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news
Refugees Welcome.PNG“Refugees Welcome” – two cyclists are creating the world’s biggest piece of GPS art in charity ride across southern England
A pair of cyclists are creating what will be the world’s biggest ever piece of GPS art, spelling out the words “Refugees Welcome” across southern England.
Georgie Cottle, aged 26 and from Glasgow, and David Charles, 39 and from Bournemouth, have already broken the Guinness World Record, which stood at 761km, on their 2,400km journey across counties mostly bordering the English Channel.
They began their journey in Cornwall and will finish it in Dover, and so far their challenge – which goes by the name Spell It Out – has raised nearly £40,000 for charity, £7,000 of that through a fundraising page on Chooselove.org.
“The situation in Afghanistan was hitting the news just as we left,” said David, quoted on Kent Online.
“It’s certainly been uppermost in everyone’s minds while we’ve been riding.
“Everyone we meet seems to be aware of the horror of what’s happening and it’s been heartening to find that most people we’ve met show great compassion towards those forced to flee their homes.”
He continued: “Wiltshire has been the most generous county so far in terms of donations.
“It’d be unfair to pick out anyone in particular, but Laura and Jon at Bulstone Springs gave us full use of their glamping facilities, and also made us a homemade tiramisu.”
They surpassed the previous record while riding across the Somerset Levels, and David said: “The mayor bought me a cup of tea and Georgie a Guinness and regaled us with the wonderful legends of Glastonbury.”
The two cyclists belong to a cycling group called Thighs of Steel, whose co-founders Harri Symes and Oli Kasteel-Hare devised the idea of spelling out the words, with Georgie using Komoot to plan the route.
“The south of England was the obvious place to plan the ride because Dover is the port of entry for many refugees, the route sends a very direct message of compassion, and because the letters fit nicely,” David said.
“There was an awful lot to consider, both in terms of cycling and logistical constraints such as easy access to overnight accommodation and railway stations.”
He added: “It takes a lot of mental as well as physical energy to keep going day after day after day.:
“The compensations are being able to eat as much as we like and, of course, the incredibly generous donations from people back home.”
On their fundraising page, they give more details of why they decided to undertake the ride, saying: “The British government is trying to make it almost impossible for refugees to claim asylum in the UK.
“Home Secretary Priti Patel's Nationality and Borders Bill is putting the UK in direct opposition to the 1951 Geneva Convention by shutting down even more legal routes to asylum in this country. Incredibly, it will also criminalise the courageous, life-saving work of the RNLI.
“That's why we're getting back on our bikes, cycling really really far and fundraising for grassroots organisations that offer refugees the welcome that our government withholds.”
They also each outlined their own personal reasons for taking on the challenge.
“I have been a keen bean cyclist since I was 19 and found myself cycling the length of America, sort of by accident,” Georgie said.
“Since then I have explored much of Scotland, Wales and New Zealand with my trusty Raleigh Capri (called ‘Sunny’).
“I first got involved volunteering with refugee and asylum seeker communities while studying Arabic in Jordan in 2016, at the height of the crisis. I learned one heck of a lot about what it meant to be a 'refugee', what people had to give up and why people were forced to flee.
“I now work with refugee and asylum seeker communities in Glasgow and it seems that people's journeys are being made ever more difficult by governments here in the UK and in Europe.
“Spell It Out is an incredible challenge that I am so privileged to be a part of. We are both really looking forward to getting on the road, and rallying as much support as possible for Choose Love!”
David said: “I've been going on ridiculously long bike rides for ten years now, including two stints on the London to Athens relay with Thighs of Steel.
“For me, bikes are the ultimate freedom machine, carrying me across continents, powered by nothing more than a croissant (or seven). I have also seen the transformational potential of bikes when put into the hands of refugees and asylum seekers, both here in the UK and in places like Calais, Athens, Chios and Samos.
“Bikes give us both independence and community and I'm proud to use mine in solidarity with those fleeing persecution, conflict and torture.
