A family from Somerset, UK, Shannon Coggins, Theo Simon and their 19-year-old daughter, Rosa, are environmentalists.
Unlike the radical environmentalists who ruined their paintings and blocked roads, this family of three is strict with themselves and has done a lot of practical work to protect the climate and the environment.
For example, in order to stop the greenhouse effect, they have not flown since 2002 and insist on low-carbon travel.
(父亲Theo Simon,女儿Rosa,母亲Shannon Coggins)
This is not easy for them who like to travel. In particular, her mother, Shannon, has a sister Ellie with whom she has a good relationship, who moved to New South Wales, Australia as early as 2007, and since Shannon gave up flying, it became quite difficult for the sisters to see each other......
But in December, Shannon arrived in Sydney with her husband and daughter. Because on the 28th of this month, Ellie is about to hold a wedding, so as a family, she naturally can't be absent.
What is shocking is that the 16,000-kilometer distance from the UK to Australia, Shannon's family still insists on trying not to fly.
Instead, it took him twice as much money to travel halfway around the world by train, bus and boat rides, and it took him four months to come to Sydney to reunite with Ellie......
This rare journey was later described by the media as "epic".
(Group photo of a family of three)
The Shannon family has been saving money for several years for this difficult journey, and it is said that they have invested their entire savings.
Due to the long time it took, Shannon and her husband, Theo, quit their jobs at the school and the factory, respectively. In addition, the two have also formed a band since 1997, "Seize The Day", and both were forced to turn down many performance invitations because of this trip.
With everything in order, on 16 August, the trio took their first steps from Somerset......
(Shannon and Theo's band, Seize The Day, has multiple members, and the performance still revolves around the environmental theme)
Along the way, they passed through many countries. In addition to the UK, we also visited Kazakhstan, China, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia.
There are also advantages to traveling by land, as you have the opportunity to see the scenery of various countries, including vast plains, azure tropical seas and silvery beaches......
But at the same time, it will also make people go through a lot of difficult moments. For example, the Shannon family spent days on a train in poor conditions in the sweltering heat.
They also had a chance to pass by danger, because of the frequent conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the risk of crossing Iran, the family of three could only make a detour to Russia, not to mention the four-day delay, Theo was also stopped and interrogated on the train, but fortunately, it was a false alarm......
(Sydney Opera House, schematic)
But all of this has been overcome, and the real tricky problem happens at the end of the journey.
More than three months after departure, the family of three successfully arrived in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, a Southeast Asian island nation, with only 640 kilometers left on the coast of Australia.
Originally, they would have crossed the Timor Sea by boat to Darwin, Australia, and then could easily take the bus all the way to Sydney.
However, due to the change in the weather, they waited for three weeks without a boat to sit on......
But the wedding was approaching, and they couldn't miss the date, so after some careful consideration, they had to put aside their principles for a while and complete this last short journey by plane.
After landing in Australia, they took a bus to Sydney as originally planned. The moment they got off the bus, Shannon and Ellie were reunited after a long absence, and it also marked the end of this four-month cross-country journey.
(Shannon和Ellie终于在悉尼重逢)
Although it finally "broke the ring" a little, it did not affect the "achievements" of this low-carbon journey.
Shannon's family roughly calculated that if they flew directly from the UK to Australia, each passenger would produce about 3.5 tons of carbon dioxide, and they only produced 0.9 tons of carbon dioxide per person by going around like this.
(Schematic diagram)
It's just too much to pay...... Others feel that it is not worth it at all.
But Shannon's family doesn't think so, and in addition to environmental protection, they have many unexpected gains. For example, they learned to say "thank you" and "sorry" in the languages of all the countries along the way, and their daughter Rosa practiced Mandarin Xi while she was in China.
In addition, they have established contacts with people from many other countries.
In the future, they will still insist on low-carbon travel.
I also hope that one day, low-carbon travel will be more convenient than flying.