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Shannon Coggins and Theo Simon, along with their daughter Rosa, made it from Castle Cary in Somerset to Sydney, Australia after embarking on an enormous no-fly adventure
A British family has travelled to Australia and back to attend a family event – without flying.
Shannon Coggins was emotionally reunited with her sister Ellie in Sydney having made the huge journey from Castle Cary in Somerset to the land Down Under via train, taxi, boat, bus and many other modes of transport with her partner Theo Simon and daughter Rosa.
The trio took months to make it to Australia using many different kinds of transport before spending a quarter of a year exploring the sizzling hot country through home swaps.
Once they had drunk their fill of life in Oz, Shannon, Theo and Rosa decided to head back to the UK – a trip which took them three months and had them back home in June.
The family, who gave up flying in 2002 because of its impact on the climate, left home on 16 August to travel to Sydney for the wedding on 28 December. In total, they were out of the country for 10 months.
“It was fantastic. Setting off was hard because it was saying goodbye to my sister. At the beginning we were all depressed,” Shannon told the Mirror of the family’s decision to leave Australia and begin the long journey home.
“(At first) my husband couldn’t walk with heavy loads because he had a cyst. Then we got into the swing of it and utilised tech on the way back. We bought sim cards from the countries we were in, meaning we could now book taxis out and about.”
While they could’ve raced the 10,000 miles back to the UK in a few weeks, the couple instead decided to take it slowly – stopping in countries along the way to experience the world with their daughter before she starts university this autumn.
“We were in Indonesia for three weeks because it is so huge. One of Theo’s bucket list things was to go to Sumatra, to see orangutans, which we managed” Shannon continued.
“We also saw a lot of leeches. They get bigger as they suck your blood. And the monkeys! We saw a load of those swinging through the trees as we got into the rainforest. It happens at the same time, same route, every day, the guy we were staying with told us.
“Most of our heart-warming animal encounters were to do with cats, finding them and nurturing them back to health. We also convinced a shop owner to release a songbird he had in a cage. The bird had nothing. It was flitting back and forth. I did a little Google translate and the shopkeeper released it.”
Rosa – who worked as a Subway sandwich artist while in Australia to help pay for her stay – was thrilled to star as an extra in a major Chinese film on the journey back when they visited the country
The family had decided to take on the 15,000 mile journey without flying in a bid to limit the damage they do to the environment. Flying from the UK to Australia produces roughly 3.5tonnes of CO2 per economy passenger, meaning a return flight accounts for 60% of an average Brit’s yearly carbon footprint.
To avoid potentially catastrophic global temperature rises of 2C by 2050, that should be cut to two tonnes for everyone on Earth, by one estimate.
“The wedding was so amazing, so beautiful. (The trip) was worth it. It was worth going all that way. To see her home. To see her friends and her life. I know her better now. What she’s like as a person,” the mum said of her sister, who emigrated four years after Shannon gave up flying.
As much as the family are happy that they took on the mammoth journey and stuck to their principals, they recognise that ditching flying altogether is not the answer for everyone.
“Going without flying costs too much money and takes too long. We need to sort that bit before anyone gets off the planes. People like us made the decision ages ago and we followed through,” Shannon continued. She went on to argue for relative small tweaks to the aviation industry which some experts think could help drastically cut emissions.
“We could have propeller planes to do all internal flights in the country. It’s a simple fix. We aren’t saying don’t get on a plane, we are saying don’t fly so high, use different fuels.”
In total, the family estimated they were responsible for a tonne of CO2e each when it comes to transport there and back – at least 3.5 times less than the most environmentally friendly flight.
“The goal is 2.5 tonnes per person per year. We did it. Our carbon footprint will be less than that this year. It’s also about sticking to your principles. We have shown it is possible. You can do it.”
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