He swam in the frozen waters of both the Arctic and the Antarctic but now Lewis Gordon Pugh is paddling a kayak 1,200km to the North Pole in another effort to warn the world of how quickly the Arctic is melting.
The expedition, on behalf of the Polar Defense Project, aims to illlustrate just how thin the sea ice has become in recent years.
The Travel Channel (Europe) screens Travel OZ several times a week, ABC1 Australia screens Travel OZ at 6pm on Wednesdays while the ABC's Australia Network (Asia /Pacific) is airing episodes every Sunday at 5.30pm and 9.30pm Hong Kong time.
I came across this preview, part of several episodes, that they hve uploaded to You Tube. The video clip shows Greg Grainger and his team as they sample the awesome kayaking, snorkelling and birding on Norfolk Island.
Having posted the occasional article here, tracing the river Danube from its source in Germany to the Black Sea, it was nice to learn that a team of Kayakers, twin sisters Chrissy and Eve Conyers, with their friends Wayne and Josh, are setting out on June 26 from Regensburg, Germany, to paddle about 2500 km to the Romanian estuary.
The group are using the trip to raise money for the children of CanTeen, who have grown up living with cancer. The girls have been members of CanTeen throughout their childhood because their brother, Adrian has been battling with a brain tumor. CanTeen is an Australian support organisation for young people (aged 12-24) that are living with the disruption of cancer; this includes ot only the cancer patients themselves, but their brothers and sisters and also young people with parents or primary carers with cancer.
German football fans are now heading to Vienna for the Euro 2008 final, so they have chosen a particularly exciting time for their adventure. Let's wish Team Kayak luck and if you are able to support them with a sposorship donation, go to Eveyday Hero, where you will be able to make a donation and enable them to 'Raise More Than a Sweat for CanTeen'.
I have made several posts recently about whales, turtles and Hawaii, so my attention was caught by a report in TimesOnline. It tells of two kayakers who got more than they bargained for on a trip to spot sea turtles off the Hawaiian island of Maui, apparantly they inadvertently disturbed an anxious female humpback whale, who breached out of the water to warn them off and protect her young.
The report has some good information about the humpback whale breeding grounds between the Hawaiian islands and some nice pictures of the close encounter between the kayakers and the whale. It reminded me of a short video that I posted a couple of years ago, Interesting Kayaking Experience.
James Castrission, and Justin Jones, landed safely but their condition makes the feat of New Zealander, Colin Quincy, even more extra-ordinary; he became the first person to row across the Tasman solo, taking 67 days to make the crossing in 1976.
An Australian foursome completed the journey in the opposite direction in half the time, 31 days, arriving in Sydney Harbour on December 30, 2007.
People are massing at Ngamotu Beach, New Plymouth in New Zealand, to greet Australian kayakers, James Castrission, and Justin Jones, who are expected to make landfall in about 4 hours time, completing an epic crossing of the Tasman Sea.
The crossing will also enter the record books as the longest recorded two-man Kayak journey; the pair have spent 62 days at sea.
The Green Race Movie tells the story of an annual world-class whitewater race that takes place near Saluda, North Carolina. It captures the grace and excitement of class V+ kayaking and the unique character of the Green Race, which draws kayaking's top athletes from around the world.
This extreme downriver race, is held on the first Saturday in November, on the Class V rapids of the Green River; regarded in kayaking circles to be the most extreme of extreme downriver races in the world. More.
If you are a Canadian or US citizen, and you and your partner typify an urban couple, you could be in with a chance to win a guided, Northern Ontario-style, five-day kayaking adventure, by entering the Most Urban Couple Challenge. The winners will be the participants who are deemed to be the 'most urban', so I guess that it is a necessity that the winning tour be guided! The competition is part of a new website and media campaign from Sault Ste. Marie tourism, aimed at promoting the heart of Canada's untouched wilderness; Northern Ontario.
