On Sunday I fly to Russia with my shiny new 3-piece Valley Etain and a whole bunch of kayaking, cycling and filming equipment. I’ll be joining Sarah Outen again as she travels by kayak and bike from Russia to Japan, via the Russian island of Sakhalin.

Sarah’s logistics manager, Tim Moss, is also flying out to Russia and together we will pick up Nelson, Sarah’s trusty Rockpool kayak, and drive with him for 2 days up to Lazarev which is the closest point on the Russian Mainland to Sakhalin. We’ll meet Sarah here, who has spent the last 5 months cycling East from France! Sarah and I will make the 4 mile crossing to Sakhalin & kayak south down the remote Sakhalin coast for about 100miles. It will probably take 4 or 5 days before we reach the road and the town of Aleksandrov.

Meanwhile Tim will be getting himself, Sarah’s bike Hercules, and the rest of our kit to Alekandrov ready to meet us. Some local kayakers have been really helpful and they will also meet us in Aleksandrov and will help transport us and our kayaks further south to Korsakov. Sarah will of course cycle all the way. My job is to film her journey and edit short clips to go onto her website so sometimes I’ll join her on a bike and other times I’ll be in a vehicle.

From Korsakov we get back in the kayaks again and paddle about 90 miles down the Sakhalin coast to the SW tip of the island. It’s then a 20- 25 mile open crossing to Hokkaido island in Japan across La Perouse Strait. This will be a challenging paddle as there are strong tides and an even stronger East-going Soya current in La Perouse Strait but not very much information about whether this affects the whole strait or whether we will find eddies or counter currents. We have been given very helpful advice from local paddlers, especially Greg Beliakov, & we have a predictions for the ‘tide’ for 1 point in the Strait, but it’s hard to know how helpful that information is for the whole crossing.  There has been mention of some tidal races in places, but again not very detailed.

The upshot is that it’s very hard to know how far we will be pushed by currents and in what direction. We may end up working very hard to reach land if our predictions are wrong. I don’t know of anyone in modern times who has kayaked across this Strait but if anyone reading this has any  more information then we’d be very grateful to hear it! We’ll certainly be asking the locals in Sakhalin! We are required to have a safety boat for the crossing.

Once on Hokkaido, Sarah continues cycling south all the way down the island. We both then kayak approx. 10 miles to Honshu island across the very tidal Tsugaru strait. Thanks to Jeff Allen for information about this crossing, which he made with Hadas Feldman on their circumnavigation of Japan a few years ago. (you can see film of their journey on ‘This is the Sea 2′, or buy the digital download for just £1.99). But again, please get in touch if you have experience of kayaking in this area.

After the 3rd crossing, Sarah cycles on to Tokyo where she will spend the winter getting ready to row across the Pacific in Spring 2012. I come home.. hopefully in time for the UK storm gathering on Anglesey!