Today I can reveal a bit more about my project for this summer. We are calling it TrashMobs – like flash mobs, but more trashy. It is going to involve me traveling around Britain by kayak and bicycle, pulling into a town each night to do a beach cleanup. All will be welcome to join me, and we’ll be publishing a map and schedule on the TrashMobs website – once it exists.

Climate Ride 2009

I will also be gathering signatures on an e-petition. Under UK law, if an e-petition gathers at least 100,000 signatures, it is eligible to be debated in the House of Commons. I am still finalising the wording of the petition, with input from a fantastic team of advisers and meetings with government staff, and it will be some form of call to dramatically reduce the amount of single-use plastics ending up in landfill and in the oceans.

The petition wording has been an interesting exercise. There is no point working hard to get the signatures if the petition itself is flawed – for example, if it asks the UK government to impose policies that restrict trade in breach of the Treaty of Rome. I’ve also had to do a lot of research to find out what European Union directives are already in force, because I don’t want to ask the government to do something less than they have already committed to do. So it gets complicated.

At the same time, we are working out my route around the country. For the kayaking legs, we have to find out where there are suitable put-ins and take-outs. For cycling, I’m trying to avoid the worst of the hills! And alongside that we need to make sure that each night I end up somewhere that we can feasibly hold a cleanup of beach or waterway. Luckily, I have exactly the right woman for the job – Jane “Mrs Maps” Hornsby, who was our intrepid navigator for the hike from Big Ben to Brussels in 2009.

Approximate cycle route from John O'Groats to Lands End

The plan at the moment is this:

mid-May to mid-July: kayak up the East Coast from London to John O’Groats

mid-July to mid-August: cycle from John O’Groats to Lands End

mid-August to mid-September: kayak along the South Coast from Lands End back to London

Note: I have applied to Yale for a one-semester postgrad program which would start in August. I will find out in March/April whether or not I have got a place. There is great competition for places, so it is far from certain if I will be one of the lucky few. If I am successful, TrashMobs will take a break and be continued next year.

I have hesitated to reveal to much, too soon. Like many of my grander schemes it has undergone some changes since its conception as I’ve explored the feasibility of both the expedition and campaigning aspects of the project. My ideas tend to be ambitious, which is no bad thing, but then they run slap bang into reality and need some modification in order to stand any chance of success. I thank you for your patience during this process. I will keep you posted just as soon as new developments are ready to be announced.

Meanwhile, I have some things that I will need help with, and would like to put the word out to my wonderful Rozlings. I’m not quite ready to give you all the information you need, but maybe you can start thinking about these things:

For people in (or who have friends in) Britain:

- people to kayak/cycle with me

- people to organise and/or take part in beach cleanups

- signatures on our e-petition (UK residents only)

- accommodation and dinners en route

- people who live on and know the coast to give advice on put-ins, take-outs, tides, mudflats, etc

And things that you can help me with no matter where in the world you are:

- graphic design – I need someone to help devise a logo for TrashMobs. Looking for something fun and eye-catching to go on publicity materials, information packs, website, stickers, etc.

- sorry, but as always, I will need funds. We are trying to raise around £50,000  ($78,000) to cover the cost of PR services, support driver, support vehicle, fuel, food, information packs, and start/finish events. Don’t donate yet – we might be doing a Kickstarter project, and/or I still need to figure out how to reward our supporters. I want to make sure you get something in return. So hold onto your pennies, and await further information!

Other Stuff:

Erin and her husband Hig

Watch out later today for a special guest blog on this site from Erin McKittrick of Ground Truth Trekking. It’s a beautifully written piece about her home state of Alaska, and why she and her husband go on epic expeditions to spread awareness and appreciation of its flora and fauna, emphasising how much is at stake if Alaska is allowed to be developed with no regard for its natural beauty and diversity.

An interview with me has just appeared on The Departures Board as part of their Seven Wonders series.

About 2 days after I asked you to vote for Al Humphreys in this year’s People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year award, they closed the voting. Sorry about that! We will now have to wait until the end of February to find out who has won.

Yesterday I went gig rowing here in Calstock, Cornwall. It was all rather strange and new. I was in a skiff, which has three rowers – an odd number, which did indeed seem odd to me. The bow rower (me) has one oar, the stern rower has one oar, and the person in the middle has two. Only the middle rower has buttons on their oars – the bow and stern rowers have to try not to let the oar slide in or out too far, as there is no button to hold it in place in the oarlock. The oar is round, not square, where it passes through the oarlock, which is also round – so the rower has to control the squaring and feathering much more than I am accustomed to. You hold the oar handle with the outside hand palm up, and the inside hand palm down. You pull the handle into your armpit rather than your rib cage. And there is no sliding seat, just a bench. Overall, I enjoyed it, but some aspects of it did seem gratuitously difficult. I am a big fan of squarish oars in squarish oarlocks. It saves a lot of strain on the forearms. But whatever its quirks, it was a seriously good workout. After 15 minutes I was knackered!

These guys show how it should be done. This isn’t a skiff, it’s a gig, I think – but please correct me if I’m wrong.

Wishing you a very happy New Year. How is it treating you so far? Well, I hope.

Calstock in Cornwall, my current residence (photo taken from railway viaduct)

My new year has been exciting, but not in a bloggable kind of a way. I’ve been busy working on my plans for this summer’s expedition and making revisions to my Pacific book, but neither of those things are very interesting to report. And I’m increasingly a believer that if I don’t have something interesting to say, best not to say anything at all. There is enough noise in this world already without me adding gratuitous verbiage.

