The Beginning!

Its 11 o clock at night and we're setting off tomorrow!!!!!
Me and Claire have been manically thinking about things we have yet to do and probably will not do!
Oh well...
10 o clock from Cleeve Hill means a very early start because we're in Cold Aston right now.
SO: Claire has to drag me out of bed...
....then it's loading ourselves with mucho porridge...
....then loading up our bikes....
....then a cycle up to the top of Cleeve Hill... and then we can start!

Wish us luck!

Love Matt And Claire
X

hi everyone!

we are free from exams, and recovered (involved wineing and dining in edinburgh). we have returned home to cycle cycle cycle, write lots of thank you letters and get the last bits and bobs really for our epic journey!

as you can see we have raised even more money for wateraid....but still have a wee way to go!

thats it for the moment...weather is lovely i keep waking up to the wonderful sun shine and want to jump striaght on my bicycle, matt has to keep reminding me we have lots to do this week and there is lots of cycling to come!

Breaking the circle

Thanks to everyone who's helped us get past the half-way mark for our fundraising. £1501 could provide 60 households in Burkina Faso with a loo!

It might seem like nothing, but a toilet really is something special, people! While you and I take it for granted to some extent (except, admittedly, when your out and about and suddenly really need a wee, and the public toilets need a twenty pence piece but all you've got are coppers...), over TWO AND A HALF BILLION PEOPLE do not have a toilet. And when people don't have a loo, well they have no choice but to do the best they can, digging a hole or something. And then when the rains come all the you-know-what can be washed into water courses, so polluting water supplies and spreading disease... and bringing poverty... and so the circle of poverty goes on... and on......

Together we're helping to break this vicious circle: more toilets = less going to the loo willy-nilly = fewer polluted water supplies = less disease = healthier people more able to make a living = less poverty... it can only get better!

And all for one of these -

Thanks everyone!
Please keep it coming. After all we're only half-way!
Oh yeah and I hope you enjoyed reading our blog... please comment on the posts because that means more people will find us!

Matt x

Why?

So where did this crazy plan come from?

It all started last summer, when me and Claire drove to Italy, stopping off en route at lovely European destinations (see evidence, right). We started pondering about our next trip (as you do).Claire decided we needed to visit an Arabic-speaking country in order to ignite my passion for the language (since I was about to start a degree in it) and Morocco was duly decided upon as the ideal destination.

We had an amazing time driving through Europe, camping all the way (so it was fairly cheap) and it made us realise you really don't need to fly in order to go somewhere exotic on holiday. We decided not to fly again, and go one better by cycling to our holiday destination next time in order to cut our carbon footprint almost completely (except for the ferry).

Then next idea was to get involved in a charity project in Morocco when we got there, and ideally raise money for it through our EPIC CYCLE. In the end we couldn't find anything like that, so we settled on fundraising for WaterAid and shortly afterwards began looking into volunteering through IVS (the International Voluntary Service).

So now we've been accepted onto a project renovating a school in Marrakesh in August, which is fantastic. A really good way of seeing and understanding an area, I reckon!

The time has gone so quickly and things have moved so fast. At the beginning of the year I could never have imagined having such a great adventure falling into place as it has, and having raised over a grand for WaterAid (thanks to everyone who's helped us so far by the way!). And we're off three weeks on Friday!

EXCITEMENT!

Matt.

thank you citizen

i love st-andrews!

our local paper the citizen has run an article on our charity expedition and have included our contact details! yipee! The guy who owns the paper is very nice and included it happily!

third paper luck i guess. The citizen has put the daily mail to shame!

hopefully something will come of it!

crazy times...

things are getting abit crazy with end of sermester events and exams!

but i'm really happy to say that our total raied is still creeping towards are target of £3000 slowly but surely and our target at last feels reachable! (relief!)

RAC our currently our main sponsors, giving an amazing £500 to WaterAid! this has been the most exciting news this week.

lots is still happening, i'm just not managing to update our blog as much as i would like at the mo. i would like to be able to say this is due to revising but it has alot more to do with cycling around st andrews too much!!! need to stop with the cycling and do more revision.

end of exams are in slight tho....

Skyloos!

Here is a picture of one of WaterAid's latest innovative ways of bringing sanitation to people with added benifits thrown in... the Skyloo composting latrine!

It's such a simple idea and I guess that's why it's so effective. The cubicle is on top of two brick pits, which you use one at a time. You do your stuff into the pit, then chuck a load of ash on top, helping to neutralise pathogens. The heat from the sun as well as decomposing poo then helps it all break down into lovely fertile compost which the village can then use to grow bananas and other delicious stuff.

Ideal! Such beautiful simplicity!

Well, to help WaterAid construct more beautiful things, you should sponsor us at www.justgiving.com/claireandmatt

Also, to find out more about the amazing Skyloo, go here: www.wateraid.org.uk/uganda/news/5461.asp

lycra

just realize that i one month today i will be wearing lycra everyday for 6 weeks! no room for anything unnecessary in my bag....so it'll be just lycra!

JUST LYCRA FOR 6 WEEKS SOLID!
this might upset me after a few weeks...


sponsor us if you haven't done so already...1 month to go!

lovely people in this world!

two people, after seeing my article in the daily mail, contacted the mail who then forwarded sponsorship money for wateraid to me!

i think this is a truely generous thing to do! just wanted to share that, as sometimes you forget how lovely people who don't know you can be!