Update: At 5pm local time 12th November 2009 we reached Athens! 4310 km/2680 miles. Thank you to everybody who has helped us and who has pledged.

We are calling this ride the Arran To Athens Ride For Resilience, resilience meaning the strengthening of communities such that they are more capable of locally providing for their needs in an economically and environmentally sustainable way.  This may include, for example, the development of community gardening and composting schemes, community based energy programmes, co-operatives or improved public transportation networks.

Rather than asking people to pledge money during our ride, we are asking individuals to pledge a commitment to personal action within their own communities.  Supporters of the ride will be able to choose from a list of 10 Resilience Building actions ranging from “Get Out Yer Green Thumb” to “Become a Part-Time Vegetarian.”  Each commitment is designed to encourage creativity, be a long-term cost saving for the pledger and allow for positive, lasting community development.  At the end of the ride we will collect feedback from the Resilience Pledgers to produce a report on what challenges, barriers and successes they faced.

We will also be reaching out to other people and community organisations that we encounter on our way through Scotland, Belgium, France, Italy and Greece, where the ride will finish in late November.  We will be providing the groups with information and ideas on how to set up similar organisations to Transition Edinburgh South (TES).