[The Great Escape, day one: written 11th August, 2005]

I love the sea. Some of my happiest moments have been spent beside it, on it, or in it. For me, there's a special quality of relaxation that comes from sitting or walking by a shore, looking at the waves and breathing in that lovely seaweed smell. So today, as the train rounded a corner at Dawlish to hug the narrow strip of land between the ox blood red cliffs and the petrol blue sea, it was all I could do not to yell out "I can see the sea!" like an excited six year old.

It's a pity, then, that I live in one of the points of Britain that's furthest from the sea. I have to get my fix in short, intense bursts of exposure.