If I step out of my house and turn left down the road (past the thick three-cornered leek of March or the nodding blackberries of August), it always brings me great pleasure to return home from the opposite direction (down from the bristling Beacon, past the fallen apple tree which still bears fruit). The act of circumnavigation is a peaceful one in my mind, it is inherently complete, a glass full of milk, no stone left unturned, spring high tide.
It is with that feeling in mind that I conjured this plan, this circular adventure. Not the linear mindset of the conventional surf trip where countries are jetted to, experienced for a time and then left, perhaps to return to, perhaps not, but always culminating in a sense of unfinished-business. I am going to cycle around the Island of Britain and indeed a portion of her sister island, Eire, and a number of her smaller Hebridean islands. I am going to tow a trailer and a surfboard and am going to surf as much as I possibly can along the way.
To stay with the circular theme, the adventure takes the shape of a bicycle wheel in my mind. The overarching motivation of the trip (the tyre on my metaphorical wheel) is the idea that I will set off from my house and turn right, that I will cycle around the entire country before returning home from the left, that idea alone has a powerful pull. But the wheel is built with an array of spokes.
I will explore the multitude of additional motivations for the trip in greater detail later, but for the time being I will lay out a few of them here; I want to go on an adventure, I don’t want to fly, I want a physical challenge, I want a psychological challenge, I want to achieve something, I want to learn about this island, I want to meet some of the people of this island, I want to surf, I want to tell exciting stories.
I am sure this list will expand and that my understanding of the trip will transform as I live through it. I aim to embark upon it with the flexibility which comes with an open heart and an open mind.
When I cast my gaze forwards in time I see miles of unforgiving, rain-thrashed roads, I see both glorious sunrises and glorious sunsets, I see every kind of wave, every hew of sea, every mood of sky, I see kindness and I see pain. I am scared and I am excited in equal measure.
One of the biggest causes of my fear is the way I am going to tell the story of my trip. I am going to make a series of videos charting the adventure and release them on youtube. I plan on filming and editing the series myself, a process with which I am wholly unfamiliar, and which scares me. A part of me is worried that nobody will watch the videos, although I’m not sure that matters (I remind myself of the glorious satisfaction of circumnavigation, that smooth black tyre).
Propping up this beautiful, frightening idea is the inevitable tangle of more complicated practicalities, the road upon which my wheel will roll. It would take between 6-8 months to complete the mission in one go depending on how long I spend surfing, a time span not in line with my predilection for being at home with my young family. Because of this I will split the journey up into twenty, week-long stages, upon completion of each stage I will find a place to store my trailer and surfboard (either at a friend’s house or more likely a farm which i’ll have to find along the way), and cycle to the nearest train station to catch a train home. It’s a neat plan. But it is a plan reliant upon the kindness of strangers, upon catching trains at unknowable times, upon filming the whole lot, filming myself with a selfie stick, talking into my phone... at this stage I am more nervous than excited.
Travelling in this way (assuming I complete 4 stages a year) I will arrive home for the final time five years after I set off.
I know i’ll be a different person when I cycle up the hill towards my house, with stronger legs, a better understanding of my island home, and a head full of stories. I hope I can do the trip justice and that you’ll come along for the ride.
I really like this wild endeavour! good luck out there!