Help us help Rewild Britain - LEJOG naked cycle!

This summer we're cycling Lands End to John O'Groats, naked, to spread the message Rewild Britain. 4 of us, two going North to South, 2 going the other way. 

We're raising money for charities, Rewild Britain and MIND 

The just giving page for donations is www.justgiving.com/team/freewilders 

We're inviting people to join us along the route, route to be shared soon! 

This Gofundme is to help us cover the cost of equipment such as gopro cameras so we can share our experiences.

Rewilding is a progressive approach to conservation and is about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repairing damaged ecosystems and restoring degraded landscapes. Through rewilding, wildlife's natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats.

We will be raising money for 2 charities, Rewild Britain and a mental health charity (yet to be decided). 

I'm Colin. I'm starting at John O Groats and cycling South with Sadie. Going the other way is Hannah and Neil. Our challenge is to do the whole journey clothes free and get as much publicity for it as possible.. But this gofundme plea is just for Sadie and I. More on that later!

I'm a wild food and mushroom forage leader and green woodworker and Sadie has gone back to uni to study wildlife conservation at Salford. My "thing" is nature connections, I take people out under my business name Forest Horizons and we go into wild places and I teach folk how to forage for food and wild edible mushrooms. I also run the UK's largest social media mushroom focused group on Facebook, Mushroom Spotters UK. Understanding our woodlands and how species connect gives people a new understanding of the nature around them and their role in it. The format is a taste of a wild gin made with foraged ingredients, followed by the forage and then a fry up. What's not to like! :D

I've also been part of the body freedom movement for a long time, I believe that society damages people with this ingrained belief that there is something shameful under our clothes. We feel that there is nothing more humiliating and ridiculing than being stripped of our clothes.. But why? We're all human and alive, and that's to be celebrated!

I've also, in my career, been a cycle instructor working to promote bicycles as a viable mode of transport and a utility vehicle. I've taught thousands of children to cycle safely on the roads, I taught new cycle instructors, I taught adult on road safety courses, and I wrote and delivered a successful HGV periodic driver training cycle awareness course delivered in Manchester.

So, for me, this challenge ticks all my boxes, it brings all my beliefs together in a really exciting challenge!

Sadie is also a wild food forager and her escape is to be clothes free in nature. She's also a social naturist and has an unusual take on social anxieties.. She suffers with anxieties, but says that when she's naked she feels few of them. It's as if wearing clothes is like wearing layers of societies pressures and expectations and taking them off is a relief. Interestingly, there has been a huge rise in naturism during the pandemic and a few studies about the benefits of being clothes free and mental health and I think that Sadie's experience links with the roots of this.

We want to document this journey, calling at Rewilding places along the route and tapping into the network of activists and supporters along the way for food and accommodation. We are going to take about 3-4 weeks to complete the challenge. It can be done in 11 or 12 days, but we want a journey not a dash.

Sadie and I don't have savings and we'll not earn during this time, and ideally we would like some equipment so that we can document the whole thing. Go pro cameras to catch the public's reactions and our interactions.

Heading in the other direction, going South to North, are Hannah and Neil. But they are doing a dash, aiming for a 12 day trip. Also, they aren't looking for funds.. Neil is a banker and is funding his part himself. Hang on.. A banker? Rewilding?! Neil is a believer in rewilding. He says that returning to nature and natural environments is his de-stress and unwind. Fast paced city life is not what any of us are designed for! I think that he represents the establishment and that is a good thing for our cause :D

So, back to me and Sadie...

I hope that my figure is correct.. And I'm not being too modest. If this fund is successful we will be able to get the equipment we want and really get the message out.

Thank you so much for reading so far. I hope our challenge inspires you and maybe you'll join in... We are inviting supporters to ride with us for sections of the route, clothed or unclothed. It's gong to be fun!

I will update with a website (hopefully!) but in the meantime look is up on Facebook, our page is called "Free Wilders".

We've not built the website yet, but here is our Facebook page 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077340402222

Thank you :)

Colin.

Photo courtesy of our very good friend Mart from Martin Williams Photo Images