TWO teachers are navigating 300km to the sea on stand-up paddle boards made out of plastic bottles.

Teachers Carolyn Newton and Carlos De Sousa of The Whale Company, have set off on the challenge to inspire and educate the next generation.

On World Ocean Day, Friday, June 8, the pair cast off from The Trout Inn, Lechlade and navigating 300km all the way to the sea at Gravesend.

Carolyn and Carlos became the first people in the world to paddle a marathon on stand-up paddle boards made out of plastic bottles on the same day last year.

They then went on to complete 12 marathons, all 42km in distance, in 12 different countries across Europe.

A day before they set off, they gave a presentation to pupils at Fairford Primary School explaining how the children could take part in the Message in a Bottle Bunting Challenge.

Children are being asked to write messages along the route on their own piece of Bottle Bunting, which will be tied together to create a visual impact to raise awareness about plastic pollution particularly in our seas and oceans

Pupils at Fairford Primary School and St Lawrence School in Lechlade, joined Cotswold MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown to wave off Carolyn and Carlos on their epic journey.

Fairford Women Institutes members also turned up dressed as Suffragettes, as it was the Women Institutes organisation in the 1950s that first began the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.

The Women Institutes’ cause for 2018 is reducing the use of plastic.