by tomh » Tue 05 Apr, 2016 3:34 pm
Two battered old ladies appeared on the path, tramping towards me out of the gorse - Miss Brace and Miss Badcock. They were half-naked, leathery and terrifying in halters and faded shorts, and though it was cool on these cliffs they were perspiring. Old ladies in skimpy clothes could look defenceless. These two looked formidable - rather plump and plain and dauntless, with lined faces, and varicose veins standing out on their calves like thongs. They were very brown. They carried walking sticks with spiked tips. One had a bright patch on her shorts saying 'Bad Gastein'. They were ramblers, they said, then as if to prove it said they had walked here from Land's End.
'And we 'aven't tooched pooblic transport,' Miss Brace said.
- Theroux, Paul. (1983) The Kingdom By The Sea London, UK: Hamish Hamilton
A combination of hiking and small railway branch line travel in 1982 takes him around the total UK coast with vivid and candid descriptions of what he encounters and those he meets. Recommended even if you don't intend doing the walk.