The Beacon Bike – Day by Day
Read about every day of the Beacon Bike expedition – the lighthouses visited, both onshore and offshore, and the friends and supporters I met along the way.
The peerless Thorn Nomad
Week Fourteen
A week which featured the A13, a Thames lighthouse never used for navigation, the Saxon shore, a miniature Monte Carlo, a Twitter spat at Dover Castle, a rhinoceros and a reunion.
The days that followed: Postscript
Postscript It seems strange to be writing these words now that I am home. I made this journey a couple of summers ago, and only started writing about it during some fairly lean working months during the pandemic. Since my return we have lost, or...
Day 97: Full Circle – Hythe to Dungeness and Home
I had more than three hours to cycle the ten or so miles to Dungeness. Generous, even at my pace. So I was in no rush to get going, and instead spent a while rummaging through the stalls in the Malthouse Arcade, the antique centre at one end of the...
Day 96: Deal to Hythe via South Foreland, Dover and Folkestone
Home was just forty miles away, but timing the journey to meet (what I hoped would be) a sizeable crowd at Dungeness the next day meant slowing down, and finding a final guest house or hotel this evening. The lack of urgency justified my decision...
Day 95: Whitstable to Deal via Herne Bay, Margate and North Foreland
I managed my first family farewell of the journey without tears. I would love to say that it was down to handling my emotions more effectively, but it was really due to the fact that I was now only three days from home, and I would be seeing my...
Day 94: Gravesend to Whitstable via Isle of Grain and Faversham
Although I had seen them briefly the previous evening, I decided to take a closer look at the two Gravesend piers with lights. These days, the Royal Terrace Pier is owned by the Port of London Authority (PLA), and access is prohibited. But it’s...
Day 93: Tilbury to Gravesend via Trinity Buoy Wharf and the Woolwich ferry
After the trauma of the previous afternoon, I vowed not to cycle along a single main road all day. Cycle tracks and minor roads would be OK, but I would rather walk the Thames footpath, pushing my bike, than subject myself to another main road....
Day 92: Layer Breton to Tilbury via Shoeburyness and Southend
Simon and I set off in opposite directions. Simon was making his way back to his car near Aldeburgh, and knowing his luck he would find a new, traffic-free shortcut that would cut his journey in half. Meanwhile, I decided to head for Shoeburyness,...
Week Thirteen
A week which featured an argument about cushions in Boston, a huge charity cheque like the ones on TV, Joy at Happisburgh followed by sorrow at Orford, Simon’s lucky hotel booking, and meeting a former keeper in Harwich.
Day 91: Harwich to Layer Breton via the Naze Tower and Gunfleet
I’m not quite sure when or how it happened, but at some point late the previous evening, Simon had found a campsite and I had found a guest house nearby. I remember admiring Simon’s confidence that ‘there was bound to be a...
Day 90: Knodishall to Harwich via Orfordness
Simon is the friend who cycled to every York City football match, home and away, over the course of an entire season. I met him in the pub car park early the next morning. Ever the adventurer, he had slept on the beach, and had endured a night...
Day 89: Lowestoft to Knodishall via Southwold and Aldeburgh
A couple of miles out of Lowestoft is the large Pontin’s holiday camp at Pakefield. It seemed an unlikely location for a lighthouse, although I learned that when it was built, it stood in the grounds of Pakefield Hall. I feared that I would...
Day 88: Cromer to Lowestoft via Happisburgh and Gorleston
I had been looking forward to reaching the lighthouse at Happisburgh for weeks, because these days it is the only independently operated lighthouse in the country, managed and run by a trust comprising fellow members of the Association of...
Day 87: Wells-next-the-Sea to Cromer
I left Wells-next-the-Sea feeling anxious and apprehensive, and I knew perfectly well why. I had planned on cycling just twenty miles today, and seeing only the lighthouse at Cromer, so it was hardly likely to be a demanding undertaking. But I was...
