Welcome to the Drawing Breath photo-blog!

At the beginning of January 2006 I began researching the route of the Drawing Breath journey. The journey is central to an ongoing arts and health project which includes the aim of raising awareness about lung disease. The journey's route was along the coast between Whitstable and Hastings and I completed the five week trip on 19th August this year.





The blog has been reversed so that the start of the journey is at the top of the page. You can read about the journey chronologically from its beginning in mid-July to mid-August when it ended. To see the whole blog continuously on one page, please click on "2007" at the top of the blog archive on the left.

If you have feedback, suggestions, or thoughts about breathing or biking, please get in touch via the website's forum page, or through the email address above. Thank you!

13.7.07: Thinking about leaving

When I began working on the Drawing Breath project in 2006, Whitstable beach was in chaos. Fortifications were being renewed - the beach raised, new groynes - sinister yet friendly diggers keeping the town safe from flooding.





Now, after much preparation, Whitstable beach is the start of my journey on Monday morning and to make it, I am dependent on another machine, my new prosthetic bicycle whose bright efficiency contrasts with the inconvenient cellular breakdown in my lungs.

14.7.07: How to pack

Packing for the trip means taking oxygen deficiency into account.





If you have insufficient oxygen for normal activity, you need to carry as little weight as possible. I am weighing everything and making choices, packing nothing which is unnecessary for survival, no change of clothes .... just hoping they'll dry out overnight.

16.7.07: Whitstable to Herne Bay

12.00 pm:
Temperature: 19c, humidity 39%, light west wind. Distance cycled: 9 miles

Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable
Breathe Easy group members and friends have come to see me off. I have brought my finger pulse oximeter which measures oxygen saturation in the blood and we all measure our own levels. 96% and over is normal and ours collectively range from 87% to 98% depending on our health and the state of our lungs. Mine is 93% but it changes from moment to moment.





Leaving via the harbour, past Brett's strange giant inhaler-shaped structure I head east for the wide promenade (forbidden to bicycles in the summer but still used by most cyclists). After the past months of planning chaos and trepidation, it feels strangely calm to be on my way.


1.30 pm:

Gentle ride towards Herne Bay pier ...





... where I call in for lunch with Rosemary and her partner John. They entertain me with stories of cycle journeys they've made in the past. Rosemary's oxygen equipment crouches by the front door in the hall - she shows me how its tubing reaches all over the house and offers me a whiff to perk me up.

Later near to the pier I begin a conversation with a woman who asks me about the yellow buoys in the sea. My first conversation with a stranger on this trip is interrupted by sudden heavy rain as she runs for cover. I didn't discover her name.





3.15 pm:
Shelter from the rain at Herne Bay Junior School with teacher Rosie Cullen. We will be working together with Year 5 on the project next year. The current plan, which could change, is to make a giant sculptural bicycle out of coastal waste materials.
Later and hungry I buy fish and mushy peas from Bhanal who works at Kings Fish Bar and eat them on a bench in the mournful damp of Memorial Park before heading inland.





6.30 pm:
Overnight with Vicky, Tom and Nancy in nearby Broomfield - peace, calm and generosity. At the end of this first day I'm exhausted and exhilerated.

17.7.07: The road to Minnis Bay

3.00 pm:
Temperature 18C, south wind. Day's distance cycled: 6 1/2 miles

Computer up-loading problems, so I set off late. My blog appears to be on US time, which feels somewhat surreal and appears that I'm blogging at 4am!

Such gusts of wind at Reculver(past Herne Bay), all my concentration is focussed on not being blown off the path, so that I forget to photograph the iconic tower. Earlier in the summer I had some coaching on this stretch to Minnis Bay with Paul the cycle instructor at a weekly club for people with disabilities.





We would ride together on a kind of conjoined tricycle - 3 wheels, 2 sets of handlebars, 2 saddles - where I could gradually build up strength by taking a greater proportion of our combined weight. Sadly for its regular members the club is now closed.

Joyful ride in sunshine - I'm sustained by apples growing wild below the path and collect fennel to cook later.





Closer to Minnis Bay I meet Carol and her dogs. They are very obedient.



Carol's grandfather had emphysema but still lived into his 90s. This is cheering.

6.30 pm:
Arrive at Annie and Jenni's in Minnis Bay.

18.7.07: Frustration in Birchington

Annie and Jenni are away. I have their house to myself and the morning to get stuff done. But some days just don't work out. I miss meeting my friend Connie at the Minnis by ten minutes.

I cycle uphill towards Birchington Library before realising I've forgotten my USB lead for uploading photos onto the blog. But returning with it later, the library turns out to be closed on Wednesdays. On to the bank to get cash, but it's been ramraided - two cash machines squat glumly and uselessly on pallets inside the building.

And then my pink perspex waterbottle vanishes from my bike.





For the record, this was it, pictured Monday, in Memorial Park, Herne Bay. I loved it but clearly someone else did too.

18.7.07: Minnis Bay to Margate

3.45 pm:
Temp 24C, West wind, sunny. Day's mileage: 6 miles





Easy ride past chalk cliffs and inset dank adolescent hidey-holes and brick infills. If anyone knows how and when these brick parts of the cliff were built, please post on the forum. Further on a young couple on holiday from Derbyshire are on the other end of this kite ...





... and Cori who works in the West Bay Cafe sells me an icecream.





6.20 pm:




Reaching Margate, I turn off the front near the old Sea Bathing Hospital and arrive soon after at Di's house.