 walberswick beach hut number 3, suffolk, england June 04, 2007 Forget journeying to the centre of the earth in a little digging machine. Forget going back to the future. Forget being shrunk and voyaging inside a human body with Raquel Welsh. The expedition that's on my mind is one that pits man and machine against nature. Ridiculous as it may sound, but this weekend a small, hand-picked group of explorers, myself amongst them, will be attempting to cross from one side of the vast continent of Great Britain to the other by bicycle. One of the last truly unexplorered areas of Planet Earth, we will start in the Lake District, cross the uncharted Pennines, often called the 'backbone of England', and hopefully arrive in Sunderland in time for tea on Sunday afternoon. Often spoken about in whispers, behind closed doors by old men with pipes, the fool-hardy team include Kev, often seen wearing a vest top and linen trousers, but never seen dancing; Darren, has trained hard for the adventure by riding four miles on his BMX bike; Rainy, once described by someone as possibly the greatest rock guitarist in York and Jules, the token southerner, who last year was overheard saying that a northern accent makes people sound 'a bit thick'. Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale...We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. For God's sake, look after our people. Holga CFN + out of date FP4 © James Arnold 2007 Comment (6) | Permalink |
