it was delightful – tea in the sunshine in an English garden!

At the Wallace Collection we were surprised to find it being used as a venue for the shooting of an episode of a TV program aimed at finding the Portrait Artist of the Year.  Three celebrities sat as models for amateur artists to draw or paint their likeness.  Though they were celebrities the only model we recognised was James Norton, who is currently appearing in the TV program, Grantchester.

We got our shot of London theatre on Friday evening by going to the Aldwych to see Beautiful the life and songs of Carole King.  It was fantastic and we can highly recommend it.

After this rather long blog today (thanks for reading to the end) I will probably not write another one until my coastal journey commences.  (The blog is only supposed to be about that anyway!)

Please feel free to comment or send me a message via the blog comment section below.

Thursday May 12th, 2016

Well I have now arrived in the UK and it is only 11 days until I start my coastal drive.  My journey here was excellent, made even more so by the fact that I flew with British Airways on their new Airbus 380.  This aircraft is the largest passenger aircraft currently flying and holds up to 469 passengers.  The A380 now allows BA to operate only one flight per day to Vancouver, rather than the previous two flights.  Having once been a long time gold card holder with BA, I had not flown with them in the last few years, sticking with Air Canada, mainly because of the very poor frequent flier program operated by BA.  It seemed as if seats were never available on dates we wanted to fly, even if trying to book months in advance.  The Air Canada scheme works fairly well and given I flew with them a lot, to and from Montreal and Toronto, I was collecting their points anyway.  However, BA have changed their scheme such that you can use your points to upgrade a ticket, which works for us.  Now they have this fantastic new aircraft, which will presumably allow them to keep their prices down (though probably this will mean higher profits rather than lower prices) BA is a winner.  I have to say that the service on board was absolutely outstanding, with the female crew wearing the once commonly seen jaunty little hats, which gave everything an air of professionalism and a reminder of how good flying used to be.  Hats off to them (but not literally). 

My journey was smooth and effortless, that was until I got to Heathrow.  Heathrow airport Terminals 2 and 3 now provide some of the longest walks from the airplane to passport control and your bags that you will find anywhere.  Now as long as at Gatwick, my least favourite airport.  The at 15-20 minute walk certainly gets the blood flowing after 9 hours in the air, however it does sour the journey somewhat.  To add to this, Terminal 3 passport control (or is it now the same place for all terminals?) does not have electronic passport readers as in Terminal 5, so there was a further long line up for checks for British and EU passport holders.  I timed my wait at 17 minutes.  As I was one of the first people off the plane I hate to think how long passenger number 469 had to wait.  At least when you get to the head of the line, the UK immigration officials are friendly, which is not always the case in North America

As I was travelling into London my option was to take the Heathrow Express, which is advertised as the fastest way into central London.  It is certainly fast at only 15 minutes but it is not, as advertised, into central London.  It runs into Paddington, which I class as west London not central London.  The fee for the Express journey is £22 pounds (about $40) per person.  My wife and I usually travel on down to Exeter from Paddington and the fare for this 2 hour journey is often little different than the Express train from Heathrow to Paddington.  But they are good at selling their services. From the baggage claim area to the station platform there are sited a number of people all trying to sell you a ticket for the Heathrow Express.  However, there is another, much cheaper and less advertised option that also takes you to Paddington and though the journey takes 10 minutes longer, it is half price at £10. This train is the Heathrow Connect and is part of the national rail network.  It runs every 25 minutes as opposed to the Express every 15 minutes, but it depends when you arrive on the platform. You only have a 25 minute wait, if you just missed a train, otherwise it can be around a 5 to 10 minute or so wait until a train arrives.  I decided on the cheaper option for the Connect and was told that the next train would be in 10 minutes or, I could catch the next Express due in 4 minutes, a 6 minute longer wait.  I decided to save $12 and wait the extra 6 minutes.  An American standing in line behind me said that it sounded a good deal and he purchased the same ticket for the Connect as me.  As we stood together on the platform he proudly said, “Hey if I have to wait 6 minutes longer to save £12, I’ve just saved the price of 6 good British pints”.  He went on to tell me that he had come all the way from New Mexico and was planning to see Britain in 10 days.  His journey today was to Waterloo and then train to Andover and Stonehenge.  Tomorrow he was travelling up to Scotland to see Hadrian’s Wall (which is actually in England, but I did not like to disappoint him).  He was planning to travel everywhere by train and his agenda was to go from Scotland to Bath and then perhaps Wales and Yorkshire.  Britain certainly looks small on the map in comparison with the United States so I expect many people assume that everywhere is not far from somewhere else.  I told him that I was doing a similar trip, but I was expecting mine to take five weeks.  He said “Oh that must be because you are driving, rather than taking the train.”  I wished him bon voyage!

