The Fife coastal path connects the firths of Forth and Tay and takes in some of the country’s finest seaside villages, seascapes and the home of a famous literary castaway
Standing in a Scottish seaside village, I am confronted by two smart red doors and a curious figure standing in a niche above them: a man, one hand clutching a staff, the other shading his eyes as he gazes out to sea. There’s a flintlock pistol in his belt and he’s dressed in tattered rags. Is it a tribute to locals who survived a night out in Kirkcaldy? No, there is a weathered plaque that I can just read: “In memory of Alexander Selkirk, mariner, the original of Robinson Crusoe …”
This is the site of a cottage where Selkirk was born in 1676. And suddenly a long-forgotten melody starts to play in my head, a sweeping lyrical tune that I haven’t heard in half a century. It’s shocking to discover what treasure lies forgotten between my ears, this being the theme from The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a German television series that was aired in the UK at the time of the Apollo 11 moon landings (and repeatedly until 1982). From the moment I saw it, I gave up plans to be an astronaut and decided to travel the world instead.
