In 1990 I set off from Glasgow in a bid to walk to every league speedway track in Britain. Ten weeks and 1100 miles later I took ill just 40 miles away from the final track at Exeter, and returned home.
An account of this walk may appear here soon, but for now here is a list of the tracks I visited in the order I went to them.
In October 1999 my girlfriend Alison and I walked from Bridport to the County Ground Stadium in Exeter over the course of three days, as I finally completed the last stage of this trek. A report of this trip was featured in the latest issue of HHN, and is reproduced below:
Around 11am on Thursday 28th October 1999, accompanied by Alison, my girlfriend at the time, I alighted into the bus station in Bridport. Over nine years had elapsed since I left this Dorset town just 39 miles short of my final destination, in an effort to walk to all the British speedway tracks. We allowed ourselves three days for the walk to Exeter so we could take a scenic route. On such a glorious summer-like day the stretch of South-West Coast Path from Seatown, over Golden Cap, to Charmouth was spectacular. With the tide out when we arrived, the popular fossil-hunting beach offered a convenient route to Lyme Regis. We then took to the roads in order to hasten our progress, reaching Seaton just before dark. We had to dig out a torch for the last couple of miles, as we yearned for the shelter of Beer Youth Hostel.
Day two started with a few more miles on the Coast Path, before a return to the roads. After Sidford the aim was to walk as far as we could manage on the main road to Exeter, before jumping on a bus into the city. As the pace dropped our target of Farringdon became impractical, and we eventually gave up at Halfway House, two miles earlier.
A lovely meal in Mad Meg's Restaurant and a good night's rest revived us. Our guest house owner kindly allowed us to leave our backpacks for the day. After getting the bus back to Halfway House we made speedy progress over the remaining 9 miles to the County Ground Stadium, with Alison singing almost non-stop for the first hour. We arrived just as the rain started falling. I finally stepped onto Exeter's speedway track nearly a decade after embarking on the walk from Glasgow.
This link takes you to another speedway related item in HHN, involving 16 athletes competing in silly games using the format of a traditional 20-heat individual speedway contest. The page will open in a new window and is part of the Heaton Harriers web site.