【Tina Tyler Archives】

On a lightweight wing and Tina Tyler Archivespossibly a few prayers, Sacha Dench gracefully glided over Dover's white cliffs Monday, becoming the first woman to cross the English Channel in a paramotor.

It was a remarkable feat and just the latest leg in a Herculean effort that's seen the British conservationist fly from the icy Russian tundra to British soil, tracing the migratory route of the Bewick's swan.

Dench's journey, which will end in Gloucestershire in the south west of England after she delivers a petition to Downing Street to lobby for swan conservation, has seen her travel some 7,000 km over 11 countries. Its goal: to see first hand the challenges these beautiful, dwindling birds face as they make their epic annual journey west -- and to educate some of the communities they encounter on the way.

Mashablespoke to Dench at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) HQ in May as she was practising flights and honing her tech setup. The preparation involved was stupendous: miles and miles of test flights; customised gear ranging from a heated body suit powered by the paramotor's engine to hacked eReaders used as GPS devices; and an immense amount of behind-the-scenes planning.

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The trip itself began in September and was a bumpy ride of ups and downs. Dench soared to amazing heights, flying just meters from a migrating flock of swans, persuading locals to think twice about shooting the precious birds, and witnessing stunning scenes from her frosty perch.

However, there were also more than a few troughs along the way, including a damaged knee that saw her needing an MRI scan in St Petersburg, Russia and a set of wheels added to her flying machine, and the news that one tagged swan had perished on its journey. The bird, named Charlotte, encountered bad weather in Estonia and her GPS collar confirmed that she didn't make it out alive.

“This is such sad news," Dench said at the time. "Looking at a beautiful Bewick’s swan, you don’t appreciate how incredibly tough they need to be to complete this gruelling journey. I have an engine and a support team and, even so, it’s without a doubt the most physically and emotionally challenging thing I’ve ever done."

Dench's journey aimed to raise awareness of the plight of the Bewick's swan, whose numbers have dropped from 29,000 to 18,000 between 1995 and 2010. And the best place to follow on was her spectacular Instagram feed. Here are some of the highlights.

A slow motion take-off in Germany.

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Timelapses and drone footage capturing the untroubled tranquility of a Polish nature reserve.

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Sped up footage showing the sub-zero conditions the swans escape every year in Estonia.

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A swan's eye view of the forests of eastern Europe.

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The Northern Lights as witnessed in Russia's back of beyond.

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The petition to save the Bewick's swans is on the Flight of the Swans site.