Marchers' blog

Happy news!

Demo: Today I was woken up by my mobile phone in a call from the Philippines from my wife.

She told me the most wonderful news that I'd been waiting a long time for: we're expecting our second baby!

However, my joy was tempered by a certain sadness - what's sort of future will my new child have?

What sort of future will all the children of the developing world in the face of climate change?

We left Wooler at 9am and are going to Alnwick starting our walk for climate justice.

The morning's news has given me renewed inspiration.

I am doing this walk because I don’t want to be blamed by my children that I did not do something to give them a wonderful place to live in.

Let us all do something in our own way to cut the carbon!

Into England

Angela: We set off from Eyemouth in Scotland for the border with England at the Ladykirk bridge in Norham. 

Having crossed the border, we were welcomed into England with wonderful Northumbrian hospitality.

In Norham, the lady with whom we stayed had a gorgeous fisherman’s cottage. It was on the main street, with a beautiful garden stretching back full of flowers and veggies.

We enjoyed some excellent stew and homegrown rhubarb in the evening.

We all spent wonderful evenings in people’s homes and have been very well fed, eating various local garden produce.

All in all, it’s been an excellent start to the north of England!

Make sure you join in by being part of our virtual march! 

Debating in Wooler

Angela: Having arrived in Wooler, we were excited to stay in the splendid youth hostel that was owned by the people of the town.

They gave us a wonderful, peaceful and comfortable break.

On the way to the evening meeting (via the town’s seven pubs and five churches) we also saw an excellent example of community social housing.

This community spirit became obvious when so many local people joined in our lively evening debate.

These words come from Cassia, who works for MST in Brazil: “Real change can only be achieved by people themselves”.

This sums up the evening for me beautifully.

The marchers on YouTube

You can find videos of the marchers on YouTube. Here's Dwijen Mallick filmed in Bangladesh just a couple of weeks ago talking about the impact of climate change. If you're a member of our Facebook group, please do share this video, the group and the blog on your profile - links below.

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Birthday girl

Risolat: Yesterday started with congratulations to me for my birthday. Everybody in our team wished me well and they gave me a postcard with all sorts of wishes.

One of them was ‘Now you’re an adult and you can go to the pub!’

I was celebrating my 18th birthday and so I decided I wanted to take on a big responsibility and lead the march.

At the beginning it was very successful and easy. At the middle of the route, I found that a risk assessment was not written in the correct way.

I was confused and it made the marchers confused too.

But at the end of the day, we safely reached our destination.  I then had a great timeto celebrating my birthday by walking on the beach by the North Sea.

Then everybody began congratulating me on my birthday again. It really felt like my birthday too.

We played different kinds of games (musical chairs, pass the parcel) - it was unforgettable. 

I had also got a birthday cake with 18 candles. I was surprised because I haven’t had candles since I was much younger.

Then we had a big party with Scottish, Spanish, Congolese and Portuguese dances! 

Talking to RBS

Mohamed: We had a very good talk with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in Edinburgh yesterday afternoon. We talked to them about the carbon they emit and how it is important for them to cut and report on their carbon emissions.

But what was most important was to tell them is that it’s not only the UK’s emissions but the lending decisions that they make that result in increased emissions in developing countries.

The fact that Britain emits about 2% of global emissions but when you take into account British businesses, including RBS, the UK’s emissions are 12-15 %.

I drew their attention to this fact.

We asked them to take responsibility for the lending decisions that they make.

They need to look after the environment.

The message was that they need to do something that will make the poor of the world happy.

I had marchers Fraser and Angela plus Andrew Pendleton from Christian Aid with me for the meeting.

We asked RBS for their support in lobbying the government to increase the reduction of the UK’s emissions from 60 to 80% by 2050 in the Climate Change Bill.

They said that they are committed to cutting their emissions.

We need to make our planet safer.

