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James and Rob White in Berkhamsted, ready to set off.

Square in Pamplona, Spain.
Watercolor by Ted Popple, 1909

Square in Pamplona, Spain.
Photo by James White, 2008

The Charm of Travel 100th Anniversary Tour

Media release, July 29, 2008

The Charm of Travel
100th Anniversary Tour

On July 31, 1908, a 29-year-old man from Berkhamsted, England, set off on an epic 700-mile bike journey that would take him to the Basque regions of France and Spain. When he returned, teacher and artist Ted Popple recorded his experiences in a handwritten book illustrated with his own enchanting watercolors. It was a remarkable trip for its time, yet the book lay forgotten for decades until it was rediscovered by his grandsons, James and Robert White.

Now, on July 31 2008 – exactly 100 years to the day of the original departure – the two brothers will set out from the same Berkhamsted street where Popple lived and replicate their grandfather’s unusual journey, along with two of his great grandchildren.
“The book is crammed with unusual incidents and acute observations of a long-vanished way of life,” says James White, who now lives in San Diego, CA.

“My grandfather travelled with the improbably-named Crawford Plenderleith, a friend from childhood who was also a native of Berkhamsted. They cycled in woollen tweeds in stifling heat along roads that were often no more than sandy tracks. Among other adventures, they encountered bands of travelling entertainers, were attacked by dogs, got lost in a cave system and met an English authoress in exile in the high Pyrenees.

“Our aim is to recreate the original journey … with a modern slant. Our bikes will have gears (which were unknown to the Edwardian cyclist) and weigh half as much. And we won’t be wearing tweeds. Like my grandfather we’ll cycle to London. But he took a boat train en route to Bordeaux, the French starting point of the trip; we’re going by Eurostar. Instead of setting up an easel to paint a scene, we intend to take digital photos and video of those same scenes.”

Popple and Plenderleith’s 700-mile route took them along the Atlantic Coast to the Spanish city of San Sebastian, before turning inland to go to Pamplona and then over the Pyrenees to Lourdes. James and Rob intend not only to follow the same route but also to stay in the same hostelries their grandfather frequented a century before, where they still exist.