Months of planning and a week of scrambling around and final farewells are over... the train to Arran, where we'll be starting off, leaves in less than one hour.

Home is tucked away into a small stack of boxes, the walls are bare and everything we need to live off of, besides food to eat and ground to sleep on, is stuffed into our bike bags.  Its amazing what your life can be condensed down into when you make the effort.

We've bought all the maps, tools and gear... not to mention various phrase books, packs of baby wipes, and the all-essential chaffing lotion:  everything that we should need to get from here to Athens.  Though we have deliberately left one thing unplanned:  the route.  We have a general idea of where we will go and the kind of roads that we are looking for- quiet ones, by hills and rivers, forest and vineyard, the ones on the map without any color coding, as to denote extreme insignificance to anybody but locals and people like us.  Between here and Athens there is only the possibility of discovery.  Though of course there are numerous likelihoods as well:  frustrations, breakdowns, bad weather, good weather, wrong turns, right turns, chance encounters, encounters of more than chance, bad luck, better scenery, random acts of kindness... but those are all part of the adventure.      

Along with our various essentials we are bringing a stack of cards that we have made, which we are informally calling our 'Seeds of Resilience'.  On the front side of the card is the symbol for the Arran To Athens Ride For Resilience and the words 'this is for you' written in 4 languages (English, French, Italian and Greek).  On the back of the card, again in the four languages, is information directing people who are concerned about climate change and peak oil towards our pledge website and other websites that will enable them to get involved and take action.  We will be scattering these cards as we go as you would seeds, leaving them in stores and restaurants and in the hands of the people that we meet along the way.  It is our hope that in this way we will spread the concept of Resiliece, fertilizing the soils of concern so that seeds of change can grow.  Even if only 1 seed in 100, 1 in 1000, takes root we will be happy.  We just hold the hope that it can lead towards meaningful change if even in a small way.  

We are nervous of course, but it is the kind of nervous that doubles as excitement.  Most of all, we are looking forward to the simplicity of the ride... rising every day with nothing more to do than to go from here to there and see what is in between.  Admittedly, the lifestyle we will be leading will be one of some form of escapism... as our debts and the prospects of looking for new jobs and returning to old ones and all the other pressures and concerns of the 'real world' will be happily waiting for us upon our return to Edinburgh in the new year.  But just for now we will leave those details packed up in the boxes where they belong and get back to what is really important, discovering what there is to see in this world, challenging and exploring the heart so that we might better know ourselves, and sharing the journey with others.

We couldn't be more thankful for all the love and support that we have been given.  To everyone:  a big thank you!  We look forward to the adventure and to having you with us.

Best of luck with your pledges!  And thank you for offering your time.  Above all, it is our sincere hope that these actions will be meaningful and interesting for you as a person.  If you have a pledge that is not working for you, try to stick with it... but feel free to change it to make it your own.  When we get back we would love to hear from you to know how it went.

Well, wish us luck.... we will text back often to let you know where we are and we will write back stories and send photos from internet cafes when we get the chance.

See you soon!

Mike and Helena