Verse 1
We left the streets of Swindon,
With the morning rolling west,
Two and a half hours of England,
And the road would do the rest.
Then the hedges climbed around us,
Devon opened green and wide,
Till the land ran out at Croyde Bay,
And we met the other side.
Chorus
Two and a half hours away,
And the world has changed somehow,
There’s an ocean at my feet,
And it can’t quite reach me now.
Baggy Point against the skyline,
Seagulls turning white and grey,
Funny how the world looks different,
Two and a half hours away.
Verse 2
There’s a rhythm in the water,
As it rolls across the sand,
Something older than our worries,
Something we don’t understand.
Hear the shingle move beneath it,
Hear the breakers rise and fall,
Atlantic breathing on the shoreline,
Like it’s speaking to us all.
Chorus
Two and a half hours away,
And the world has changed somehow,
There’s an ocean at my feet,
And it can’t quite reach me now.
Baggy Point against the skyline,
Seagulls turning white and grey,
Funny how the world looks different,
Two and a half hours away.
Verse 3
Walk the headland up to Baggy,
Where the cliffs meet open sky,
Watch the gulls hang on the west wind,
Without ever asking why.
Far beyond, the great Atlantic,
Runs to places we can’t see,
While below, the little breakers,
Write their names upon the sea.
Verse 4
Behind us lie the Devon fields,
Ahead, the endless blue,
Croyde is tucked beneath the headland,
Like a picture painted new.
And somewhere east is Swindon,
With the things we had to do,
But they seem a lifetime distant,
When the western sky comes through.
Bridge
We’ve travelled roads much longer,
We’ve chased tomorrow too,
Thinking somewhere in the distance
There’d be something bright and new.
But perhaps the things worth finding
Were never far away—
A hand to hold, a sea to watch,
And time enough to stay.
Quiet Chorus
Two and a half hours away,
Hear the evening settling down,
Only gulls above the water,
Only waves the loudest sound.
Baggy Point turns dark against it,
As the daylight slips away,
And I wonder why we travel far—
For what’s two and a half hours away.
Final Verse
Tomorrow we’ll turn eastward,
And the Atlantic stays behind,
Back across the hills of Devon,
To the life we left in mind.
But I’ll take the sound of Croyde Bay,
And that great horizon grey,
For sometimes all the world you need
Is two and a half hours away.
Final Chorus
Two and a half hours away,
Where the land gives way to sea,
Where the gulls ride over Baggy Point,
And the wind blows wild and free.
Let the Atlantic keep on rolling,
Let tomorrow wait a day—
I’ve found a little piece of heaven,
Two and a half hours away.
Lyrics Michael Forty
Voice Michael Forty