Bristol artist travels 1,600km on foot for environment

An artist has completed a two-month long journey on foot across Scotland, Norway and Denmark to raise awareness of species endangerment.

Tom Bailey from Bristol travelled more than 1,600km by foot and ferry to perform his new show in Denmark.

Mr Bailey wanted to travel the way some tree species travelled across Scotland and Scandinavia. He wild-camped throughout the journey and carried his own gear.

“It was a really inspiring journey and I wanted to do a project that was inspired by the way nature travels,” Mr Bailey said.

“I started looking at the way trees migrate over time in those areas and was following a poetically inspired treeline across Scotland an into Norway,” Mr Bailey said.

“I was walking for most of it. There’s the North Sea in the way so I integrated boat hopping.

“I was alone but I met people on the way, shared stories and species names.

“There was quite a lot of glacier crossing and a couple of hairy moments. The ice is melting in early summer so some of the paths are quite treacherous.”

Mr Bailey said he will do a similar trip next year in June, when he will walk through Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark.

“It’s all part of a larger project for me that’s going on over the next couple of years,” he said.

“It was a really inspiring journey. I found the journey can become an artwork in itself,” Mr Bailey added.

“That’s something I found quite interesting, treating the walk as an artwork.”