LE JOG

[Nigel]

Tuesday 9th Feb.
Setting out on the long gentle slope down from Polbathic towards Plymouth Sound. After some tricky mental debate, I chose to skirt the hamlet of Crafthole, pushing instead right on through Shevlock to spend the night halfway up Antony Hill. 5.88 miles.

Thursday 11th Feb.
A harsh northerly was blowing this morning, lashing snow onto Sweder's fair hills to the east. Not quite so cold here in the West Country, as I took the ferry from Torpoint (jogging round the deck to keep up the distance).

The ferry duly landed me in Devonport, famous for its naval dockyard. The town also formed the Parliamentary constituency for Dr David Owen, erstwhile Labour Foreign Secretary under PM Jim Callaghan.

Now the esteemed Lord Owen, Dr Death (as he remains more commonly and cheerfully known) was also co-founder (with Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and Bill Rodgers, the so-called Gang of Four) of the SDP (Social Democrat Party), which nearly took British politics by storm in the 1980s before meekly merging with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrat party.

Dr Owen was indeed an MD as well as Foreign Secretary (maybe he was a good doctor). He also had the privilege of being my sister's boss for a short period in 1979 when she worked in the Foreign Office.

I passed the terminal for the Plymouth-Santander ferry, waving to the morning ferry as she passed out towards the chilly waters of the Bay of Biscay. I took that chunderous 24-hour journey myself some 11 times during my geology PhD fieldwork in Northern Spain, before resolving never to set foot in a boat ever again.

With churning stomach, I trotted on through the suburbs of Plymouth, on this rockcrusher's work day choosing to give a miss to Stonehouse (namecheck for another 1970s Labour Minister), turning left through Milehouse and into (Plymouth's) Central Park.

A quick lap of the lawns later, and a trot through the wonderfully-named Mutley Plain, I found myself dropping into Plymouth University, just in time for coffee with my hero Dr Iain Stewart, fellow-geologist and presenter of BBC2's How Earth Made Us.

Iain kindly gave me a quick presentation on the spectacular volcanic eruption of Santorini in Greece - click the link to catch a repeat video showing.

6.57 miles. Momentous.

Attached images:
Dr David Owen
Santander Ferry leaving Plymouth
Dick Dastardly and Mutley