"Loose Screw" ... Stephen Gough, aka 'The Naked Rambler'
... surprisingly no one here has so far mentioned the
- whose
exploits were the subject of a BBC1 documentary at 10.35 (an hour later in Scotland!) last Tuesday night.
Ex-Marine, Gough relinquished his job as a lorry driver some years ago to undertake the 870-mile hike from Lands End to John O' Groats ...... ["in the SCUD"!] ... during the course of which, his efforts were frequently stalled by periods of judicial incarceration - including short spells of "board & lodging", courtesy of Edinburgh's Saughton Gaol and Perth Prison - for Contravening the Laws of Decency in Public Places.
Following release from his latest stretch - 7 months spent in solitary confinement as a guest of the Edinburgh "Establishment" - he then set out on the southbound, 450-mile tortuous homeward trek to his elderly mother's house in Eastleigh, Hants ... (minus pants) but complete with backpack containing a small tent, meagre food rations ... bottled water ... a tatty old oilskin hat
to "offer protection against the
elements" ... and, virtually ...
... bugger all else!
This trip(the one televised) was not without its pitfalls ... being fraught with re~arrests and further intervals of imprisonment en route ... ALL for the sake of proving WHAT? That humans (like animals) be allowed the freedom to "commune with nature".
Aye... "some mothers do have 'em"!!!
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