Whilst Chris Markun is peddling his way across Spain for his cause, having already crossed Europe, Antón Ruiz is busy paddling around the Iberian Peninsula in a canoe… which is an awful lot of paddling! In fact, it’s 3,450 km.
The ‘cruise’ started on the 4th of May from Port Bou (Girona) and will end in September in Ondarribia on the Basque coast. To cover this 3,450 voyage he’ll need to cover 30/50 km per day. On the 5th of July he reached Castell de Ferro and stopped off to see some friends before paddling off that same afternoon
This athlete, who has never practiced sea canoeing before, wants to heighten awareness not only about our own national crisis, but the ongoing ones in poorer countries, such as Sri Lanka and Nicaragua, by tapping into the media interest generated by the trip, as well as using the social media such as his blog and twitter, etc.
3000KM-Mas-Cerca_en TV por antonrg1
Like, Chris Markun’s journey, his is self-financed too, and of course, whilst you’re canoeing around the Iberian Peninsular you can’t exactly turn up for work, so he has left his job in order to carry out this personal project.
He is raising money for the Fundación Gomaespuma. This foundation or trust was set up by two Spanish journalists, Guillermo Fesser and Juan Luis Cano, who, thanks to the generosity of the listeners on their radio programme (Gomaespuma), have been channeling funding to where it is needed.
It all began back in 1995 when the radio programme was transmitted from Havana. Gomaespuma had shipped 10,000 toys and handed them over to primary education schools in Cuba. After that, During the Yugoslavia War in 1996, with the help of the Spanish Air Force which donated the use of a cargo plane, they were able to get 15 tonnes of baby milk to the city of Medjugore.
Anyway, this article is about Antón Ruiz and his ambitious circumnavigation of the peninsular in a canoe. You can donate by purchasing ‘kilometres’ at the symbolic price of one euro to build a virtual bridge between Spain and these before-mentioned countries.
You can read more about Antón and Gomaespuma by clicking on these links.
(News: Castell de Ferro, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)