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Paramotorist Sacha Dench to land in Kent after crossing the Channel

Britain's human swan will return to the UK today in style, landing near Dover after crossing the Channel on a paramotor.

Sacha Dench will be the first female paramotorist to cross the Channel, following the migration route of Bewick's swans in order to see the challenges the declining species are facing.

"Over the last 20 years we've seen the number of Bewick swans declining - we've lost about half of them in the last 20 years and that's a serious decline.

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Sacha Dench aka the Human Swan. Picture: flightoftheswans.org
Sacha Dench aka the Human Swan. Picture: flightoftheswans.org

"We know some of the threats the birds face, loss of wetlands is a big one."

Strapped to her paramotor, Sacha left Russia in September, and will conclude her three month venture in the UK later this month - possibly the longest female paramotorist journey ever.

In total, Sacha will have flown 7,000km following the route of migratory swans.

Sacha was due to fly over the White Cliffs of Dover before landing at the Channel Gliding Club in Whitfield at around 11am.

She will then continue her flight across several towns in Kent en route to London - so keep your eyes peeled in Canterbury, Swale, the Medway towns and Gravesend.

As she heads towards the end of her journey, Sacha will travel across the UK, switching to a dragon boat to go through central London and deliver a petition to 10 Downing Street.

Sacha's final landing will be in Gloucestershire, where 50 other paramotorists will join her for her last day flying across the Cotswolds as a surprise.

"I had this idea of trying to fly the entire migration route with the birds to see their migration route as they do.

"I'd also then get an insight, I'd be able to add more picture to the data we're getting from the satellite tags.

"I'd also be able to see all the territories they fly over and look for those missing parts of the puzzle.

"One of the other challenges is to involve more people in the conservation of swans."

"If we don't engage with the hunters, farmers, power companies and others all along the flyway we will have no chance of trying to saving this bird.

"This flyway is used by so many other species, and migratory species have a really hard time because they don't just belong in one place, everybody has got to pull together to help them, so whatever is going wrong for the Bewick swan, could be going wrong for other species.

"So just by helping the Bewick swan, we could be helping to save all sort of species along the flyway."

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