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I well remember 1967 (hang on, this is 2001). I remember it because I had passed my driving test the year before, hadn't yet bought a car, but my father had told me I could borrow his and drive to London Airport and watch the start of the RAC Rally. Only I didn't. It wasn't that he changed his mind but the 1967 RAC Rally was cancelled at the last minute because of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) among livestock.

2001 and we had another, far more serious outbreak which, if you read to the end of this, actually meant I did have to drive somewhere again. Foot and Mouth Disease is a severe and easily transmitted disease among cattle, pigs, sheep and goats and can affect other animals who have a cloven hoof. This includes deer, antelope, elephants and giraffe.

The disease doesn't necessarily kill the infected animal but that animal, if it recovers, can then carry the virus and infect others. The only way to be certain to stop the disease spreading is to stop any movement of animals and to kill those that are affected on the same day that the infection is found and then burn and bury the bodies as soon as possible. However, the disease can also be spread by people walking through the fields where infected animals have grazed and carry traces of the virus on their shoes. It can also be spread on car tyres that become infected.

On 19 February 2001 a routine inspection at an abattoir in Essex found signs of FMD in 27 pigs. By 21 February all exports of live animals, meat and dairy products were banned by the government. Then the disease began to spread all over the country. People were told to avoid farmland to stop the disease spreading further. On 24 February the first mass killing of animals on eight farms in England took place.

By 8 March, the number of outbreaks reached 106. Local elections, due to be held in May, were cancelled, but these, and a general election, took place on June 7. By 19 August, the epidemic had been going on for 6 months and 3,750,222 animals had been slaughtered. The following month the number of confirmed cases reached 2,000. Eventually, at the end of September 2001 what turned out to be the final cases were found in Cumbria. By 2002 Britain could officially declare the country was free from FMD.

Apart from the massive loss to the farming community, the epidemic was estimated to have lost £250 million for the tourist industry. Pictures were transmitted around the world of whole areas of burning cattle; their bodies were burned after they were slaughtered. News media in other countries showed these pictures and prospective tourists changed their mind on coming to visit Britain.

And this is why I made my third trip around the English coast. An American tourism magazine, having somehow found out about my earlier trips, contacted me and asked if I would quickly repeat my coastline trip, take loads of pictures, write a few articles, so that they could show American tourists that, in places, England was still a green and pleasant land or, as I was going to travel the coast, a blue, yellow and in places white, land.

I agreed and with my 9 year old son, who had been 3 on my second trip, and a friend, set off. We hired a motorhome, left on June 24 and finished a complete tour around the English coastline by 20 July. It was pretty weird. A different campsite each night, photos to take, notes to make and probably driving about 200 miles a day. I have no idea if my subsequent pieces made any difference and I can't ask as the magazine is no longer printed. Oh, and this time the entire British Rally Championship season was cancelled, not just one rally.

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