Well, it's 5.30am on the first day of Climate Camp proper and I'm awake and stumbling to put my walking boots on.
Someone has just dashed by banging a wooden spoon on a saucepan lid, urging me to arise and attend the gate to stop an incursion by the Police.
Well, we have an impromptu participatory session on the things we've learned about Climate Change in the week before we came to Climate Camp, then someone brings coffee, tea, biscuits and vegan orange chocolate to sustain us as we carry on acting as human shields.
The whole site feels ultimately safe and calm, apart from the nuisance caused by the constant searches of our persons and belongings, the regular drone of a helicopter right overhead, which becomes a rattle and roar when it drops down closer, the threats and attempts at incursions to remove or gas people or vehicles, the sporadic violence encountered by a few protestors who get picked out by the Law and Order collective.
We keep up permanent barricades at the main road-worthy gates, rubbing up against people we generally agree with and people we don't. I even had a mutually consensual elbow rubbing encounter behind the wheelie bins roped together at the gate known as Kilo Three. There are sessions of political debate, bad karaoke and trying to encourage the Police officers to smile.
...one of the officers offers to help me lose weight, by locking me in a cupboard...
