Global adventurers land in Shanghai

A Swiss family is on an epic journey to educate young people, Yu Ran reports.

A non-stop eco-adventure involving sailing the world's oceans, traversing continents on foot or by bicycle, and climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents, has brought Swiss adventurer Dario-Andri Schworer and his family to Expo 2010 Shanghai to share their stories with visitors to the Swiss Pavilion.

"We're glad to share our personal inspirational experiences at the Swiss Pavilion with visitors, teachers and students," said Schworer.

Schworer - a qualified ski, mountaineering and river-rafting guide, skipper, diver, hang-gliding pilot and biker - heads TOPtoTOP Global Climate Expedition, a volunteer adventure travel group that aims to educate people about the environment as it travels the globe.

Together with his wife Sabine, a nurse, they decided to embark on this adventure in 2002 when they saw the impact climate change was having in the Alps. Their children were all born during the family's adventure.

On land, the family travel by environmentally friendly transportation, including walking and cycling. Their Swiss-made yacht uses wind and solar power.

"We have suffered difficulties, especially in bad weather while we were sailing or climbing," Schworer said.

Their journey also involved educational activities with schools and universities all over the world with a mission to inspire clean energy solutions. To date, they have sailed more than 70,000 kilometers in their expedition vessel, climbed 400,000 vertical meters, cycled more than 18,000 kilometers and visited with more than 46,000 students.

"Children are our future. Our mission is to inspire young people to work toward a more sustainable future. There is no greater platform to raise awareness in China than the platform of the Expo, where (the Expo theme) 'Better City, Better Life' underscores the heart of our mission," he said.

"We hope more and more people will join us to make their own efforts for climate protection."

All three of the Schworer's children were born on the global tour. Before the eldest daughter Salina was born, she already sailed 5,000 nautical miles, cycled 2,500 kilometers and climbed 4,000 meters - inside her mum's womb.

"Whenever we arrive at a new place, I will take our children to the local kindergarten where they can catch up on their education. We want our children to learn by their hearts that everyone has the duty to help the planet," Schworer said.

On May 23, the expedition team reached the summit of Mount Qomolangma (also known as Mount Everest).

During the expedition, they concentrated on clean-up projects by going into the local communities to encourage and assist people to clean their surroundings. Along the route they left a "green path" by cleaning up at least the same amount of waste as they produced.

"Getting to the summit was not our ultimate goal though. We were there to clean the mountain and the area around it," said Schworer. "The clean-up project with volunteers and locals was the focus of our three months in the Everest region. Even my 8-month-old son Noe collected trash with us."

With each stop throughout the expedition the Schworers and volunteers make, they visit local schools and share their adventures with children. Through their interaction with school children, they hope to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change and show that one can enjoy nature through sport but at the same time give something back to nature.

"The next destination of our journey will be back to India where we will jump on our boat and sail to Africa in a bid to climb Mount Kilimanjaro," Schworer said. Although their original plan was to finish the journey within four years, they now don't expect to finish the adventure until 2015.

(China Daily 07/09/2010 page37)