Days 85 & 86: Nettleton to Wells-next-the-Sea via Hunstanton
With the only remaining Lincolnshire lighthouse eighty miles south, I elected to continue along NCN Route 1, which headed inland, rather than follow the coast roads. This was, after all, a lighthouse cycle tour rather than a coastal one, and so I...
Week Twelve
A week which featured cycle shop heroes, a Marks & Spencer lighthouse, a racist pensioner, the sinking sand at Spurn, a time-warp at Nettleton, and old friends at Flamborough and Immingham.
Day 84: Hull to Nettleton via Killingholme and Stanfords Memories
I had been looking forward to this day for a month or so, not because of the lighthouses on the route, but because it had been earmarked for meeting up with three friends who I had worked with at Stanfords, the map and travel book shop, twenty-five...
Day 83: Hull to Goole, Whitgift and back to Hull
I walked down to Hull Marina first thing in the morning to see the Spurn Lightvessel (LV No. 12), currently anchored there. The marina was opened in 1983, and created berths for 270 pleasure boats on the site of the former Humber and Railway Docks....
Day 82: Aldbrough to Hull via Withernsea and Spurn Point
I left Aldbrough early in the morning, uncertain about what I would find when I got to Spurn Point. Recent storms had swept aside the metalled track leading on to the spit, and I could not establish whether it had been re-laid, or whether it was...
Day 81: Scarborough to Aldbrough via Flamborough Head
I met George again at breakfast. He was just as charming as the previous evening, although I discovered that he was of an age and generation that is casually racist and sexist with every sentence he uttered. Suffice to say I can’t repeat here his...
Day 80: Redcar to Scarborough via Whitby
It was only when I planned my route for the day that I realised that at some stage yesterday I had crossed the county border into North Yorkshire. I got chatting to a group of women in a cafe on the Esplanade, who seemed less convinced. As far as...
Day 79: Sunderland to Redcar
My bike had been safely secured in a sort of underground vault at the Travelodge overnight, but when I retrieved it I discovered that my front tyre was punctured. It wasn’t that I was unwilling to fix it myself, especially now that I was...
Day 78: Alnmouth to Sunderland via St Mary’s and Souter lighthouses
I thought the seven miles to the harbour at Amble were going to be tough, as it looked from my map as though NCN Route 1 followed the A1068 the whole way. What the map didn’t show, however, was the dedicated cycle superhighway, running parallel...
Week Eleven
A week which featured fog in Blackpool, placards at St Bees, a hotel frequented by Wordsworth and Dickens, my first views of Scotland, a locked Ladies lavatory in Carlisle, and the cupboard under the stairs.
Day 77: Seahouses to Alnmouth via Lindisfarne and Farne Islands
If, over breakfast, I had shown Allan pictures of the lights I wanted to see around Lindisfarne, I think he would probably have invented a compelling reason to head back to Oxford. Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, is a low-lying island off the coast...
Day 76: Carlisle to Seahouses via Berwick Upon Tweed
When Allan first volunteered to be on hand to support me throughout the ride, he argued that because he lived in Oxford, pretty much everywhere on the coast was equidistant. Coming to meet me here, in Carlisle, he could only have been thinking that...
Day 75: Maryport to Carlisle via Silloth
My final stretch of the west coast. It felt strange knowing that, after tomorrow, every mile I cycled would, in theory, take me closer to home. Only the last two lighthouses at Silloth stood in my way. The fifteen miles from Maryport followed the...
Day 74: Kirksanton to Maryport via St Bees and Whitehaven
The cyclist is poorly served heading north from Kirksanton, with the busy, unyielding A595 offering the only viable route. Beyond the wonderfully tranquil coastal village and harbour at Ravenglass, however, everything changes. The rest of the ride...
Day 73: Barrow-in-Furness to Kirksanton
Walney island Barrow-in-Furness may only be separated from Walney Island by the narrowest of channels, but it’s hard to think of two places less alike. I’m not suggesting that Barrow is an unattractive town, just that it is a working,...
