Next summer, I'm going to bike across France.

Hopefully, that'll be 1,500km of pedaling across the country.

Sounds rough, right? (okay, maybe not - France is pretty beautiful after all). But imagine doing all of that without clean water.

Every week, millions of women and their children walk more than 14 miles just to get water for their families. Most of this water is contaminated, but it's the only water they have. They take the chance of catching diseases like bilharzia and schistosomiasis (parasites) - with every sip. There's nothing they can do to change it.

So, what can I do?

My mission is to raise $1,500 for water. I'm asking for pledges per km to help achieve my goal. Every $1 you give, I'll ride a km (which is about 5/8 of a mile, for those non-metric among us). Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to limit it to 1,500km, since I only have so many weeks of vacation each year :) But if we go over $1,500, we can sponsor my wife as well!

Because of charity: water's unique model, 100% of all donations go directly to water projects, and each donation is "proved" when projects are complete. I aim to raise $1,500 in the next three months.

3 months from now will put us right about at Christmas - so if you're thinking of getting me something for Christmas - don't. This is where you should spend your money - this will be a great gift for me!

And to show you I'm serious, the first 10km are on me (that will at least get me to the first winery, it's up to you if you want me to make it any further).

I know next summer is a long way off, but don't worry, I'll prove my trip with photos and gps postings from along the way :)