They have an opportunity to influence their clients positively and everyone to whom they lend money – for example the loans RBS makes to companies. So in our own small way, we the marchers are challenging UK businesses to cut their carbon.

Make sure you have a look at Merryn's blog for BBC Hereford and Worcester!

She's electric!

Liz (back-up van driver): Arriving in Troon it was great to discover the bed and breakfast which we booked online belongs to Val, the Christian Aid organiser for the start of the march.

We were a little nervous about driving at 3mph for two weeks in our electric vans which are being used as a back up for the marchers. We took them for a practice drive around the car park. They looked as if they had shrunk in the wash! We fitted our roof racks onto them with the background sound of bagpipes tuning up for the Sunday walk

But driving them turned out to be less scary than the midges! And marginally less scary than dancing ‘strip the willow’ in the church hall at Kilmarnock.

So far the vans have coped well and I’ve only had to beg a free charge for the van from one member of the public.

Overall my memories will be of awesome commitment by the marchers and incredible hospitality from our hosts.

Don't forget to join our virtual march. It's easy to do and there's no blisters involved! You can pick which city you want to start from and find out who else you're marching with.

Inverse Samson

Simon: I got up this morning, as most mornings, in a semi-zombiefied state. As a consequence of this, I decided it would be a great idea to let Rachel cut my hair.

To my surprise this developed into a scene of great activity with everyone sitting around watching Rachel cut my hair!

With my new found hair came a new found confidence, which led me to volunteer myself as the leader for the day. As leader, it was my responsibility to play with the walkie talkies and keep everyone safe on the march. Both of which I have managed to do adequately (so far).

We stopped for lunch at a lovely car park with the rain beating down on our heads. This was immensely pleasurable because a random tea guy had heard about us and gave us free tea and coffee. Whoooooooooo!!!

He said we were doing a great job and handed us some free biscuits. We gave him a thank you note for looking us after us and he said he said he would frame it!!

You can show your support for the march by taking part in our great shoelace petition. Email Gordon Brown now and tell him he needs to tackle the UK's carbon emissions.

An unfortunate incident

Mohamed: We left Cockenzie in the morning. We had a fantastic walk down to Haddington.

Lots of Christian Aid supporters walked with us. It was a very positive experience. It is great that they chose to campaign with us and take the Cut the Carbon message to their families, friends and other people.

We ended up in Haddington, where we had great hospitality from people. It was a nice opportunity to chat and we were also able to write to our families using the internet.

We were able to tell them what we are doing and the impact the march is having on the people we are interacting with. We finished the day with a meal at St Mary’s church. 

But yesterday something unfortunate also happened. I experienced racist remarks from a lady which was quite unexpected.

I chose to reach out to her and talk about the equality of man, irrespective of their skin colour. It gave me an opportunity to talk about the march and that climate change is an injustice in the developing world.

That particular experience was an eye opener for me that it is not only climate change we are fighting but injustice in all its forms.

We are individuals who have stepped out for justice on our rainbow planet and we are pursuing justice for all and to be secure in the future.

This is very important for me and all the members of the team. We are getting stronger in faith to pursue the march to the end.

Sunny through the rain

Simon: Marching through Edinburgh was extremely interesting. It was the wettest day so far and rather inconveniently the only day when I forgot my coat.

Fortunately I barely noticed the weather due to the fantastic singing on the way to the rally. I felt very sunny on the inside, even if I was wet on the outside.

When we got to the rally my spirits were lifted even higher by the fantastic music and the fact that people were there despite having to wear many many layers and coats. The bands were amazing.

I especially enjoyed Soweto Kinch – the perfect fusion between jazz and hip hop with a carbon theme! They even free-styled around the word ‘carbon’ and made a whole song about it.

The dancing reinforced my feeling of warmth and sunniness. All in all it was a lovely day until it finished and I eventually realised how wet and cold I really was.

Check out our photo gallery from the Edinburgh rally

Cutting carbon in the rain
Find out more about what happened on the day