The aim is to make a slow road
trip around (much of) the Atlantic coast of Europe. After many years of meticulous
advance planning of holidays as breaks from work the idea of this trip is to
explore a different way of travelling – without a plan except an approximate route
and time-scale. We will travel from North to South, starting in Shetland,
taking in the West coasts of Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal. We
will interpret “Atlantic coast” broadly and will miss bits out, as the fancy
takes us. We are setting off on 24th April and expect to return by
mid-October, but we might be quicker or slower or decide to go home before we
reach the end: the Mediterranean.
This is the place where I will
record interesting things that we come across. (I don’t intend to document the
process of making the journey or its organisation, although that might creep in
if it turns out to be interesting.) Our route provides the opportunity to
explore and compare the way people and places have adapted to facing the same
big ocean. I expect that I might write about (and/or post photos showing) landscape
(beaches, cliffs, the sea itself…); swimming (later on); art, craft and music;
history (industry, migration, trade…) and perhaps even sunsets, lighthouses, “most
westerly points”, the eating of fish or sightings of otters …. But let’s see.
