1157 miles, 2 bikes, 4 tired legs and £1200

Just a massive, massive thank you to everyone that donated to the WormPower project, raising money for SiKanda, a fantastic organization in Oaxaca, Mexico, that work with people who live and work on the municipal rubbish dump.

Thanks to your generosity, we managed to raise £1,200 for SiKanda, which actually works out at just over £1 per mile: surpassing our original target!

This money will pay for worm composting units and training for every family on the basurero (rubbish dump), as well as for related educational materials about waste for schools.

If you’d like to keep in touch with developments in SiKanda’s work and the lives of the people on the basurero, please join SiKanda’s Facebook group.

 

 

Heat, hills and hospitality

12 days of cycling and 12 days of consecutive sunshine. I was almost tempted to post the waterproofs home, but then I remembered we’re now heading to Scotland. We’ve now cycled up through Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, along the Welsh borders, into the North West, across the Mersey (not literally) and on to Preston, and we’re not even half way. (Yes, Scotland is bigger than you think!)

The beautiful weather, the glorious English countryside, and the amazing generosity of friends and strangers have kept us going through the tired legs and at times relentless hill climbs. We have been completely overwhelmed by people’s hospitality: having twice found ourselves stuck in strange towns with nowhere to stay (because of fully booked campsites and B&Bs) only to be taken in by strangers, given beds, gardens to camp in, hot showers, hearty breakfasts, even a free and extremely high quality meal in THIS fabulous pub in Dulverton, in support of the cause.

After a much needed rest day, holing up with wonderful friends on the South Blackpool coast,  we’re now raring to hit the road and face the hills of Cumbria and Scotland. Please, please keep that support coming in – there’s still a long, long way to go to John O’Groats. Your solidarity – with us and with the pepenadores of Oaxaca – keeps us pedaling on.

Gracias a todos!

Just a quick update firstly to thank everyone for their amazing generosity and solidarity with the pepenadores of the municipal rubbish dump in Oaxaca: the original target of £1,000 has now been reached, meaning thousands of tiny worms will soon be chomping their way through all that lovely organic waste to produce the fertilizer that will give many Mexican families a life-changing new micro-enterprise.

But there are many, many more things to do. The families live in extremely unsanitary housing, many made from materials pulled from the tip. They suffer from a range of infirmities that they don’t have the resources to fight. SiKanda are therefore trying to raise funds so the families can build sanitary and dignified housing for the families. The houses are affordable and accessible as they utilize an ingenious technique that compresses Tetra-Pak to make the walls. See a quick video here.  We’re now aiming to kick off this housing project by raising enough money to build a house for one of the families. Please help us reach this new target by donating here.

Please keep your support coming in – it’s really powering us on!

Unleash the Worm!

After a stimulating and thought-provoking weekend at the Transition Towns conference in Devon, we hopped back on the beautiful London-Penzance line, which meanders along the South Devon and Cornwall coast, providing mass transport for armies of pensioners to install themselves in their summer cottages.

We arrived at the end of the line in time for a brisk and blustery 8-mile ride across Cornish moors to base camp -  a tantalisingly delightful taster of what we hope will follow. After a few weeks of fairly frantic preparation and anticipation it feels wonderful to be actually doing it. Alll the things we forgot, all the “essential” kit we don’t have, all the training we didn’t do, all the work we didn’t finish off, suddenly feels far less important. Now all that matters is the road, our legs and raising a truck load of cash.

So, really, a million trillion thankyous to the amazingly generous people that have got us to within spitting distance of our target before we’ve even pedalled a mile. It’s so tempting to just hang out on a Cornish beach for 3 weeks and wire the money to Mexico. Seriously, don’t think we haven’t thought of it. But I guess that’s not really how this works. Now we actually have to do it, right? Right. Well, tally-ho then. It really is a strange thought to know that we are now at the furthest corner of the island and we have to get to the furthest opposite corner, with just our legs. Under our own steam, sweat and blisters.

And for those that haven’t donated – we’re not there yet. There’s currently enough money to get us close – but not all the way. As it stands we’d be stranded somewhere on the remote, midgy infested highlands of Scotland, within a haggis throw of the finish but without enough Irn-Bru to get us over over the line. (sorry foreigners, I know none of you will get these jokes, but don’t worry – they’re not very funny.) So, come on – let’s hit that target. And then lets see what else we can do.

Power to the worms! Show your soldarity:

DONATE HERE

One week ’til WormPower

In one week’s time the Great Worm-Powered UK Cycle Expedition will commence!

2 of us will ride 1000 miles on a bicycle – from Land’s End (the most South Westerly tip of the UK) to John O’Groats (the most North Easterly tip) – to raise 1000 pounds for a wonderfully wormy project in Oaxaca, Mexico.

SiKanda, an organization based at the Hub in Oaxaca, supports young people who work off the municipal rubbish dump, subsisting from the handpicking and selling of recyclable solid waste.

They have developed with the young people an ingenious project that uses worm composting to turn that waste into lovely, yummy fertilizer and then into a new source of income for the families. These worms will help them give them new skills, confidence, economic independence and help the young people take a big step towards working themselves out of the rubbish and on to a better life.

Find out more about the project here and then…

DONATE HERE!

PS. Worms need house! Can you support the expedition in a very material way and lend two small cycling worms a tent?! Get in touch if you can!