Day 72: Morecambe to Barrow-in-Furness
A hill start An hour or so beyond Morecambe, I realised that I’d had it pretty easy since my final day in Wales. Any suggestion that my increasing daily mileage was down to improved fitness was soon dismissed the moment I left the shore surrounding...
Day 71: Lytham St Annes to Morecambe
A missing tower? The thirteen or so miles to Fleetwood the following morning were among the wettest of my journey so far. Other than weaving a path alongside a golf course before Blackpool, I followed the seafront the whole way. I had been looking...
Week Ten
A week which featured a race against the tide, a new sponsor, a condemned curry house, a night in a lighthouse nowhere near the sea, Mad Dave the Brickie, Another Place, and a pathetic attempt to mend a puncture.
Day 70: Knowsley to Lytham St Annes
Another Place There were once lighthouses at Formby, Bootle and Crosby, although all have been demolished and no traces remain of any of them. I had a different motive for making a detour to Crosby, however. Since driving past the Angel of the...
Day 69: Bidston Hill to Knowsley
A bit of a wrench It was a wrench to leave in the morning. I think if Mandy or Stephen had suggested a day or two’s rest there I would have taken it like a shot. But I had five lighthouses I wanted to reach that day, as well as my coffee...
Day 68: Rhyl to Bidston Hill
A hangover I deserved I awoke in Rhyl with the headache I deserved, but I was grateful that at breakfast there was no evidence I had caused lasting offence to my host as a result of the Derek Acorah comparison. I left the town a day ahead of the...
Day 67: Bangor to Rhyl
A new sponsor Overnight I had acquired a new sponsor! During dinner with Paul and Marian, I had mentioned that money was looking a bit tight, and that I needed to rein in my spending to be sure of making it back home without interruption. Before...
Day 66: Holyhead and remaining Anglesey Lighthouses
Searching for Skerries A number of Anglesey operators offer RIB rides and scheduled boat trips out to the various islands off the Anglesey coast, and I had hoped to book one that ventured out to The Skerries, a small group of islets around seven...
Day 65: More Anglesey Lighthouses
Dark clouds I guess if I’d really wanted to, I could just about have circled the Anglesey coastline in a single day, and conquered another eight lighthouses. For the first time in nearly a month, however, I awoke without the fog of my dark...
Day 64: Exploring Anglesey Lighthouses
If I could have stretched my daily budget, I would gladly have stayed at The Bulkeley Hotel for the rest of the summer. Judging by the number of elderly ladies looking settled at breakfast, many had clearly decided to do just that. However, I...
Week Nine
A week which featured a rescheduled boat to Smalls, fear and panic after losing my medication, an online protest, an island where Bear Grylls was not at home, a family affair on Bardsey Island, and some helpful Victorian plumbing.
Day 63: Aberdaron to Beaumaris on Anglesey
Day Sixty-Three As I left Aberdaron after breakfast, the weather forecast suggested that the light rain would clear shortly, and that the rest of the day would be overcast, but dry. In fact, it poured solidly for all of the thirty-five miles along...
Day 62: Boat Trip to Bardsey Island
A lucky break I was up early, and followed the Wales Coast Path to a slipway about a mile beyond the village. There was a boat trip bound for Bardsey Island scheduled for 9.30, and I had the last ticket. As well as having a splendid lighthouse,...
Days 60 & 61: Barmouth to Aberdaron
Days Sixty and Sixty-One Teva were true to their word, and clearly keen to prove themselves the saviours of my expedition. I was still eating breakfast (which I remembered to call a ‘Full Welsh’ this time) when a motorbike pulled up in...
Day 59: Aberystwyth to Barmouth
Day Fifty-Nine If there was a single day of this journey that I could erase from my memory, it would be this one. It started off well enough. I didn’t let the lengthy stretch of the A487 get me down, and when I turned onto a single-track lane...
Day 58: Reunited with my bike and on to Aberystwyth
Now that I had reached the lighthouse at Smalls, equilibrium was restored, other than for my bike being sixty miles further north, at the pub in Aberaeron. I said my farewells to Greg and Elin for what must have been the third time at least, and...
