Former Echo reporter off on a voyage of discovery (From Bournemouth Echo)

Former Echo reporter off on a voyage of discovery

10:03am Thursday 3rd September 2009 in Search By Jim Durkin

FORMER Echo reporter and green campaigner Lynn Morris has embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime mission around the Atlantic rim.

The year-long trip, to raise awareness of global climate change, will see Lynn and her two-man team cover an astonishing 32,000km, taking in 31 countries.

Lynn, 29, an Echo reporter between 2006 and 2008, landed a £10,000 grant from the prestigious Royal Geographic Society to tackle the Atlantic Rising project.

The idea is to follow the 1m contour line around the edge of the Atlantic – predicted to be the ocean’s new coastline in 100 years.

Speaking as the expedition left Poole on Tuesday, Lynn said: “All three of us are looking forward to it. We’ve been planning for a long time and now we are just eager to get going.

“I’m particularly looking forward to arriving in Sierra Leone, as the west African country has lots of important climate change projects.

“I’m also looking forward to travelling through Columbia.”

En route, the trio of adventurers – who met at Cambridge University – will visit schools and set up networks, enabling children to learn about the potential impact of rising sea levels.

Places at risk of being claimed by the rising Atlantic include historic slave forts in Ghana, crab farms in the USA and turtle breeding grounds in Belize.

“When you think about the amount of land that could be lost, it is frightening,” she said.

Lynn, and colleagues Tim Bromfield and Will Lorimer, will take their Land Rover along the west coasts of France and Spain, into Africa, before taking a container ship to Brazil.

She said: “The shipping of our Land Rover from west Africa to Brazil could take anything from one to four months.

“I’m very grateful to Condor Ferries, World of Furniture, and Sandbanks Marina, all good local sponsors.”

Visit atlanticrising.org to learn more or to sponsor the team.