Author: Justine

On Monday I went down to London to meet Sarah Outen‘s team who are helping her organise her upcoming mammoth adventure to row, bike and kayak around the world. I head back down to London tomorrow, but this time I’m taking my kayak. Sarah’s three year adventure all kicks off at 1pm this Friday 1st April at Tower Bridge. I’ll be joining her to kayak from London, down the river Thames and around the coast to Ramsgate or Dover, and then across the Channel. From there, she’s on her own for the next  5 months as she bikes across Europe and Russia. I’ll be joining her again in September to kayak from Russia to Japan.

If you are in London and want to see us off, we leave at 1pm from under Tower Bridge. We’ll be at HMS President before that, getting organized and Sarah will be hosting a press conference and speeches. That part isn’t open to the public but you can watch from the bridge or from the other side of the river. We plan to do a kayak lap under the bridge and round to the other side of the river before leaving.

I have been editing some videos for Sarah of her preparations over the last few months, including her picking up her Rockpool kayak from Anglesey, and kayak training in Menorca. You can see them on Sarah’s youtube channel.

Thanks to George Outen for the pictures.

Two mornings this week, I made it out to the Swellies wave on the Menai Straits for a play. There is something great about being up & exhilarated early, having a great paddle and being home not too long after you would usually have breakfast. The large tides made for some fun surfing.

On the second morning, once the Swellies wave had died down, we moved across to the wave over the reef besides the cardinal marker. Conveniently, the wave there started working once the tide rose too high for the Swellies wave to form. The wave surged and got bigger about every 5-10 minutes. It looked really intimidating but was actually a nice smooth ride.

Last weekend, we went seakayaking for the first time for a month – having given Barry’s wrist another good chunk of time to heal. We managed 2 short paddles. Yesterday we went on a longer paddle around the Stacks. Things are moving in the right direction and it was great to be back seakayaking at home in Wales.

The doctor suggested that Barry take a giant ball on the back of his kayak so if his wrist suddenly fails, he will be prevented from capsizing all the way over. Yes, of course that is a load of rubbish and I just made it up! We found the mooring buoy at the back of Parliament House Cave when we stopped for lunch. Barry’s friend was about to buy one for his boat so we saved him a bit of money and brought this one back for him! Needless to say, we didn’t stop for a surf in South Stack race with the buoy in tow.

Less than 2 weeks until Sarah Outen starts her 3-year human powered journey around the globe. I’m looking forward to kayaking from London to France with her – kick off is 1pm on 1st April at Tower Bridge.

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This weekend is my ‘local’ Mountain Film Festival.

“Llamff” is Llanberis’ answer to Canada’s Banff Mountain Film Festival. It features many of the latest and best outdoor films and zillions of interesting speakers. Lots of climbers like Alan Hinkes and a several talks by adventure cameramen on how they get the shots. Olly Saunders is talking about his last seakayaking trip to Greenland.

My latest film, “Islands of Fire” is showing on Sunday, and I am giving a talk about some of my adventures on Sunday afternoon (including the first view of some footage from ‘Tierra del Fuego’). So, I better get back to editing that footage from Tierra del Fuego! If you are in North Wales consider taking a break from kayaking/ climbing/ biking/ drinking tea in Pete’s Eats to check out some of the festival.