Everyone’s getting a little more environmentally conscious this year. Maybe you’ve stopped using cling-film. Maybe you chose a staycation rather than another long-haul flight.
But one woman was ahead of the curve and has already has taken her dedication to helping the environment incredibly seriously – and she says it has been utterly transformative.
Mieke Evans, from London, completed an epic challenge to go an entire year without using any form of transport other than her bike. That’s 365 days with no buses, Ubers, tubes, trains, planes or boats.
Well, almost. She does admit that she had to fly to attend a friend’s wedding in Carcassonne, France, because she didn’t have enough annual leave to get there by bike – but she cycled to and from Stanstead Airport.
Other than that, Mieke’s every movement was powered by her own legs. And she says the challenge not only overhauled her mindset about life but also improved her health and saved her a tonne of money.
She predicts that by going almost an entire year spending no money on motorised transport she saved between £2,000 and £2,500. So it was good news for the planet and her bank balance.
The idea of a transport-free year first came to Mieke when she started seriously considering her environmental impact. She wanted to do something that would really make a difference.
The account manager already loved running and cycling, and said she was bored of signing up for one or two events throughout the year – she wanted to integrate her love of fitness into her everyday life.
‘I also wanted to try to inspire other women to get into cycling,’ Mieke tells Metro.co.uk.
‘I have been a cyclist in London for many years, and even though I have seen lots of people cycling, and seen the infrastructure changing, I still see a lot fewer women than men on the roads.’
Mieke kicked off her challenge on 1 January, the height of winter. Looking back, she thinks it may have made more sense to ease into the task when the weather was slightly warmer.
‘The hardest thing was probably just battling the elements,’ she explains. ‘Just being outdoors for so many more hours than I ever have done before.
‘And I didn’t have any flexibility on timeframe. Whenever I needed to get from A-to-B, there was invariably a very specific day and a very specific time that I had to be there.
‘If it was pissing it down with rain – I still had to do it.’
When her best friend got married in Bordeaux, Mieke wasn’t about to give up on her challenge – or miss out on being a bridesmaid.
Instead, she packed incredibly savvily, gave her outfit for the big day to friends to take for her, and jumped on a bike for four days.
So it was a four-day cycle to the wedding and, of course, another four-day cycle to get home. That is what you call commitment to the cause.
‘It meant I didn’t take a holiday that year,’ says Mieke. ‘I had four or five weddings and hen dos of good friends that year, so I used all of my annual leave cycling to these events. But I knew that would be the case when I was doing the planning, so I was mentally prepared.
‘It was a bit hard to go a whole year without having a city break or beach holiday or a holiday to rest, but it was also just completely and totally worth it.’
Mieke says the whole experience has made her reevaluate everything she wants out of life. Since she undertook the challenge in 2017, she is still trying to live by some of the key principles that she learnt.
‘I’m always trying to find ways to live a more simple life,’ Mieke tells us.
‘Whether it’s borrowing items rather than buying things brand new, or using less plastic, I just try to have a much more minimalist life
‘I try to focus on the things that I care about and things that are important to me. By the nature of doing so much cycling and having to try to carry so little with me wherever I went, it really switched my mindset into living more simply.’
The year after her transport challenge, Mieke took a three-month sabbatical and cycled around Europe on her own. She says it was cycling so frequently and so far that gave her the courage to do that.
‘It really opens up your mind to how far you can actually go just on two wheels, under your own steam. It changes you. And it certainly made me more adventurous,’ she says.
When she told her colleagues she would be travelling solo for weeks on end with nothing but her bike, some of them were really nervous for her.
‘I had lots of people asking me; “what if you get raped?” “What are you going to do if you get sick?” “Will you get lonely?” “Will you get scared?”
‘And I was like – I don’t have any of those answers. I’m not doing something that is completely stupid, or not been done before. And I want to do it. I know it’s really going to change me. So I’m going to find a way.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/30/going-whole-year-travelling-foot-cycling-taught-live-simpler-life-12153700/
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