The platform filled up with maybe 200 people all waiting for one or other train to arrive.  The bonus came when the announcer said that the Heathrow Express had “technical difficulties” and was delayed.  When the Connect pulled in just a few moments later, the American and I were the only ones, along with some Heathrow employees who also knew the system, to board the train.  So we saved ourselves £12 and got there faster.  We both felt slightly smug!

My arrival into Paddington reminded me just how busy this city is and though it is the capital of Britain it feels more like the capital of the world rather than a city in England.  It felt very strange, as I alighted the train at Paddington, to realize that here I am planning a trip around Britain to remind myself of my Britishness, but coming to London makes me feel a foreigner in my own land. The capital city does not seem not part of Britain at all, certainly in respect of the Britain that I had come to see and knew was out there.  However, Britain is now a spectrum of races, colours and creeds, with a growing proportion of the population having never been born there.  London probably therefore does reflect a magnified microcosm (if there can be such a thing) of what Britain has become so no doubt it can continue to lay claim to being the capital city.  London of course is not alone in its growth in multiculturalism, but because I visit only occasionally, the changes seem stark and rapid.  London seems to be increasingly a melting pot for the whole world and is possibly one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world.  Apparently there are now in excess of one million illegal immigrants in Britain and with the sight of people lining up at Calais to try and get in, the world seems to think that this is the place to be.

Where my hotel is located, it is a 2-minute walk to Marble Arch, Oxford Street and Park Lane, names synonymous with Britain. However the area feels like an extension of the Middle East.  Very close to the hotel, on the corner of Oxford Street and Edgeware Road, is a Turkish café with a number of men seated outside smoking hookah pipes.  A waiter with a bucket of hot coals passes up and down the line of seated smokers topping up their pipes and using the coals to heat the water. 

My hotel, is actually a Club specifically for people who are, or who have, served in the armed forces and their families.  I qualify through my late Father-In-Law.  The rooms are of a good standard and the breakfast is definitely of the full English type.  The menu in the restaurant is very varied and ridiculously cheap.  I chose fish pie, which was excellent.  Unfortunately I did not heed the waiter’s warning that it was very hot and quickly burnt the roof of my mouth.  I had to take a large gulp of the Club’s own brand of beer to cool it down.  At £1 a pint I would hate to have to tell the American traveller that by taking the Connect rather than the Express I had actually saved enough for 12 pints to his measely 6!

I took a short stroll earlier down Oxford Street and went into Marks & Spencer and then Primark.  Both are famous for their clothes, but the latter, which is a chain store that has arisen since our departure from the UK, seems to be the main outlet for the garment industry of Bangladesh.  They sell T- shirts for £2.50 and dresses for £5.  The main buyers in both stores seemed to be Arab ladies, fully dressed in black clothes and hijabs.  They had armfuls of clothes and the line-up at the tills in Primark were huge. However, though there are changing rooms to try on garments before buying, none of these ladies seemed to be concerned about buying without trying.  Either it was worry over having to take off their burkas, or, they had sufficient money that they had no concerns about paying for goods that might not fit.  It was only later that I wondered, if when they go out they are fully robed, when do they actually wear the T-shirts or dresses?

