This is the text of an email i sent to my friends and family on 8th August 2005 just before leaving Brighton. I include it here as it provides a brief background for the reasons for my wanderings.
Subject: Goodbye Brighton
Hello!
Bags packed. Car full of books and belongings. Full tank of petrol. (No shades 'cos the weather is rubbish.) Time to hit the A23 and away to a new future.
Doh! Sorry, that was 1985 when I drove down to Brighton from Dulwich. This time I have less luggage, probably more baggage and certainly much less idea of where I am going. But this time that's the whole point.
Last November when I was facing my second operation on my wrist I decided to sell my house as I simply couldn't afford it. And when I realised that I had been looking for excuses to sell for a few years and being temporarily one handed was simply the catalyst for making the decision, my mind was made up. So sometime this week 19 Hanover Street will no longer be mine and on Thursday 18th August I am out of here. Never been the same without Jaffa anyway.
I will be getting a ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao and from there my itinerary is unknown. Even to me. I am starting off with northern Spain simply because you have to start somewhere and even I know that Spain is abroad - isn’t it? After Spain I might work my way round Mediterranean Europe. Or I might not. Wherever I go it will be hot, so I will be heading south (or east) until such time as the north is nice and warm again. I will be travelling by boat or train wherever possible as the travelling is the point and boats and trains are greener. Next time you book a QueasyJet flight for £2.99 ask yourself how much you are prepared to pay to slow down global warming. More than £2.99? That’s what it comes down to folks. And yes I actually am a paid up member of Friends of the Earth! Honestly!
I am still determined to earn a living taking photographs and know I have the gear, am reasonably sure I have the ability and am absolutely certain I am in the wrong place to do it. Brighton is a nice town but it’s only that. So I am off. Might come back. Might not.
The general idea is to do what I was starting to do 18 months ago before I snapped my wrist, getting my photography career going.
I have never been particularly interested in holidays or in travelling. Probably because I have always been lucky enough to have fascinating jobs and visiting places in this country that most people never venture to. And many of you also know that it is typical of me to undertake a 90 degree change in direction and become a travel photographer. Which is generally considered to be a permanent holiday.
For the immediate future I will have no fixed abode. Literally. Email is best bet, I might turn on my mobile once a day so leave a message or txt me. I will of course be compiling a blog as I travel. This will be full of photo geek nonsense. It will also be full of pretty pictures and ramblings like this.
I have already made vague arrangements to meet some of you while I am travelling so I will see you there. Wherever there is... If you don’t like my there at the time we can always meet in another there. At the moment as long as there isn’t here I am not too fussed where there is.
That’s it. Hopefully I will see you soon. And when I do by God I am going to have revenge for all the times I have had to sit through your holiday photographs! :)
l8r
Mark
Virtual Brighton