An environmentalist is set to be the first person to paddleboard from one end of Britain to the other – and will pick up plastic pollution from the shores as she goes.
Cal Major plans to travel up the British coastline from Land’s End to John O’Groats and clean up plastic floating in the sea and washed up on the beaches.
The 29-year-old vet from Warrington has previously paddle-boarded around the Isle of Skye and Cornwall to take away bottles, packaging and netting.
But in May the University of Edinburgh graduate will embark on her most extreme challenge to date by travelling from the most southern to the most northern point of the UK.
The journey is expected to take four months, and she will paddle across oceans and some mainland canals to get to her final destination.
Cal set up Paddle Against Plastic in 2016 to demonstrate just how badly damaged the UK’s seas and stunning coastlines have been hit by plastic pollution.
She said: “I wanted to capture people’s imagination and show what is going on in oceans with plastic pollution but also to bring positivity to the issue and show it’s not all doom and gloom.
“I’m travelling the whole length of the country to try to get everyone on board.
“I want to show that everyone can identify with plastic pollution from Ireland to Scotland and I’d like to link up communities to work together and tackle plastic pollution.
“The journey may take longer dependent on the weather.
“Being out on the ocean you are so vulnerable to wind and rain. I’ll read the conditions before I set out which may affect the miles each day.”
In preparation for her extreme challenge, Cal has just completed a 200km trek across the Jordan desert.
But despite being physically ready, she will also have to prepare for unexpected twists and turns of the journey.
This includes being ready to tackle tidal races around headlands, strong winds, ocean swells and unexpected weather conditions, and to make her way along sections of coast standing up on a paddle-board without any cover.
The vet plans to camp on beaches every night and will work with Surfers Against Sewage, a charity that protects marine life, during her journey.
She said: “Picking up plastic in the ocean is difficult because you have limited space on the board. Whenever I pass a bottle or plastic bag I will pick it up.
“I’ll be counting all the plastic I collect along the way and collecting water samples to test. I think this is important as it could really make a difference.”