Personal

Why walk?

I've been surprised recently how some good friends still don't know about my walking. So let me state it outright:

I am walking the entire length of the mainland UK coastline.

This always raises questions. The first is usually Why?. I've always considered "because it's there" to be a cop-out answer of the highest order.

I still don't know exactly why I'm walking. Maybe I want to see where the coast leads. Maybe I'm curious as to its length. Maybe I want to check I really live on an island. It seemed like a good idea when I started and I've no reason to stop yet.

Then today reading an article about Norris McWhirter's passing I realised it's not so strange. Norris loved "visiting the 1,049 offshore British islands". Others climb a list of mountains drawn up a hundred years ago. As for me, I walk by the sea. And I love it.