“I am on a journey through this world; I see the world as a sacred place and I pass through it with reverence and gratitude, without any desire to possess the world and exploit it for any short-term gain”. Satish Kumar (1)
On Sunday 26th September, we welcomed the wonderful ‘Camino to COP’ walkers into Leek – at the halfway point on their 500-mile journey from London to Glasgow. The Camino Walkers, from XR Faith Bridge, set out on their journey to urge governments to act on the climate emergency and to spread the word along the way about the urgent need to address our climate and ecological emergency.
The effects of climate change are already evident. Natural disasters are more frequent and devastating. These negative impacts are – unjustly – more severely felt by poor people and by poor countries. The Camino Walkers were travelling on foot to Glasgow and to COP 26 asking for Climate Justice and to save the Earth.
COP 26 (or the 26th Conference of the Parties) is the most important global climate change event to take place each year. Leaders from 196 countries meet in Glasgow in November for this major climate conference. This year is crucial because world leaders had agreed to come to Glasgow with definitive plans to keep emissions at a level that would keep global warming to ‘well below 2% and as near to 1.5% as possible’. These are the so-called Paris Targets. Scientists say that cutting emissions drastically this decade is our last chance to come up with plans that can hit those targets and bring climate change under control.
It is not going to be easy, but you have to have hope. And that was the message the walkers brought with them to Leek. After walking from Newcastle-under-Lyme, and arriving from the canal, they snaked up through town and arrived at the Foxlowe to cheers from a waiting crowd of supporters. Here, they were greeted by U3A African drummers, food and refreshments, and evening of storytelling, music and poetry.
(A group of students from the Centre for Alternative Technology had arrived the day before and had already hosted an extremely successful storytelling workshop at the Foxlowe that afternoon. The arrival of the walkers and the CAT students in Leek that weekend was part of MCA’s contribution to the national Big Green Week. On the Saturday morning Dane Wolves had already led a very well-attended and fascinating tree identification walk around Brough Park.)
After refreshments, the walkers, CAT students and MCA members then took part in an evening of poetry, storytelling, and music. The evening ended with a candlelit ceremony outside on the grass to ‘Light the Future’, with the beautiful candleholders kindly made and provided by Tyra.
During their stay the walkers were hosted by the Leek churches, St. Edward’s and St. Luke’s, together with the spiritual retreat, St Chad’s, and were able to enjoy a good night’s sleep after a tiring day. The following day was a rest day where walkers caught up with washing clothes, showers and relaxing. According to their news post they had their most restful rest day yet in Leek! Several walkers relaxed with a yoga session kindly provided by Yugen Yoga.
On Tuesday 28th, after their rest day, the Camino Walkers met to depart from St Edwards Church in Leek at 8:00 am for the next stage of their journey.
To wave them off, a number of local, XR and MCA supporters were there, plus our Mayor Lyn Swindlehurst and Town Crier Bill Lomas. MCA supporter Anne Hancock kindly brought some food for their journey.
After the walkers’ morning briefing there was a song from Barbara Keal, a walker who had started from Folkstone. Barbara had created the idea of a magnificent ‘Coat of Hopes’ which the walkers took turns to wear on their journey towards the COP 26 Summit. It represented the ‘hopes for the future’ of many along the way, displayed as patchwork designs. She is photographed here with Bill and Lyn, who has since arranged for a 'patch' representing Leek to be sent on and added to the coat.
Before long it was time to leave on the next stage of their journey from Leek to Macclesfield and on to Glasgow. Some local supporters and a few from MCA walked alongside them for a few miles.
Thank you to all the Camino to COP 26 Walkers who are undertaking this amazing 500-mile walk for justice and our Earth. Thank you, too, to all who helped at MCA and haven’t yet been mentioned: event organiser Teresa, who liaised with Camino’s Jelena Krivosic and the Foxlowe; and Mike, Mark, and Maggie, who managed to get the funding for the weekend and the walkers.
Thank you to all others who helped, including Big Green Week, the Foxlowe staff, our local XR group, the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) and storytellers, poets, and musicians for making the event the success it turned out to be, thank you to you and to all involved.
And finally, a lovely comment from Jelena, one of the Camino organisers, "Thank you so much for all of your support and help over the weekend, I am still processing how wonderful our whole time in Leek was. And I still can't believe how large and inspirational the events were. I hope you are having a brilliant week and I hope to see you again in the future." Best wishes, Jelena x
References and links: -
(1) Satish Kumar- (p13) Earth Pilgrim - Green Books, pub 2009.
Links: You can follow the Route and stages of their journey
Web: - www.caminotocop.com
Scroll to Days 22-23 - https://caminotocop.com/news/page/2/
Coat of Hopes explore site at - https://www.coatofhopes.uk/about