WHERE WAS I?
We’re a right pair, my friend and I. Both our phones have flat batteries, neither of us has a map — and we’re lost, in a wood engulfed by a sea fret.
Further inland, wherever that is, the sun still shines. Or at least it did this morning, when we called a halt in a small town that was the birthplace of one of my sporting heroes (mother: Jean) — and remembered his world-beating partnerships.
It lies nearly nine miles westsouthwest of a second town that is our ultimate goal. The first town is also the site of a boarding school, alma mater of a pioneering abstract artist — although he’s associated with another coastline, 338 miles southwest of it.
Now, we’re looking for a former coastal signal station. But given the mist, we must row back on our plans and simplify our itinerary. Fortunately we’re on National Trust land and someone shows us the way.
Finally, we reach the second town’s beach, where the fog is even thicker. Friend is desperate to see a lengthy structure here, opened in 1901. We peer into the murk. “Is that it?” I ask Friend.
“Yes!” he exclaims — and does his best to break into song, complete with dance moves and Hindi lyrics. He tells me it featured in a musical comedy, part of which was filmed here ten years ago.
So we’re not going to win a gold medal for route-finding, and Friend will get no gongs for his singing. But I at least have a consolation prize. I’ve been fishing — and caught a crab.
“I can’t imagine your sporting hero ever doing that,” Friend notes.
Sean Newsom
THE QUESTIONS
1 What is my sporting hero’s surname?
2 What is the name of the second town?