Day 57 Back to St David’s and a boat to Smalls
The moment I woke up, I phoned Voyages of Discovery, and a pre-recorded message announced that the afternoon boat trip was on. The manager of The Monachty agreed to store my bike in the pub’s beer cellar for a day or two, and not long after...
Week Eight
A week which featured memories of a beach warning of unexploded ordnance, an abandoned boat trip to Smalls, a male voice choir, some frighteningly expensive chocolate, and the beginnings of a breakdown.
Day 56: Fishguard to Aberaeron via New Quay
Day Fifty-Six I awoke to an email letting me know that the gales offshore were subsiding, and that there was a chance of a boat trip out to South Bishop and Smalls the following afternoon. This was doubtless excellent news, although it left me with...
Days 54 & 55: St David’s to Fishguard via Stumble Head
I was up early, nursing a sore head. I assumed that Elin’s sympathetic look as I came downstairs for breakfast was down to the night before, but I quickly established that she had just heard from the boatman that the trip out to Smalls was off. The...
Day 53: Dale to St David’s via St Ann’s Head
I hadn’t realised that by reaching Dale the previous evening, I was only a couple of miles from the lighthouse at St Ann’s Head. After a short climb out of the village, the lane onto the headland was largely straight, flat and surprisingly wide for...
Day 52: Tenby, Caldey Island and Dale
A good night’s sleep raised my spirits a little, but sharing the crossing from Tenby Harbour across to Caldey Island with twenty or more happy and carefree couples and families didn’t help. The lighthouse on Caldey Island was one I had...
Day 51: Kidwelly to Tenby
Tenors and tears in Tenby My hosts reappeared at breakfast time, but were as keen to be up and out as I was. So with breakfast served, they asked me to pack up and leave at my leisure, and to post my key through their letterbox when I did so. I...
Day 50: Llanmadoc to Kidwelly
Whiteford woes When I came to Llanmadoc as a child, there were three pubs in the village, as well as a post office and village store. For such a small community, it isn’t surprising that The Britannia is the only surviving pub, but it was...
Week Seven
A week which featured road rage at Yatton, cheating at Goldcliff, too many Avon and Severn lights, evading the Dalek at West Usk, an interrupted wedding ceremony at Nash Point, and a RIB ride better suited to Alton Towers.
Day 49: Laleston to Llanmadoc
Ready to Mumble? Breakfast at The Great House involved a number of courses, and was as memorable as dinner. I wanted to reach the farthest point on the Gower Peninsular before the end of the day, a distance of nearly fifty miles, but I felt a stone...
Day 48: Cardiff to Laleston
Too noisy at Nash I planned to cover the twenty miles from Penarth to Nash Point along the smallest roads on the map, but they turned out to be pretty busy nonetheless. I circled Cardiff Airport, and then a substantial Ministry of Defence site at...
Day 47: Barry Island and Cardiff Bay
What's occurring? I left John and Judy early to head to Barry Island, where there’s a lighthouse at the end of the dock’s breakwater. It has always been popular with tourists – the town, not the lighthouse – but these days it is also held in...
Day 46: Newport to Cardiff
Back to Goldcliff and on to Cardiff I didn’t risk breakfast in the hotel. In fact, looking at the contents of a vending machine by the lift, I wasn’t entirely certain that breakfast was even an option. Instead, I decided to find a cafe in the city,...
Day 45: Chepstow to Newport
River Severn and army rifles I woke up early in Chepstow with two questions on my mind: ‘How quickly could I knock off the remaining River Severn lights?’ and ‘How long would it be before I saw a proper lighthouse again?’ This second question was...
Day 44: Portishead to Chepstow
The Avon, Severn and into Wales My original plan for the day was to cross the Avonmouth Bridge, using the dedicated cycle track that runs alongside the M5 motorway, and then head down to the docks to track down the North and South Pierhead Lights....
