Bike2Oz is an epic adventure involving a school teacher who worked in England. After informing her pupils about global warming, Lowanna decided she could not risk damaging the climate by flying back home to Australia.

Along with her partner Kevin, Lowanna decided to travel all the way from Oxford in the UK, to Sydney in Australia, using only sustainable transport — train, cargo ship and bicycle — clocking up 12,000 kilometres, across 16 countries, over 485 days, without a drop of aviation fuel.

The couple wanted to prove that it was possible to see the world without causing it harm. “As we wobbled off down the Oxford streets, I silently wondered what on earth were we doing, attempting to lug such a load all the way to Sydney,” Lowanna recalls.

In their panniers was a video camera, which they used to record all the highs and lows of their trip for a documentary. However, this meant having to do bits of their journey twice. Cycling to the top of a panoramic vista in the Himalayas is one thing but for the benefit of viewers back home, they would have to stop, put up the tripod, set the camera, ride back down and pedal up all over again.

The couple are both experienced film makers, recording 72 hours of stunning footage, capturing unique images across Iran, India and Malaysia. They gathered video evidence of droughts and storms and met people of all cultures across the world working to stop climate chaos.

Media charity, Undercurrents, edited their story into 14 short online films, with funding from APE, Artists Project Earth. Thousands have watched them, while a Japanese language company is using the videos to teach their students English. The film also won a prize at the Tokyo Video festival in 2009.

Contact: www​.bike2oz​.com

Kevin and Lowanna somewhere between Oxford and Sydney
Photo: copyright Undercurrents