An environmental campaigner and his canine companion has met with eco-warriors in Tayside and Fife as part of a cycling trek across the country.
Martin Hutchinson and his dog Starsky stopped at St Andrews, Tayport and Dundee as part of his journey.
Dubbed ‘Starsky and Hutch’, the pair have been documenting their adventure on YouTube.
He has been on the road for 16 years documenting and videoing environmental activists and those working on sustainability-driven businesses.
While in St Andrews, he met people at the Eco Hub.
Martin also had kind words for Fife business Grain and Sustain.
The plastic-free shops are a great example of the change people can make in their lives to have a gentler impact on the environment.
Around the world
Martin, from Manchester, is no stranger to travelling.
He previously walked 34,000km in 21 countries in Central and South America to see the impacts of climate change.
But the effect Brexit had on international travel shifted his focus closer to home.
Setting off from his native Manchester, he is travelling across the UK on a trike.
With dog Starsky in tow, of course.
Martin said: “Starsky is a great ice-breaker.
“People will introduce themselves to meet my dog and then I can tell them about what we’re doing.”
Martin has also been delivering talks at schools, highlighting the importance of taking care of the planet.
“Having Starsky with me makes that a lot more engaging. The children love him.”
Martin met the stray dog in Portugal.
“We bonded instantly,” he said.
“He can be quite timid so I was worried he wouldn’t take to being on the road, but as soon as we set off we was in his element.”
Give the man a hand
In his 16 years travelling the globe, Martin has had some hairy experiences.
One was being chased by a machete-wielding man in Brazil, near the border of Bolivia.
He said: “He managed to catch up with me and it looked like he was going to chop my arm off.”
It isn’t clear to Martin what sparked the encounter, but he managed to escape with all his limbs intact.
Aside from that close encounter, he said the worst thing he saw was the amount of rubbish dumped near the Amazon in Peru.
He said: “open garbage trucks just turn up and dump rubbish straight into the Amazon.”
An optimistic viewpoint
Having seen so much the world and the impact of climate change, does Martin hold out any hope that we can avert its worst impacts?
He said: “I am an optimistic person by nature.
“And I hope that by sharing the stories of what people are doing, then that will encourage others to take action, even if it seems small.
“We’re at the stage where we can’t rely on governments to do what is needed. We have to do what we can ourselves.
“The planet has given us so much. It makes no sense that we would treat it the way we have.”
Martin is keen to visit other environment projects in the area. He can be contacted on 07864722731.
Conversation