For most people a little trip to see the 'footie match' involves a short trip in a car or on their bicycle for the local match and perhaps a coach or train journey for those away matches. For Rob Forbes however it has taken on more epic proportions. Of course he was off to support the England team in the South African World Cup, starting out at the tail end of 2009 there was no intention to get on a plane or a boat to get there.
Rob who proudly calls himself a country lad from Wiltshire has a passion for natural history and conservation. He enjoys surprising his friends from the city with the fact that he is an ecologist, working to observe and protect newts and reptiles or poking around in badger holes to discover more about their communities. He says his interest in nature has made him very aware of the need for sustainable forms of transport. It was this, in part, that lead him to devise a unique challenge for getting to see his team play in the World Cup.
His idea involved travelling from Cirencester to Cape Town, Johannesburg or Lesotho by running, cycling and swimming alone. The entire journey - some 19,109km - involved a 19,000km cycle ride a 89km marathon run and an extraordinary 20Km swim across the unforgiving Straights of Gibraltar. It was important for him that this was not just to set a personal best, Rob was on a mission to highlight just how much could be achieved without resorting to non-sustainable transportation, while helping raise funds for one of his favourite charities, Re-Cycle.
