Island Epic

It took Marcial Boo 17 years to cycle around the coast of mainland Britain and now, Tour de Coast, the charity he founded after his mammoth pilgrimage, encourages us all to explore.

- Marcial Boo

What’s your favourite stretch of Britain’s coastline? Maybe it’s the cliff-lined coasts of Cornwall, or the views of Snowdonia from the Llyn peninsula, or the quiet beaches of North Norfolk? This was a question I mulled over as I cycled 4,600 or so miles around mainland Britain’s coast. The journey took 17 years as I snatched a few days off here and there between work commitments and raising a family. Each year, with two panniers on the back of my Ridge back-framed bike,I’d cycle for four or five days, staying in B&Bs, hugging the coast as much as possible until it was time to go home. Then, the next year, I’d take a train back to wherever I stopped the year before, and carry on.

I started in 1997 in Whitstable in Kent, looking across the Thames Estuary towards Essex. I decided to cycle the coast clockwise, but only because I didn’t fancy riding to London that day. However, it seemed farfetched to think that sometime in the future I’d be cycling back past the buildings of Southend that I could just make out on the horizon. In fact, it seemed so unrealistic an aspiration that I simply told friends I was going cycling for a few days – not that I intended to circumnavigate the country.

JOURNEY’S BEGINNING

That first day I rode through Margate and Ramsgate to Dover, and stayed the night in a small guesthouse that catered for ferry passengers and dockworkers. A few days later, I had made it to Bournemouth in Dorset, having ridden through a trade union rally in Brighton and over each of the Seven Sisters hills. The following year, I took a train back to Bournemouth and carried on west.