Laura, Jane and Roz - and lots of mud

We have just arrived in Grimbergen, which is much nicer than it sounds. And most importantly from our perspective is that it lies a mere 10 miles from Brussels. Tomorrow will be a relatively short stroll to our final destination. Funny how your perspective changes after getting used to 15-18 miles a day!

We are now sitting at our hotel hatching plans for our arrival. We have put the word out to anyone we know in Brussels, and our new best friend Frank has also notified the local media. He is here now – having handed out photocopied maps to show us exactly where we need to be and when, he and Alison are now engaged in a major debate on a whole spectrum of environmental issues, while Nora and Todd capture their animated discussion on camera.

While I am writing this blog to put out the word about tomorrow. We’d like to get as much coverage as we can. We’ve walked 250 miles to make a point about our desire for a sustainable future, and to urge global leaders to help enable this dream to come true. The more exposure we can get the better.

Tomorrow we will be walking (or hobbling, or limping!) into the small park at Schuman, proudly wearing our orange jackets and caps, and bearing our signed Earth Balls. We are hoping for a welcoming committee of journalists, TV crews, and people coming out to show their support for our cause.

If you happen to be in Belgium, or know anybody who lives here, please let them know about this happening and urge them to come along. The weather forecast is for dry conditions (phew!) and there will be 5 radiantly sunny (and relieved!) smiles to brighten up even the dullest afternoon.

So we hope to see a good bunch of people there. If we all pull together, we CAN save the world – one step/oarstroke at a time!

Other Stuff:

Please also check out Alison Gannett’s blog. She has loads of photos of our walk – plus an account of BB2B from her own unique perspective. To be honest, I haven’t had time to read it – would be interesting to find out how the view of an extreme skier differs from that of an ocean rower. I know she got a lot more excited about hills than I did!

Alison will be coming on to Copenhagen. We will be doing a joint presentation on the Climate Express on Saturday at 6pm, and have further plans to collaborate once we are at COP15.

Please also consider supporting her Kickstarter project. She is 94% of the way there, with 8 days to go!

“Come the revolution!” became the rallying cry during my retreat at the Gaia Partnership in Herefordshire last week. Just in case this gives the impression that the centre was a secret breeding ground for radical eco-warriors, let me clarify – we were actually a group of well-meaning, middle-class, middle-aged liberals who just happened to care more than average about the fate of this planet. But even among these moderate types there was a poweful sense of urgency about the need for a more sustainable way of life.

I had arrived at the retreat wanting to reconnect with my environmental mission. I had been reading back through the journals I wrote in 2004, when I first became aware, truly aware, of the disproportionate impact that humans are having on the Earth. In 2004 I’d had a burning mission to switch to a greener lifestyle, and to use such influence as I could to persuade others to do the same.

But somewhere along the way my passion for the cause had waned, and I had started to doubt what I could achieve alone. At times I even lost sight of this mission that had driven my decision to row oceans. It is all too easy, in all the hurly-burly of activity, to forget the original reason for all the busy-ness. I needed to have my faith restored, and to feel that I could make a difference. And it worked.

Through my long walks through the wintry countryside (pictured above), the easy live-ability of the eco-house where we were staying, and the passionate conversations with my fellow eco-retreaters, I was reminded that there is a huge and ever-expanding network of people all over the world who do care about the Earth, and that if we all pull together we really can have an impact. I left with renewed hope that we can still limit the damage we have inflicted on our beautiful planet home.

Our mentor for the week was the energetic and enthusiastic Elaine Brook – author, former mountaineer, and former wife of a Nepalese sherpa. You can see Elaine talking about her eco-house and the joys of one-planet living on YouTube. The retreat philosophy was a gentle blend of Buddhism, sustainable living, and Gaia Theory – which states that humans are part of an intricate web of life, subject to the same laws of nature as any other living being – and that we cannot break those laws and expect to get away with it in the long term.

I left Peterchurch full of passion and enthusiasm for the challenges of the year ahead. It is going to be a formative year – both personally and globally. Our future as a species looks increasingly uncertain, but I now have a renewed faith that if we pull together, we can save the world!