LIZZIE: I haven’t tested it yet, I don’t
know if it will work. That wind is quite strong, I’m taking on water. I can feel it.
COMM: It’s hard to understand why anyone
would want to traverse Britain’s canals in a raft made entirely of junk. Bit it’s
a subject close to paddle boarder Lizzie Carr’s heart. She has a very personal connection
to the water, having started paddle boarding after a battle with cancer, when she was just 26.
LIZZIE: It was a great place for me to kind
of just gather my thoughts and it was peaceful and calming, and just seeing all that rubbish
in them and the pollution in them, you know, it’s sad and it’s not a nice experience,
not for anyone paddling on it and not for the wildlife that have to live with it. The
canals and rivers were there for me to help restore my health and I relied on them, and
they were a constant source I could rely on to kind of make me feel good.
LIZZIE: So, I took on this challenge of building
the raft, really because I wanted to highlight the amount of plastic rubbish in our canals
and rivers up and down the country. In May this year, I paddled boarded the length of
England and I plotted every single piece of plastic that I saw along my route and to kind
of create this great big map.
COMM: Noticing huge amount of littering on
our waterways, Lizzie challenged herself to make something of it.
LIZZIE: I never sat on this challenge to kind
of name and shame key areas of the country that were really kind of prolific for plastic,
but equally it’s really important to raise awareness of them, so that we can tidy them
up and improve them and make them more desirable. There were four areas that I identified as
being particularly prolific, Tamworth, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester. The most frequent
offender was probably the plastic bottles, followed closely by plastic bags, shopping
trolleys, all that kind of stuff. Frisbees, like unusual things, genuinely kitchen sinks,
like you would find that sort of thing in there. Scooters, car bonnets, engines. You
always are kind of left wondering when you’re pulling out of the water , it there’s going
to a body or something attached to it.
COMM: Returning to these areas with Olympic
canoe medalist Rich Hounslow, the pair collected as much rubbish as they could.
LIZZIE: I paddled for a few hours every day
to collect the bottles that I’ve got to make this raft. It’s pretty disgusting when
you see quite how much there is.
COMM: Lizzie then roped in her boyfriend Russell to help with the build.
RUSSELL HOWARD: Basically a plat of bottles
to go around the raft to show how many bottles that we’ve found. Even the odd bottle with
a little bit of wee.
RUSSELL HOWARD: I think we are doing very
well. Apart from decoration, we’re about there.
LIZZIE: Today has been quite worrying. I don’t
think I slept very well last night. Panicking about whether my raft would float.
MAN: It’s good?
LIZZIE: Yeah. I believe.
LIZZIE: I think it’ll be a lot more unstable than
normal paddle boarding. I do feel quite nervous, I think I’m trying to procrastinate. I don’t
want to go on.
LIZZIE: It was all fun when I thought the
idea up. Paddle!!
LIZZIE: It worked.
LIZZIE: I think people need to kind of fall
back in love with their waterways, because you never know when you’re going to need them.
LIZZIE: Anybody else fancy a ride? Anyone? Someone?