Day 43: Bridgewater to Portishead
A warm Thorn welcome I couldn’t stay overnight in Bridgewater without stopping by the Thorn cycle workshop to say hello. I was very glad that I did. Not only was Dave Whittle happy to see me, but while I drank coffee he serviced my brakes, adjusted...
Week Six
A week which featured the cheapest seaside town in Britain, avoiding the mermaid’s curse in Padstow, meeting Betty Stogs in Boscastle, a return to my wedding island, and making it to a business meeting with minutes to spare.
Day 42: Ilfracombe to Bridgewater
Return to Ilfracombe After a second night in Taunton, Allan returned me to Ilfracombe for the third time in the week. He needed to be back in Oxford by lunchtime, so it was still dark when we pulled into the car park alongside the seafood...
Day 41: Lundy Island
A joyous return We left Taunton at dawn to be sure of being back in Ilfracombe in good time for the crossing to Lundy Island, which lies in the Bristol Channel about twelve miles off the North Devon coast. We had good reason for feeling extremely...
Day 40: Business and Pleasure in Clevedon
A suit and tie With Allan’s help I made my meeting in Clevedon with time to spare, and even managed to look respectable with the clean shirt and tie he had packed for me. I had worked with the Commonwealth Education Trust for a few months, helping...
Day 39: Hartland to Ilfracombe
A second professional commitment When I had set out from home more than a month ago, I only had two commitments in my diary. The first was the Bournemouth University publishing awards presentation in mid-May, which I had safely accomplished. The...
Day 38: Boscastle to Hartland Point
An uphill start When you spend a whole night worrying about something, you often find that things don’t turn out quite as bad as you imagined. By the time I was packed and saddled up after breakfast, I was certain I would still be pushing my bike...
Day 37: Newquay to Boscastle
Colourful Cornwall I have nothing against Newquay, but I was not sorry to leave the town either. I never did establish quite why it has such a draw, and I was happy to leave it to the surfers and the stag and hen weekenders. I had a reasonably...
Day 36: St Ives to Newquay
Hayle Heritage Seven miles out of St Ives, the harbour town of Hayle has a rich industrial heritage, having exported Cornwall’s coal, copper, tin and iron over several centuries. At one stage, rival iron foundries were built at either end of the...
Week Five
A week which featured a breakdown in communications, despairing at the middle classes, intercepting a shipment of drugs, learning a whole new pub etiquette, and finding the last (and best) room on the Isles of Scilly.
Day 35: Penzance to St Ives
Lamorna Cove The road from Penzance to Mouseholes follows the cliff road, and is part of National Cycle Route 3, ultimately connecting Land’s End with Bristol. I was bound for Lamorna Cove, the nearest point to Tater Du lighthouse, which my...
Days 33 and 34: St Martins, Round Island and return to mainland
The world's smallest radio station? After a hearty breakfast, I walked down to a tiny broadcasting studio at Porthmellon, home to Radio Scilly, a community radio station launched by Keri Jones in 2007. For a while it laid claim to being the world’s...
Day 32: To the Isles of Scilly
Class warfare At eight o’clock in the morning I was back at the harbour in a long queue waiting to board the Scillonian III, the ferry that has made the crossing between Penzance and St Mary’s, on the Isles of Scilly, for more than forty years. I...
Day 31: Falmouth to Penzance
A new frame of mind I left Falmouth in an altogether more positive mental state than the one in which I had arrived. After a day of recuperation, and with clean clothes and a working phone, I felt renewed and full of energy for the thirty miles to...
Day 30: Staying put in Falmouth
Late night into Falmouth. Driving winds & rain. Phone wet & dead. May need a day to dry out body, soul and contents of panniers! #beaconbike— Edward Peppitt (@thebeaconbike) June 2, 2015 Drying out However much I was ready to throw in...
Day 29: Mevagissey, St Anthony’s and Falmouth
Darkness in Eden My YHA pod was surprisingly comfortable, and with the shipping container affording almost no natural light, it was nearly nine before I woke up. However, the pouring rain and gale force winds provided little incentive to leave the...
