In mid June 2015, our team will fly north to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, to begin our 2000-kilometre sea kayak journey around the four main islands of the archipelago. We expect this adventure to take around 90 days, and apart from two planned food drops, we will be paddling expedition style without a support crew.

Our strategy for this expedition will depend on our predictions for the ice break up around the north-east corner of the archipelago. Some of the major challenges that we will face include a 300 kilometre uninterrupted stretch of glacial cliffs, polar bears, freezing temperatures and pack ice – which has the potential to halt our progress as we paddle north. We have developed a detailed ‘Safety Management Plan’ to help minimise the risks involved, and to plan for the hurdles that are likely to come our way.

hjghjj

Along the way we will be taking water samples to assist with scientific research on ‘Micro Plastics” within the world’s oceans. We hope that our expedition can help to raise awareness of the threats that the arctic is currently facing.

From here, our next step is to gather suitable gear, kayaks and equipment for our expedition.  We are also working to finalise logistics such as shipping our kayaks and gear to Svalbard, and the distribution of our planned food drops.  If you would like to support this expedition we would love to hear from you.