EcoTripping is a group of average guys going on adventure trips with an ecological focus: environmental odysseys by enthusiastic amateurs.
Story
Origin
EcoTripping began as Will Bossman (in the back with a plastic cup on his head) paddled down the River Tagus (Spain - Portugal) in the blazing summer heat. On his way he was joined by Liam Harrison (in the middle, has the most hair) and the two of them floated into Lisbon together. When they got back, Oli Back, backed the idea (in the front, unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt) and signed up for the next dubious adventure.
Our Formative trip
That adventure took the form of a paddle down the largest river in Ireland: the River Shannon. On the way they collected plastic found in the river, as well doing some water quality monitoring. These seem like good things to do so another trip was planned for the Summer of 2020. Unfortunately the pandemic stopped that from happening so the team did what they could in London and did some dawn till dusk river clean-ups on the River Lea.
2021 saw the team heading up to Scotland to do some mountain climbing, river clean-ups and invasive species removal. This was unfortunately scuppered by covid as well with one of the team catching the blummin' thing. Fortunately there were no corona interruptions in 2022, for various reasons ("we just didn't have that much annual leave between us to take time off work") the team were all quite busy with their non-ecotripping lives and so a short journey down the Jurassic Coast was held over a long weekend.
The Future
Ever hopeful a more ambitious trip can be planned, the team are currently looking at a larger trip in 2023, stay tuned!
Staying up to date:
Best way to keep up to date is via Instagram. EcoTrip announcements and interim activities will be posted on there.
Two main strands of work:
Big Trips - These are our annual trips. They are usually larger projects with elaborate planning and usually a lot of travel involved. To date these have only been delivered by the core team (Will, Liam & Oli) but that may change in the future.
Events - These are kind of like volunteering events, this is where we get out in our local waterways to do some weekend clean-up work. We do this with partners, friends and members of the public. If you'd like to join get in touch.
Legal Detail
We are a community group and not a registered company. For our regular Events we operate as a River Action Group for Thame21 and are covered by their public liability insurance.
Partners & Supporters
Thames21 - Supports us with storage space and equipment, hoping to become one of their river action groups.
The Rivers Trust - Blogging and communications support.
Palm Equipment - Offered us discount on their equipment.
Itiwit - Sponsored us with lots of free equipment as well as PR support.
McConks - Sponsored us for free equipment.