“I've been so lucky that I've been able to travel freely around the world, thanks only to the freak chance of being born in a politically stable, wealthy country. The sheer injustice that some human beings aren't allowed to cross borders makes me furious and anger is an energy, right? I hope so, because I've got an awful lot of cycling to do!
“We are far from powerless,” he added. “Please donate generously, make a noise and show the world that refugees are always welcome here.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- hawkinspeter 3 hours 13 min ago
Interesting theory - how many points does it take for them to drive carefully?
- eburtthebike 3 hours 36 min ago
At the end of the consultation in May 2025, a decision will be taken.........
- Grahamd 4 hours 39 sec ago
The absurdity of it deepens when you realise that those points were acquired by the age of 26.
- David9694 5 hours 35 min ago
BAM!
- IanGlasgow 6 hours 10 min ago
"Polartec Power Shield RPM fabric – which has a 10,000mm hydro head to keep wet weather out, and an industry-leading breathability spec of 30,000g...
- mdavidford 7 hours 14 min ago
Oxfordshire councils are quite capable of letting you down too!...
- levestane 7 hours 28 min ago
'each spoke' (single) and 'leaf spring' (made of many leaves) seems contradictory.
- PenLaw 8 hours 20 min ago
I guess Morrissey could claim it.
- wtjs 8 hours 46 min ago
I do see a lot of delivery riders (on illegal e-motorbikes) with their faces covered...
- David9694 9 hours 26 min ago
Stuff like this seems more relevant than ever after the Trump victory. sorry not a funny
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190 comments
I've just listened to it, very interesting, thanks for the link.
From what I can gather the Australian approach also drastically reduced drownings.
https://theconversation.com/operation-sovereign-borders-offshore-detenti...
What is the process for dealing with people rescued at sea? I'm assuming that their medical, physical and mental needs are addressed - what then? Repatriated to the country of origin?
If you are clever enough to create user profiles online, you are clever enough to look it up.
What a bundle of joy you are. Could have answered my question in the time it to took you to write that nasty little post.
I was being defensive thinking that you were asking just so you could throw bile at the answer. Scroll up and you'll understand why - there's a few nasty people on here. Plus jumping so quickly to repatriation is the kind of thing that sets off alarm bells. My answer was hardly nasty though - and it's not like I'm an expert either, so in all honesty you would genuinely be better off looking it up. It would definitely take longer than the three seconds my reply took. But if you were asking in earnest Ernie, I apologise
Yup, Road.cc - some good articles, but the comments sections are deffo. anti-Conservative, anti-car echo chambers.
Anyone who states that Priti Patel and Dominic Raab are brilliant and will be finding a compassionate solution to the Afghan refugee crisis is either a troll or in need of serious medical intervention.
Troll: In internet slang, a troll is a person who posts inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog), with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses.
Apart from "insincere", which I really hope for his sake and those who are forced to come into contact with him Nigel is, that description fits him like a glove.
By your definition posts containing the words "Tory Scum", "Right Wing Nut Jobs/RWNJ" or that refer to Leave voters as "Stupid" would all be examples of trolling?
If they were totally irrelevant to the matter under discussion and on a site whose members were predominantly rightwing, yes.
I know you're a fellow rightist but stop trying to defend the indefensible. On Friday there was an article about which towns allegedly had the worst drivers; straight away, first comment was NG saying oh look, they're all Remainer towns. If that's not "inflammatory, digressive, extraneous, [and] off-topic...with the intent of provoking readers" I'm the Archbishop of Canterbury.
I'm intrigued by your caveat about members being 'predominantly right wing'.
You seem to be implying that it's ok to make "inflammatory, digressive, extraneous, [and] off-topic" comments as long as they are directed towards a minority of readers?
That doesn't seem like a particularly inclusive approach.
No you don't, it's not two months since you changed your username to "You all are cyberbullies" and said, and I quote, "Anyway I'm off this website, you lot deserve each other." If only you'd kept your word...