My Mother was born in the East End of London and only left during the blitz of World War 2.  She moved to Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, with Smiths the clock makers who had built a factory way out in the country to make aircraft instruments. One week after she moved, her house was flattened by a German bomb!  I wondered if she were alive today, how she would react to the London of 2016.  Today many people born and brought u in London are still moving out, but not because of bombs, for other reasons, many citing the ethnic changes that are happening in London, which is making the City so different from what they had once known.  Perhaps the election this week of Sadiq Kahn as the new Lord Mayor of London and the first Muslim to be head of a large European city, is a clear sign of this change.  Some might argue though that the election of Sadiq had more to do with wanting someone to be the opposite of Boris Johnson, the outgoing mayor, rather than there being any ethnic aspect to the voting.  In 2007 statistics showed that for the first time since records were kept, more London born people moved out of London than the number of immigrants moving into the city.  Ironically my family, have been reversing this trend and my sister’s three daughters and their families and then recently my sister herself and brother-in-law have all moved into London from the country.  My Mother would no doubt be thrilled that they have returned to her roots and are living close to where she was born and brought up.

It is for family reasons that I have actually come to stay in London for the next few days.  One of my nephews is getting married on Saturday in an area known as the Elephant and Castle.  My thought when I first heard the news was that, at 21, he was far too young to be getting married.  However, I was then reminded that this was the same age as when I got married to my lovely wife and so that must be a good sign.  Another coincidence is that the bride to be lives in a small road in which my great Aunt Sarah once lived.  She had become engaged to a young lieutenant who went off to Flanders in 1914.  She vowed that if he did not return she would not marry anyone else.  Tragically he was killed and Aunt Sarah never did marry, ending her days, alone, in a one-roomed flat off the Old Kent Road, the same road in which my nephew’s bride now lives.  At the end of World War 1 many women never married. Some, like Aunt Sarah, had lost the one love of their lives, but for others because the war had taken a whole generation, there were simply not enough men to go around. 

Marilyn, my wife, came over to the UK last week, ahead of me and is travelling up from Devon tomorrow to join me for the wedding and we will have a short-break in London, hopefully taking in a show.  Access to the London stage is one of the things we really miss in Vancouver.  Being in London confirms to me how much I do want to go out into the country and around the coastline to find the Britain that I remember and know is still out there.

Tuesday May 4th

Had confirmation today that my friend Jim McGarrick will be joining me for the main part of the East Coast journey.  We plan to meet in Clacton-On-Sea at precisely 12.44pm on Thursday May 26th.  From my recent journeys to Britain one thing that has improved is the timing of the trains.  Today they are usually no more than 15 to 30 minutes late, unless it is on a Sunday, when "track repairs" seem to take over the lines like traffic cones on the motorway.  This is a great improvement from 20 years ago when I lived in England.  However, Britain has a long way to go to catch up with the timekeeping of the trains on the Continent, especially those in Germany and Switzerland.  I don't know which came first, the train timetable or the Swiss watch; both can be set by reference to the other.

In Britain of course, in search of competition (so it was said) that would improve customer service, the megalith of British Rail was sold off, in the 1990s, piece meal to a number of companies, the owners of which then got rich by quickly selling them on to someone else.  But the oddity of the arrangement is that the company operating the trains is never the same as the company owning the rail tracks.  So this is great when the train runs late you can always blame someone else.   The old Music Hall song about the railways is probably still true today "Oh Mr.Porter, what can I do? I wanted to go to Birmingham but they took me on to Crewe"  Anyway on this trip I won't be finding out if they take you on to Crew when trying to get to Birmingham, as Birmingham is as far away from the coast in Britain as it is possible to be.  However I am expecting Clacton-On-Sea to be as advertised!

Ticket prices on British trains are also as varied as the number of train companies.  There are peak and off-peak prices; there are savers and super-savers; there are discounts for seniors and students, but you have to purchase a special pass to prove it before you can get the discount.  Indeed most misunderstandable of all, it is often possible to purchase two single tickets more cheaply than it is to purchase a return ticket.

