Because It Is There: A Zero Emissions Odyssey

I’ve just returned from a brief training trip up in the Peak District with my friends Pye and Adi. We spent around 36 hours trekking across Kinder Scout, spent a night under the stars and then a trek back across Kinder Scout to the car. I pretty much summed up the whole trip in a sentence but it was a little more difficult than it reads.

After arriving a little late, we reached the top well after our targeted time. After checking the map, we decided to make the short 2.5 mile dash across the open moorland. This wouldn’t have been a problem normally, but what we staring out over was a frozen ‘wonderland’. The snow was 3-4 foot deep in some places which slowed our progress down considerably. We, but especially me (due to the purposely overloaded pack), would sink through the snow after only a few steps, so much of the time was spent struggling to pull ourselves out on to more solid snow. We reached the woodland we intended to sleep in just before dark which gave us ample time to set up our shelters and hammocks.

The next day we set off once again for several hours of yet again more trekking through deep snow after a quick breakfast of sausages (cheers Pye) and a quick Q&A in front of the camera.

The route on the way back to the start point was a longer walk with a long slow accent to the top where we tucked into a well deserved lunch overlooking Manchester and Stockport. Then it was back to the arctic-esqe moorland for more difficult trekking through deep snow. We reached the descent just as the sun set, so spent the next hour navigating our way down a steep gorge over ice and rock – not the most safest of things to do but great fun!

Now that the weekend is over i have no other overnight training trips until i leave. The leaving date is coming around very quickly and the next couple of weeks will be a desperate search for a bit more funding and the last couple of bits of equipment.

This saturday i will be heading to the Lakes for a full day first aid course which has very kindly been donated to me by the guys over at Fieldskills. Hopefully there won’t be any call to use what they teach me but it certainly helps to have the skills handy.

With only a few weeks until i leave i’ve been stepping up the amount of training i’m doing for the expedition. Training is of course essential for an expedition but it can get rather boring seeing the same old sights day in, day out. I’ve been looking at different ways to train that would ’spice’ things up a little. Here are a few things i came up with.

- Walk the Pennine Way. I quite fancy walking the Pennine Way, well, part of it. The last section of the route goes through the Peak District, which is a short drive from my house. The route take me straight through the center of some of the wilder parts of the peak district.

- Kayak/ Canoe in the Highlands. I love the Scottish Highlands. To me, there is no better place to train than the highlands, specifically the west highlands. It’s always been a dream of mine to find a canoe or kayak, pack my tent, sleeping bag and some food and head off for a few days exploring various lochs and islands up the coast.

- Bivvy Bag challenge. I came across the 84km Bivvy Challenge website a few months ago and promised myself i would do it before i leave. The idea is to start from your house and head out for 48 hours, covering a distance of 84km, sleeping in a Bivvy and finishing back at your start point.

- The Disused Railway. I’ve noticed, when i’m out training on my bike,  an old disused railway track. I don’t know where it goes or how long it takes but i like the idea of grabbing my pack, a couple of days of food and just setting off walking.

- Do Nothing. I know it may sound a little strange but i had the idea of doing nothing as part of my training. To be precise, i’d head out to a patch of woodland or moorland, pitch my tent and stay there for 48 hours. No iPod, no book, no contact with the outside world, nothing. Just me, my camera(s) and a notebook.

Why don’t you let me know if you have an idea for something i could do as part of my training.

I’ve been thinking recently about ways i can travel through certain areas of the world where there’s a little too much water for cycling. I found this video whilst doing a little research and it certainly whets my appetite!

I’ve just returned from a weekend in London where i was very kindly donated a stand at Adventure Travel Live. In between nipping off to catch talks from some of the UK’s leading adventurer’s i managed to chat to some very nice people (some of whom i hope are now reading this blog). The showed also afforded me the opportunity to have chat’s with various people including a hero of mine and patrons of the expedition, Benedict Allen, who managed to spare 5 minutes for a quick chat before having to rush to meetings. I also spoke with Ed Wardle, of  Alone in the Wild fame, and Stephen Lord who is the author of the Cycle touring ‘bible‘, a must for anyone considering a cycling expedition.

I had a few enquiries regarding the situation with funding during the show. The situation is not good and some people have very kindly offered donations for the expedition. As requested i have put up a Individual Sponsors page, should you wish to make a donation. Also, if you or your company would like to get involved with the expedition then please feel free to drop me an email requesting a sponsorship proposal and i’ll send one over.

The idea of spending months on bobbing around on the ocean as you propel yourself very slowly across a stretch of water isn’t really my idea of fun, in fact, if truth be told, it’s my idea of a nightmare (not that i’d never try it!). That’s why i find expeditions like Roz Savage’s expeditions and Golden Gate Endeavour extremely entertaining.

I met the father of either Mick or Chris from the Golden Gate Endeavor (i forgot which one) at Cycleshow 09 last month and he was telling me all about the expedition and i’ve been following there blog since. Check it out here.

Having just read a post by Tom aka The Hungry Cyclist on Painting and Cycle Touring it got me thinking about the promise i made myself when i started planning this trip. A year ago i finished a degree in Digital Animation, a course that included animation (obviously), film making but also drawing classes. I never excelled in the drawing classes (or in the animation for that matter) if truth be told, but i made a promise to myself, after leaving, that i would continue to sketch every now and again to build up my skills to a level where i was quite satisfied. This never happened. I’ve been way too busy with everything else, so the only sketching i have done is little doodling on a scrap piece of paper whilst on the phone and i’ve put my little promise to the back of my mind.

Then i found this.

It’s a sketch/painting done by this guy just after Michael Jackson’s death. This image reignited my interest in Art and got me thinking about what a sketchbook would look like after a 3 year expedition through different parts of the world, experiencing different cultures and meeting many interesting people. I realized the expedition gave me the perfect chance to get back into Art. So i decided, throughout the expedition, i would try to make one entry into my journal each day (something that i had already decided on) and one sketch in my sketchbook each day. The sketch’s don’t have to be anything special, they can be a simple as a 3 minute sketch of an animal or person to try and capture their movements perfectly or a quick sketch of the view from my tent, but if time/energy/willingness permits i will try and do something a little more elaborate. And of course i will be using the sketchbooks provided by Moleskine

After months of contacting various studios and getting nowhere fast i can now officially announce that i have a found a production company willing and able (and perhaps crazy) to take on the challenge of helping me to document my expedition in the form of documentary film. Over the next 3 years i will be working closely with the Producer/Director Sandra Skibsted and the production company Fact not Fiction Films in bringing my experiences to the big screen for all to see. It’s been an ambition of mine, as anybody who knows me well enough will testify, to be part of making a film of some way, shape or form…i just didn’t think I’d be the ’star’.

This does however cause a problem in terms of my leaving date which was originally supposed to be the end of this month. Due to pre-production, the trip will be pushed back a couple (or a few) months. Although this is a little frustrating, as I’ve been building up to this point for a while now, it’s all worth it in the long run in my eyes.

So what will i be doing in the next few months to make use of my time? Well, as well as filming bits and pieces of training, i will also be fundraising for the trip, working on my photography skills, trying to get as much media coverage as possible and i will also be undertaking a 2 or 3 Micro Adventures (examples here and here) to try and sedate my wanderlust.