There is often a price to pay for demonstrating convictions. When Sarah Small tours Britain this summer with her viol, she will be paying in discomfort, but will be paid back by visiting venues that even the most intrepid wandering minstrels rarely reach. She will be cycling to every one, from Northamptonshire to Stornoway, and from Unst at the top of Shetland down via Cumbria and Wales to Southampton in Hampshire. The whole 2,500-mile journey is scheduled to start on 7 May, and to take 69 days.

Sarah is undertaking such an expedition partly because she wanted to play in places associated with the history of her instrument, but mainly because she is a fierce campaigner against the drivers of climate change. She refuses to fly, and would rather not use any of the energy guzzling modes of modern transport. Spending two months on the road by bicycle is her way of proving another way is possible.

My first thought when we talked about the tour was blisters! The schedule is tight and the distances long, with each stage tending to require over seventy miles of hard pedalling, except when there's a ferry. The Northamptonshire (her home) county is one thing, but the Scottish Highlands north of Perth are quite another. They seem not to bother her. “Not so much of a problem,” she says. “I'm more worried about parts of Yorkshire. There's a 33% hill to reach Egton,” where a pioneer of the viol, Christopher Simpson, lived. “I'll pretty much be moving every day with a couple of nights spare for emergencies."

“It makes no sense to fly to and from a different country within a day to promote a CD or present a concert of music that is inspired by the very nature and birdsong under threat as a result of actions like this. Unfortunately, because of things like the cost of air fares vs train fares, and the lack of funds available to cover them, along with the sense of pressure to reach certain well-established places in a short space of time, it continues to be the norm. This urgently needs to change, and I feel like I’m having very little impact by quietly refusing to fly, absorbing train costs, and turning down work, and just being replaced with no recognition of the environmental reasoning. By cycling and playing, I aim to inspire broader thinking and encourage discussion about how and why we travel and tour the way we do - and how to make it considerably more sustainable and viable.”

She will not always be playing or travelling alone. Some colleagues will join her for part of the journey. Viol players Emily Ashton and Isaac Harrison-Louth will perform with her for the opening concert at St John the Evangelist Church in Cambridge on 7 May. On 11 May, theorbo player Daniel Murphy will accompany her at The Belfry Centre, Overstrand. Up the east coast to Durham (Elvet Methodist Church, 19 May) the composer and singer Kim Porter will be with her to perform the work commissioned for the occasion: Kim's setting of Robert Frost's poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay. Near the end of the tour, she will be joined by Jon Rees on viol to perform in Bristol and Bath on 7 and 8 July, respectively.

She has also commissioned a piece by composer Lillie Harris, a friend from her days at the Royal College of Music. Harris' work is a response to one the major pieces of Sarah's programme, Tobias Hume's 1605 Good Againe, which makes that statement into a climate change question - Good Again? - a question which becomes the title for Sarah's whole tour. Her list of collaborators is growing as the journey takes shape.

Before she gets to Orkney and Shetland there will be concerts on other islands, starting with Lindisfarne. From Oban, she will cross to the Hebrides, performing on Barra (the setting for the films of Whisky Galore) and North Uist. Along the way she will often be camping out in the wilds, though she says that people have promised her that she will sometimes find a bed, or at least some hospitality.

Sarah wants to document, and observe too, how the country is changing with the climate. She hopes to be at Flamborough Head while the puffins are nesting. “The journey between places can be so interesting, however we rush through and miss so much. There are undoubtedly many communities in between who miss out on live music (especially early music!), so I also want to highlight the value of performing in these in-between places. I’ll document the trip: the challenge of cycle touring with a delicate instrument, worryingly unseasonable weather, wildlife and birdsong, and the positive interactions along the way.”

Among the works in the programme for the solo concerts is Forqueray's La Girouette (the weather vane) which may turn out to be the sort of instrument she needs as much as the viola da gamba, along with Marais' Les voix humaines (human voices). “Sometimes” Sarah feels, “we cannot find the words to communicate a message, but Marais finds a way.” This is not her first long-distance excursion. She cycled across the north of Europe to Lübeck as well, though not with her instrument. The great German player Hille Perl found a viol for her when she arrived. This British tour stemmed from that experience. “I realised I'd never explained why I'd done it, but this will do that, and will be an adventure too.”

by Simon Mundy

Sarah Small's 'Good Again?' Cycling Concert Tour will start at St John the Evangelist Church in Cambridge on 7 May. You can follow her journey on her tour blog.