Clearly someone who has been banned by the moderators for personal abuse would think that.
Get a room.
Yes, I'm afraid so.
As indeed are any comments whatsoever which dare to even infer that a cyclist might just, just have been in the wrong on the very odd occasion.
Well, I asked because most of the time I do not agree with his point of view, but the phrase "troll" can be abused when you want to discredit someone. Wasn't sure if he doing it on purpose or not. Also, there is a 'nic mason' user that I see sometimes.... Could there be undercover officers here?
edit: oops, just realised the troll issue had already been mentioned
Nicmason defends any police behaviour which is questionable to the point of absurdity. He has denied being a policeman.
He's always taken a minority stance which is fine and sometimes I agree with his posts but he now has a blind spot about the police.
Of all the code names for a police officer, nic mason... What else did they consider? Sweeney Cop? Juliet Bravo? The Bill... (oh bugger, my cover is blown).
More a WUM really. He will seize on some sentence you make in a post loosely related to the subject and try and leverage that into some stupid argument. Classic baiting posts.
Any other forum he would have been perma-banned by now. If he carried on on AV forums the way he does here, he would not last more than 2 days.
Top trolling, Nige. Love the piss-take about Raab. If anyone wants objective evidence that this clown is completely out of his depth, you can't do better than his appearance in front of the Commons FASC recently.
My favourite exchange:
Raab: "I'm sorry; what's the source for that?"
Tugendhat: "It's your principal risk report".
🤣🤣🤣🤣
And he still makes a better foreign secretary than the incompetent Johnson.
Yup, this is why I log on to a cycling site.
Thanks for the valuable input.
Are they doing another one next month? To spell out:
"Fuck the UK's Homeless, the Government doesn't care about you".
No, they're doing one for you that spells out "Some people have enough compassion to care about two or more things at one time and BTW what are you doing to help refugees or the homeless?" It'll take a bit of riding but worth it.
To be honest, this is a golden opportunity for the UK to pick up some world class talent. Immigration has always made Great Britain stronger and wealthier. I'd happily swap 10 immigrants for a single Brexiteer.
Well, I knew I was valuable but I didn't realise I was worth as much as 10 other people. You live and learn.
I'd happily swap a hundred Afghans for a single remainer. Afghans likely have closer values to the UK from the look of it. It's seriously been 5 years since the vote. Grow the fuck up.
I'd be worried about the hair getting everywhere and who's going to be picking up their poop?
You're right - I mean, Brexit is working out so well, isn't it?
It depends on your perspective really.
If you're a warehouse worker or delivery driver or similar then you're probably pretty happy with the current situation.
How much of the current labour shortage is attributable to Brexit and how much to the pandemic is, of course, a matter for debate.
It seems there's more to it than that since Europe has a bigger shortage than us. Some delivery drivers got a 40% pay rise in the UK, so their antisocial jobs should be a little more attractive now. Long term their needs need to be met though, or at least try and replace them with train cargo.
https://www.globalcoldchainnews.com/driver-shortage-is-pan-european/
Leavers carried on fighting the overwhelming result of the 1975 referendum to join the EEC for forty years, as was their right and, indeed, their duty if they believed a mistake had been made. But ever since winning the 2016 vote by a miniscule margin - a margin that virtually every poll since has shown would never be attained again - they have insisted on a form of playground "fainites and no returns", responding with the sort of dummy-spitting fury you exhibit here to the slightest suggestion that the decision has been a mistake. Telling other people to grow up because they won't let you have your own way without debate or opposition for ever and ever is richly ironic.
Lobbying for a vote is a bit different from: breaking parliamentary rules, meeting the EU in private and discussing ways to obstruct parliament, suing the Government multiple times to frustrate and invalidate the Democratic process, attempting to destabilise the Government to bring it down because you didn't get your way, and wishing the UK would burn just so you can say you were right. To say the Remainers have been childish is an understatement, some of them have acted disgustingly or even treasonously.
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