Journeys to the Edges of Britain: Snow, Sheep, Tea Rooms, and Other Minor Disasters

Journeys to the Edges of Britain Snow, Sheep, Tea Rooms, and Other Minor Disasters Two journeys across Britain, mapped in drizzle, detours, and delightful oddities. In 2018, Tom and Emma Kodak set off from London in their dependable Passat, skirting the familiar streets of Oxford, wandering through the Cotswolds, and then north to the Lake District, clambering over Kirkstone Pass and Shap Fell before rolling into Glasgow, Wemyss Bay, and the islands just offshore. From there, they threaded through Stirling, Glencoe, Fort William, Inverness, and the dizzying hairpins of Applecross and Bealach na Bà, then traced the full sweep of the North Coast 500-Torridon, Gairloch, Ullapool, Kylesku, Durness, Smoo Cave, Thurso, and John o' Groats-before easing back south through Edinburgh to home. In 2024, the Kodaks returned in a fiery red MG HS, this time following Britain's opposite arc: London to Plymouth, Dartmoor, Devon, and Cornwall, poking about St Ives, Penzance, Land's End, and Tintagel, before swinging north into Wales-Portmeirion, Snowdonia, Betws-y-Coed, Llanberis, Conwy, Llandudno, Anglesey, and Cardiff-and finally heading eastward to London once more. Sheep, snow, midges, cliffs, castles, coves, ferries, and tea rooms pepper this brisk, wry portrait of Britain at its edges-a land both wild and welcoming, seen through two cars, two journeys, and far too many roundabouts.