HE hasn't worn a pair of shoes in a year and has walked barefoot to London surviving only on the kindness on strangers.
Now city schoolteacher Ewen Hardie is to write a book about his experiences, which have all been part of his year-long protest for democracy in Burma.
The 29-year-old hopes to inspire other people to join his protest and to raise more awareness of
the plight faced by Burmese monks and refugees.
The Drummond Community High School biology teacher began his barefoot campaign last September after watching reports of peaceful protests by monks in Burma turning to bloodshed.
After initially planning to return to shoe-wearing at the one-year anniversary, he has now decided to go barefoot indefinitely until he can come up with an equally powerful protest.
He set off on his trek to London in June, with only the five items that the charity "5 Alive" sends out to help families in Burma: rice and salt; a cooking pot; a lighter; a machete, which Mr Hardie substituted for a penknife; and a tarpaulin.
He met dozens of people along the way who fed and watered him and gave him shelter for the night.
He wants to use his book to highlight the kindness of the people he met and their passion to help, to raise more awareness about the political situation in Burma, and to raise funds for Burmese charities.
Mr Hardie, of Seafield Road, said: "The book is my new challenge and the next thing I would like to put my energy into.
"One of the reasons I want to write it is because I don't think it's just my story anymore, because so many people contributed to the journey.
"I feel like I have a responsibility to those people, because one of the nicest things about the journey was how much people care.
"What I found was that by offering an opportunity to show that they cared, I was offering them something that they wanted and they jumped at the chance to help me. That's why I ended up wanting very little on my journey.
"If people read my book and see it's worthwhile doing something to help others, then that's my target achieved."
He added: "The walk was an incredible experience, and there was incredible warmth and generosity from people along the way. Although it was hard work, there was very little hardship."
During his epic journey, Mr Hardie also inspired a number of people.
He has recently been contacted by one man who, inspired by Mr Hardie's en route litter picking, has now become "addicted" to collecting discarded rubbish each time he goes out.
He also encouraged a former activist who thought he was too old to get involved to once again campaign for human rights.
Despite the fact Mr Hardie has pledged to remain barefoot, he is not looking forward to another harsh winter.
He said: "I was going to use the anniversary to draw a line under the barefoot thing, but I decided it was still important to me and reminded me about the issues.
"But I've been out recently and got that reminder of what last winter was like."
Mr Hardie raised around £2600 for the Burma Education Scholarship Trust (BEST) through his 40-day trek to London.
The Edinburgh-based charity supports refugee schools, runs a teacher training programme and offers scholarships to Burmese students to study abroad.
The full article contains 584 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