What meeting up with Jim will now mean is that I will have to keep this early part of my trip on time and to schedule if I am to be at the station when his train arrives, or at least within 15 to 30 minutes of its timetable prediction.  No pressure and I hope no punctures.

Jim also mentioned that I should read Paul Theroux's, "The Kingdom By The Sea - A Journey Around the Coast of great Britain".  I had to admit that I had not read this book.  Although at Christmas I was given Bill Bryson's "The Road to Little Dribbling", which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The reviews of Theroux's book seem to suggest that he is very critical of Britain and the British and somer of the reviewers found it quite negative, so I will be interested to see how I get on with this.  Bill Bryson's book however was a very good read.  He is witty and insightful while also being endearing when he criticizes the British foibles and failings.  Theroux also travelled the opposite direction to what I am doing.  He went clockwise, whereas I am going anti-clockwise, which keeps the sea right next to the driver's side window.  He also travelled by rail and foot, whereas I am doing it all by car, with just a little bit of walking to any "interesting bits" that might be en-route.  Bill Bryson on the other hand has only done Britain in chunks, not as a continuous trip.  Perhaps he might like to join me on my trip and fill in the gaps.  Certainly his companionship and indeed his writing skills would be much appreciated and probably he would enjoy it.

The one thing both of these writers found was an island whose people are as varied as its scenery.  Indeed you only need to travel around 40 miles and you can find very different accents.  This goes back to times when travel was difficult and people mostly lived, married and raised familes in the area in which they were born and had few influences on the way in which they spoke.  Many people still do today live and die within only a few miles of where they are born, so local accents are maintained, but with the greater movement of the population and the strong influences of television (and especially American television) I would have thought that regional accents would have begun to disappear.   However I continue to be amazed that, even though it is a small island, strong regional accents continue and indeed are thriving.  An accent today is about belonging and being proud of home.  Today even the BBC, in search of inclusivity, has given up on "BBC English" and goes for diversity with all sorts of accents, sometimes the stronger the better, being heard widely.

Starting in Devon, where the accents are quite sing song, with somewhat of a raising of the voice at the end of the sentence as if asking a question, the first couple of day of my trip, along the south coast will see little change, only a flattening of the voice.  When I turn the corner to travel north the differences in accents will be very noticeable almost on a daily basis.  From the cockney style accents in Essex, to the country burl of East Anglia, to the dogmatic short sentences of Yorkshire, to the very different and distinctive accent  of the Geordies, eventually softening in Northumbria and becoming lilting on the Borders of Scotland and into Edinburgh.  I well remember though many years ago landing at Aberdeen Airport and needing to use the toilet.  As I faced the wall, on either side of me came two men who continued a conversation across me, while of course continuing to look at the wall. I couldn't understand one word of what they were saying, so assumed that these were the famed Norwegian oil workers.  Understand my surprise when I went outside to find that one of them was to become my taxi driver.  They were both Aberdonians.  I will be interested to hear on this trip if the Aberdonian accent is now more understandable.  I both hope it will be and at the same time hope that it has not changed at all.  The glory of Britain!  Travel from top to bottom in Britain is about 600 miles and you feel that you are in a very different island.  Travel 3000 miles in Canada and nothing changes as far as people are concerned.  The accents have only minor variations.  I am convinced though that the expression that marks Canadians out from Americans, that of "Out and about" actually derives from the Scottish "Oot and about"!

Anyway, back to Jim.  I am really looking forward to travelling with him.  I met Jim when I was in my late teens and living in Gloucestershire,  Indeed he was in a Gospel singing group and it was through him that I met my wife, also in this group.  He is a great guitarist (bassist) and music arranger.  He has produced 2 CDs for his wife.  He recently retired from working as a medical lecturer in (I think) anatomy and physiology in Exeter, Devon.  Newly moved to East Anglia about a year ago he is using my trip to get to know better the East Coast which is now his new home.  So, this will be a trip of discovery for both of us as this coast is the one I know least in Britain.  No doubt we can find some good road music to liven up the miles.

Only one week to go before I fly to the UK and only just over 2 weeks until I Go Coastal!