Since an early age I have had the urge to travel and explore new places. My earliest memory is of wandering off at a summer fete at the age of about 2 or 3 and being separated from my parents. I remember bawling my eyes out as two gentlemen looked on with amusement. Luckily for me, Dad soon came to rescue me.
For my seventh birthday I was given my first bicycle and this opened up a whole new world for me. Never being one to hang around the house, I was off. With the coming of summer I started to explore beyond my own locality.
Harwich is situated on a peninsular so there is only one direction out of town. The traffic in 1966 was not the formidable obstacle it is today and to cycle along quiet roads was the norm.
The nearest town of any significance to Harwich, is Walton-on-the-Naze. It is visible from my home-town as it is the other side of a large bay that sweeps around the coast. However, by road it is a distance of about 15 miles from my childhood home.
One day in the summer holidays I decided to see if I could cycle to Walton-on-the-Naze. I don’t recall having a map, but followed the sweep of the coastline and used road-signs to guide me. I still remember to this day the look of amazement on a ladies face when I arrived at the church at the T-junction on Walton High St. when I asked her, ‘If this was in fact Walton-on-Naze’. She asked, ‘Where had I come from’. When I revealed it was from Harwich, her face was a picture.
Returning home at the end of a long day, my mother was not too pleased that I had been out since breakfast (I hadn’t told anyone where I was going). She was understandably quite worried about me. Once again I was in the doghouse! When I revealed where I had been, I was in even more trouble. Not only had I been out all day, I was guilty of telling lies! Nothing I could say would convince my Mum that I was telling the truth.
The next opportunity I had I decided to right this wrong. My next destination was to be Clacton-on-Sea. A little further around the coast from Walton. This time I hit on ‘a cunning plan’ to validate my trip. I brought a stick of rock with ‘Clacton-on-Sea’ embedded in the candy. When I returned home I presented my poor mother with this gift / trophy to prove my story this time.
By the end of that summer I had cycled to Walton (15miles), Clacton (17miles), Colchester (20miles) and Ipswich (22miles). The start of my adventures into the wide world had begun.
My school years held me in check until the age of 16. My chosen career was in keeping with my desire to explore the wider world. I joined Texaco as a Deck Cadet to train to be a navigation officer in the Merchant Navy. Unlimited travel and paid at the same time. Perfect.
The reality was not so good however. The working hours were long and the opportunities to go ashore were limited. I made the most of what occasions presented themselves and saw quite a lot of the various countries I visited. I also saw an awful lot of empty ocean.
At the age of 28 I had had enough of being away from friends and family for long periods of time and decided to ‘come ashore’ to a more settled life. My experience of the oil industry stood me in good stead for working at the local oil refinery.
October 1987 I started work as a process operator there, making highly specialised petro-chemical products.
During my time at Carless Refining and Marketing I used my holidays to pursue my passion for mountain climbing and sailing. It was during this period that I climbed around 100 Scottish Munroe’s (mountains over 3,000ft), visited Mont Blanc, The Matterhorn and Mt. McKinley, Alaska.
I also met my long suffering wife, Diane and her ready-made family of 4 children soon after coming ashore. Our son Christopher was born in April 1992 to add to an already crowded house.
My sailing boat ‘Diddy-Da’ was conceived and built during my time at the refinery.
During a holiday I embarked on a ‘mini-adventure’ by cycling across England, East to West. Namely Harwich to Milford Haven in Wales. My friend, Glyn, from my Merchant Navy days, lives in a village close to Milford and it proved a good opportunity to pay a surprise visit to him. The trip took four days and on the third day, whilst in the middle of the Welsh mountains I had a brain-wave. My Dad always had a saying, ‘From Here to Timbuktu’, and I wondered if it would be possible to make the journey there. Why this idea came to me that morning I have no explanation.
Once the trip to Wales was completed I began to research the Timbuktu project to see if it was feasible. I concluded it was. Just! Exactly the sort of challenge I needed.
There began a two-year project to plan and prepare for my trip. With everything mapped out and most pre-departure obstacles overcome I was ready to take the plunge. The only stumbling block was getting the three months off work to make the trip. I tried to arrange my leave and swap with others to give me the time off. The refinery manager ruled this out. Next I requested unpaid leave for the trip. Again this was turned down.
I had a difficult choice to make. Give up the trip or give up a well-paid job that I enjoyed. No contest. I tended my notice.
Upon my return I took up employment in the financial service industry. However, after a couple of years I changed employment again and went to work at the Port of Felixstowe, which was more in keeping with my outlook.
I am still working at the Port of Felixstowe and will be using a ‘career break’ to undertake my latest adventure to Africa.
As well as travelling my main focus at the moment is triathlons. I compete most weekends throughout the summer. In 2007 I managed to gain a place in the British Triathlon Team for the World Championships in Vancouver, Canada. Last year, after a tough season of competion I became the over 50’s triathlon champion for the Eastern Counties. This year (2009) I have to defend my title against stiff competition.