Week Four
A week which featured an offer of a lifetime, unmasking a bully, taking a short break with the family, joining a fishing party off Plymouth, meeting up with an old friend and rediscovering the hostels of my youth.
Day 28: Looe, Polperro and Fowey
Narrow lanes to Looe Looe is only eight miles from the White Hart, but the route for cyclists was not an easy one. I opted for a B road, via Bylane End and Morval, which was reasonably quiet but so narrow that I frequently held up the traffic. The...
Day 27: Eddystone
Back in Plymouth I was up at dawn, because I had been granted passage on a fishing trip that was about to set off from Cattewater harbour. It was a six-hour round trip, which would get me up close to the Plymouth Breakwater lighthouse, and should...
Days 23 to 26: Holiday at The Lizard
A few days of parenthood Half-term week at The Lizard was very special. At Emma’s recommendation, we walked over the cliffs to Kynance Cove, where we spent a windy few hours on the beach, alternating between homemade pasties and flapjacks from the...
Day 22: Plymouth and an unexpected holiday
My largest haul to date Plymouth has been an important port for many centuries. It was from Plymouth, for example, that the Pilgrim Fathers departed for the New World in 1620 and established Plymouth Colony, the second English settlement in what is...
Week Three
A week which featured a publishing awards ceremony, bagging a dubious lighthouse, being held up at Portland prison, encountering a saucy French maid and Her Majesty the Queen, hooking up with friends from Kent, and failing to leave the Needles lighthouse behind.
Day 21: Stoke Fleming to Plymouth
Cycling on a tight budget I set off from Stoke Fleming determined to make it the fifty or so miles to Plymouth, and after last night’s extravagance, just as determined to survive on snacks from my panniers alone. The early morning began with a...
Days 19 & 20: Bournemouth to Exeter to Stoke Fleming
Finding renewed strength After travelling back to Exeter the next day, and spending another night at the Harris household, I felt renewed and ready to give the expedition another go. Typically, Penny had washed all my clothes while I’d been...
Day 18: Back to Bournemouth – Ready to give up?
All too much Jonathan was up and out by the time I came down for breakfast. He had left at dawn to travel up to Lord’s for the first day of the first Test Match against New Zealand. I envied him. My own agenda for the day was a lot more...
Day 17: To Exeter via a very important lighthouse indeed!
An early change of plan Over breakfast in the Crown Inn, I plotted my route to Exeter, where I had arranged to stay with old friends, Jonathan and Penny Harris. From what I had gleaned from the various lighthouse guidebooks and online sources at my...
Day 16: Weymouth to Portland Bill and back
Cyclists unwelcome Weymouth’s splendid esplanade of Georgian terraces is very pleasing on the eye, but the town’s treatment of its cyclists is simply shocking. Where Brighton’s promenade accommodates pedestrians and cyclists harmoniously, Weymouth...
Day 15: Poole to Weymouth via Anvil Point
Studland Bay I was given the same room at the Riviera Hotel which I had stayed in a few nights earlier, only this time the view across to the Isle of Wight only heightened my sense of anxiety about the progress I was making. I may have clocked up...
Week Two
A week which featured a meeting with fellow lighthouse fanatics, my lack of fitness laid bare on Jersey, five-star treatment on Guernsey, and a double-page spread in the Sunday Telegraph.
Day 14: Sark, remaining Guernsey lighthouses and return to the mainland
No time to disembark at Sark I had to be up early to pack and vacate my room, and be down at the harbour by 8.30 for the short crossing to Sark. There is a fabulous lighthouse set into the cliffs at Point Robert on the island, and my original plan...
Day 13: Quesnard Point on Alderney and more Guernsey lighthouses
A bumpy ride I was up early the following morning for the boat to Alderney. The contract for the scheduled ferry service between Guernsey and Alderney had been awarded the previous year to Bumblebee Marine, a family enterprise run by father and...