However, I am now ready to start revealing some details of this summer’s plan. Some background first: in early December I was due to have a meeting at the Houses of Parliament with Marcus and Anna from 5Gyres; Mike, Trish and Andrea from Greener Upon Thames, Ed Scott-Clarke of Plastic Shores, and Zac Goldsmith MP. We were having a pre-meeting at Wesley’s Cafe under Methodist Central Hall (most fitting for somebody of my parentage) and were discussing how there seemed to be a fast-growing awareness of the problems with plastic bags, and even if we didn’t manage to make the Olympics plastic-bag-free, there may well be scope for a broader campaign.

[Note: the latest letter from the London 2012 Organizing Committee shows a partial victory for our campaign: plastic bags have not been banned from the Olympics, but according to the letter "LOCOG has been very clear that it will not, under any circumstances, use single-use carrier bags. It will also not permit the use of oxo-degradable plastics (for example, materials which are degradable through the use of additives) or compostable biopolymers, which can find their way into the household waste stream." Not as much as we'd hoped for, but better than nothing.]

A clue as to my plans: kayaking a couple of weeks ago near St David's in Wales

I carelessly mentioned that I had been thinking about doing a human-powered circumnavigation of Britain in 2013, but maybe I could bring it forward to 2012 and tie it in with a countrywide campaign on the perils of plastic. Everybody jumped at the idea.

So now, dammit, I was going to have to do it.

Since then I have been hard at work. I have had input from a huge range of fantastic people – politicians, environmentalists, grassroots campaigners, NGOs, and town councillors, cyclists and kayakers. The plans for both the campaign and the physical adventure have undergone several metamorphoses, but finally a clear strategy is beginning to emerge.

There is still much to do, but I am very nearly ready to announce my plans. More details as soon as I have something to show you.

Other Stuff:

I am doing some presentations for National Geographic in the US in February: in Phoenix, Arizona, on 8th and 9th Feb, and in Dallas on 21st Feb. Tickets available online. I’ve been working with the Google Earth team on a very cool new multimedia presentation, combining video and photos with Google Earth animations that whisk you around the world along the track of my boat. Big thanks to Sean Askay and the rest of the team.

It’s voting time again for the People’s Choice National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. Please vote for my friend Al Humphreys, and while you’re at it, check out his website, his A to Z of London eating, and his current expedition across the Atlantic. Go, Al!

With Nick and Toby before the start of the race

Speaking of ocean rowing, huge congratulations to Nick and Toby of Box Number 8 for a well-deserved victory in this year’s Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. After a nail biting race in which 6 boats were forced to retire and Box Number 8 traded lead position with JJ the whole way across, Nick and Toby’s win was a testament to thorough preparation and a gutsy performance. And all for a fantastic cause, too: Shelterbox deliver survival crates to disaster areas around the world.

The podcast has been ticking along, even during my blog silence. Thank you, Vic Phillipson!

Thanks also to all who have been supporting me as I prepare for this year’s adventure: as well as the usual suspects named above, also Jane Hornsby, Angela Hey, Dianna Cohen of Plastic Pollution Coalition, Andy Cummins of Surfers Against Sewage, Jane Davidson, Tom Burke, Chris Rose of Campaign Strategy, James Greyson of Blindspot, Aimee Devine, Emily Utter, Helen Hammond of Elephant Creative, Julie Church of UniquEco, Helen Webb at SeaChangers, Rosie Tudge, Rick Hyman, David Church, Andy Middleton, Jeff Allen and Simon Osborne of Sea Kayaking Cornwall, round-Britain cyclist Anna Hughes, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and Jonathan Griffin of National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

St Mawes Castle, built by Henry VIII circa 1545. The curator gave me the creeps telling me about the ghosts he had encountered there.

Thanks also to Mike and Chris for letting me stay at their seafront flat in St Mawes (spectacular views!), and to Jo for the use of her lovely house in Calstock, Cornwall, while I work on my book.

Congrats to The Underwater Realm for smashing through their fundraising target on Kickstarter. I emailed a few friends on their behalf, and feel proud to have played a small part in their success – although when you see what they are up to, I think you’ll agree that the success was well-deserved. I can’t wait to see the films. Thanks to all who supported them – nearly 1,000 backers in all!

Last weekend I did a filmmaking course run by those two amazing women, Franny and Lizzie of The Age of Stupid (a Spanner Films production). The course focused less on the mechanics of filmmaking and more on how to crowdsource a project and  use a film to change the world. Lots of anecdotes about the making of Stupid, largely revealing just how damned hard those two women worked to make it all happen. Every time they encountered an obstacle, they just found a way around it. Tremendously inspiring, and I wish them all continued success with the 10:10 campaign to combat climate change.

Sunset in St Mawes

Sedna should be on the move soon, after an embarrassingly prolonged stay on the lawn of the Grand Baie Yacht Club in Mauritius. With a bit of luck, she will be on exhibit in the UK later this year – details coming as soon as confirmed.

I have just been invited to narrate my book for Audible. We are still working out the details, but hopefully it will include genuine snippets of audio from my ocean footage. I will keep you posted!

Phew, that was a lot of “Other Stuff”!

Finally and most importantly, it is my Mum’s birthday on Sunday. Join me in wishing her a very special day, and all the absolute best for the year ahead. No more broken legs!