Kate Rawles: The Life Cycle

Sunday Papers Live: Travel Section

Kate Rawles rode a self built bamboo bicycle from Colombia to Cape Horn, criss-crossing the Andes and exploring biodiversity along the way, 8,288 largely solo miles the length of South America, following the spine of the Andes. 

Her aim is to use the adventure story to help raise awareness and inspire action on biodiversity loss, an issue every bit as urgent as climate change but still much less well understood. Apart from riding through an astonishing range of landscapes and ecosystems, on her journey, Kate met all sorts of amazing (and often brave) 'environmental defenders' and ended up grappling with extractivism and the mindset and values that legitimises it.

Kate tells a cracking good travel story, and to leave the listener with an enhanced understanding of biodiversity – the astonishing variety of life on earth – and why its future concerns us all.