Day 12: Old Government House and the Guernsey lighthouses
Day Twelve Old Government House was once the official residence for the Governor of Guernsey, and is now the island’s only five-star hotel. The fundraising team at Shift MS, the charity I was raising money for, had put out a plea for accommodation...
Day 11: The remaining Jersey lighthouses
Six lights in three hours I woke early to heavy rain and a gale that rattled the French windows in the drawing room below me. The forecast showed it clearing by mid-morning, so I took the opportunity to soak in a deep, very hot bath. There were...
Day 10: Casquets and half the Jersey lighthouses
Condor ferry to Jersey via Casquets The Condor ferry to the Channel Islands was late to arrive, and late to depart. The company had recently upgraded its fleet and I learned that the new ferries were suffering regular teething problems. The new...
Day 9: Staying put in Sandbanks
Sunshine in Sandbanks After the fog of the previous afternoon, the glorious heat and sunshine on the south coast the following morning was unexpected, though extremely welcome. After crossing the River Stour at Iford, my route took me back to the...
Day 8: Southampton, New Forest and Hurst Point
A leisurely start I thought I had got up early, but creeping downstairs to make myself a cup of tea I found Gavin fully dressed, my clothes washed and drying out on the line, and breakfast already laid out. Katherine had left for work an hour...
Week One
A week which featured a late start, discovering selfies, invading an ice cream seller’s personal space, being outpaced by a bin, stopped at gunpoint, pampered in Shanklin and taken for a pint to the pub where I was once the landlord.
Day 7: Isle of Wight & Southampton
Making up for lost time With so much left undone from the day before, I needed to be up and out early if I stood a chance of seeing the remaining three Isle of Wight lights and still catch a ferry across to Southampton before dark. After such...
Day 6: Around the Isle of Wight
Several false starts With Chris’s help the following morning, I devised a perfect route for the day. I would return to Sandown via the coastal route I had taken the day before, then follow another section of the Red Squirrel trail to Newport right...
Day 5: Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight
Stubbornness at Spitbank I was up and off the next morning, excited at the prospect of organising a boat trip out to the Palmerston forts, a series of four nineteenth-century structures in The Solent, all of which originally housed lighthouse...
Days 3 & 4: Brighton to Portsmouth
A town built for cyclists As I made my way back to the seafront the next morning, I was struck by how well Brighton caters for its cyclists. Almost every road in the city centre has a dedicated cycle lane, many with its own set of lights and right...
Day 2: Eastbourne to Brighton
A bracing start I was up early to hear that gales were forecast across the country. Adrian is a keen cyclist himself, and he advised me to get up onto Beachy Head via Duke’s Hill, rather than the route along the main road that I had planned....
Day 1: Dungeness to Eastbourne
A late start The plan was to set off at ten o’clock and cycle the five miles from home to the lighthouse and cafe at Dungeness, where my family and a few friends would raise a toast and send me on my way. But at nine I was still working on a piece...
Planning & Preparation
My childhood dream; Lighthouse holidays; Life getting in the way; Selling maps and books at Stanfords; Multiple Sclerosis; My dreams dashed; A new opportunity; Making it happen.
A glimmer of light
A glimmer of light It was my friend Jason who managed to rekindle my belief that the trip was still possible. Around ten years earlier, he had realised his own dream by visiting every UK pleasure pier using only public buses. He had always fancied...
From darkness to renewal
Into the dark Fast forward to March 2008. I am lying flat out on the kitchen floor, dizzy with fear, coming round from having fainted. We have just returned from a weeklong family holiday in Belgium. At the start of the week I felt absolutely fine,...
From degree to darkness
The Stanfords years After completing a degree at Southampton, I joined up with a number of other slightly rudderless would-be travellers by getting a job at Stanfords, the map and travel bookshop in Covent Garden in London. Here the staff were...
My love of lighthouses
Seeing the light When I was a kid, a part of each school holiday was spent at my Granny’s house in New Romney, on Romney Marsh in Kent. It was about half a mile from the sea, a house divided into two – she had bought a large town house after the...