By Larry Briscoe
Correspondent
A majestic full moon peaks above still water that stretches across the horizon while tempting aromas waft over the landscape from a pot where dinner simmers.
Sound like a setting from an excursion down the Nile or maybe camp during a safari to the Serengeti in Africa? Actually, it is Paul the Adventurer’s campsite at West Tawakoni City Park one evening last week.
Paul the Adventurer is Paul Nethercott, originally from England. He was a businessman and visited the United States in that capacity. “I met a Texan, fell in love, and I’ve been here ever since,” he said.
“I was flying in for the weekend and decided that was impractical — it was easier to get married,” he said and added that was 26 years ago. He is now retired and lives with his wife in Dallas.
His enthusiasm for everything bubbles out as rapidly as his dinner cooking in a pot over a sterno burner on top of the picnic table.
“Oh, look at that!” Paul states with obvious enjoyment. The harvest moon is rising over Lake Tawakoni, and he stops for a while to take it in. One draws the conclusion this is something Paul does often — taking time to take in nature or what the moment has to offer.
How did Paul find his to West Tawakoni City Park? On his bicycle all the way from Dallas after finding the park on the city’s website.
“You have to have an adventure every two or three years,” Paul said.
As far as that bike ride from Dallas to the park might seem to most — maybe excluding Tawakoni bike enthusiast Bill Forbis — Paul has ridden further, much further.
Three years ago, Paul rode from San Diego, Calif., to San Augustine, Fla.
“It was a 28-day ride,” Paul explained. “My wife flew out to meet me.”
His wife is supportive of Paul’s adventures. “She gets involved and helps me plan,” he said.
Then, Paul gets down to the grand adventure he once took across the Atlantic Ocean.
“I have a 24-foot sailboat docked on Lake Ray Hubbard.”
With that sailboat, he took off from Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts (“You know,” he states to the native American, “where the Pilgrims came”) and sailed to England.
The thought that stayed with Paul while crossing the Atlantic was, “You realize how very small you are.”
That realization may have come during the four gales he survived during the trip.
What was that like? “You are uncomfortable, he said. “Rough, you are tossed around a lot.”
With as straight a face as a good standup, Paul said, “It was a very well-built boat. That boat handled it a lot better than me. It was a risk analysis exercise.”
He survived and completed the journey, one he had always planned to accomplish. “I was 50, and said, ‘I’m going to do this.’ “I thought there wouldn’t have been any sea birds,” he remembered of seeing the birds at sea. “It was weird.”
Other creatures he recalled were the whales, jellyfish, flying fish (“I would check of a morning to see if any landed on the boat during the night and have them for breakfast.”)
The trip took seven months to reach England where his mother and a son still live.
Another adventure he once took was with his son when they rode bikes the entire length of Great Britain — 1,409.78 km (876 miles in American.)
They started the ride at Land’s End in Cornwall, England, and rode the distance to John O’ Groats in northeastern Scotland.
One can only imagine where his next adventure will take him.
Cheerio, Paul.
Photo by Larry Briscoe
Paul Nethercott of Dallas cooks his dinner over a sterno burner. The native-Englishman-transplanted-to-Texas enjoys a beans-and rice-mixture with tortillas. A sleeping bag waits under the stars and another bike ride on the morrow.