Author: Justine

  • “Islands of Fire” wins 2 awards!

    My latest film – which I haven’t really mentioned before – has just won it’s second award!

    I finished editing “Islands of Fire” just before heading off for Tierra del Fuego and posted a copy to the ‘Reel Paddling Film Festival‘ literally on the day that we left the UK. Rapid Media kindly made a copy and sent it to the ‘Waterwalker film festival‘.

    The 30 minute film about seakayaking in the warm turcoise waters of Sicily’s Aeolian islands won “Best Seakayaking Film” at both festivals, which is very exciting. The film is a little bit different to my other films in that the story is just as much about the place as it is about the paddling.  We kayak between the islands, climb active volcanoes, join in with the annual grape harvest, eat plenty of delicious Italian cuisine & explore ancient ruins. Local paddlers and lovely fellas Gianfranco Liotta and Francesco Petralia add humor and a real insight into the Italian way of life.

    The film will be released in October/ November this year as part of my next DVD. Excitingly, you will be able to select to watch it with Italia

    n or French subtitles. Gianfranco Liotta has already translated and put Italian and French subtitles on the film! A huge thank you to him. I may release the film before then as a digital download, so watch this space.

    There is a 3 minute trailer of the film on the Reel Film Festival website, and preview of the other winning films.

    If you can’t wait to see it, the film is on tour around the world (although mainly in the USA and Canada) with both festivals in 2011. The Reel Paddling Film Festival visits over 100 venues – click here for details.  See the Waterwalker website for details of their tour (soon to be updated).

    “Islands of Fire” is also showing on 19th/ 20th March as part of my local adventure Film Festival in North Wales, Llamff. I’m also giving a talk there which is mostly about my latest adventure in Tierra del fuego. I am editing a few bits of footage for that talk.

  • “Dougie” in Sheffield

    “Dougie Down the Pet” will be showing as part of the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival very soon. The festival runs from 4-6th March and screens a selection of some of the best recent outdoor films. You can see a preview of the film HERE. Or buy it from our store!

  • Other news…

    Now we are back in Britain, my thoughts turn to friends & family, the work I have been neglecting and what is going on in the world!

    Here is a round up of other interesting happenings over the last few weeks.

    Many years ago my good friend Cheryl Frost persuaded me to buy a bike and cycle across the Pyrenees mountains with her from coast to coast (and back). It was a great adventure, and back then I could keep up with her! Since then she has led various trekking and bike trips all over the world and she’s recently started her own company, Rather be cycling! Cheryl and her partner offer inspirational bike trips all over the world. Check it out here!

    In April, the friendly human dynamo Sarah Outen sets off on her 3 year journey around the globe by bike, rowing boat and kayak. I’m delighted to have been asked to join Sarah on the kayaking sections of her trip, kicking off with a paddle from London to France. We’ll leave Tower Bridge on 1st April. On this trip, Sarah will be rowing solo across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. She has already rowed solo across the Indian ocean, picking up 3 Guinness world records in the process. Sarah has just released her book about this amazing journey, called “A dip in the Ocean”. I’ve heard about a few of the more exciting moments and I can’t wait to read it. You can order it here at a reduced price, or check out Sarah’s website for more info about her big London2London trip.


    On the subject of crossings, in case you misssed it, a 64 year old Polish man recently successfully kayaked across the Atlantic ocean. Read about it here.

    Australian paddler Stu Trueman is more than half way around Australia at the moment, in a bid to be only the 3rd person to complete the amazing trip.You can follow his journey here.

    Another Australian kayaker Sandy Robson is also embarking on an ambitious journey this year. Over a number of years, she is tracing the footsteps of Oskar Speck, who kayaked from Germany to Australia in 1932. She starts in May 2011 with a 6 month paddle from Germany to Cyprus. More info here.

    Freya Hoffmeister has announced her next trip which will be to kayak around most of South America over 22 months.

    Simon Osborne & Marin Medak are currently kayaking around South Korea.

    Harry Wheelan, Jeff Allen & Chris Millington will attempt a speed record around Ireland this Spring in their Rockpool Tarans.

    The latest issue of “Adventure Kayak” magazine contains an article about Marcus Demuth’s record breaking paddle around Britain last year, including a photo that Barry took of me filming Marcus. I like the caption they used: “This is Marcus”. There is also a technique article by my good friend Shawna Franklin of Body Boat Blade, with endorsement from other experienced coaches.

    Last week, I spotted a recent review of one of my first DVDs, ‘This is the Sea 2’ by the popular and topical blog KayakYak. If you haven’t seen it… maybe it’s time you did!?


    For anyone interested in other people’s take on our Tierra del Fuego trip, a few websites reported on the journey. The website Explorers Web interviewed me prior to our trip to Tierra del Fuego. You can read the article here.

    They published an update when we came home!

    Adventure Kayak magazine was following the trip with updates on their website, including this final one.

    KANU magazine followed the trip with some reports in German. The start. Later on.

    Gianfranco Liotta from Sicily translated all of our TDF blog posts into Italian and posted them as ‘notes’ in facebook. Here is the link, although maybe you have to be a friend of Gianfranco’s to read them?

  • Heading home

    About a month ago, we met Monica and Marcelo for the first time. They drove for over 2 hours to see us when we first landed our kayaks in Argentina. Barry’s wrist was hurting a lot and we asked them if we could come and stay with them for in Rio Grande for 2 or 3 days.  30 days on, we laugh about our initial request… what would they have said if we had asked to stay for 3 weeks, and then keep reappearing?

    In reality, we have all become good friends  & we have learnt how kind and generous our hosts both are (although I am still amazed that they seemed happy to have us staying with them for so long). Yesterday they drove us for 3 hours to Porvenir in Chile, where we took the ferry to Punta Arenas.  We could have taken the bus but it was great to spend the last few hours on Isla Grande with Moni & Marcelo.  We also got to see a different part of the island as we cut west to the coast, driving alongside the huge bay that leads to the ferry town. The tyres crunched over the dirt road as we cruised over the flat barren landscape, dotted with occasional estancias and even more occasional trees. Every few miles, a few lonely fishermens shacks and boats littered the shore.

    We took the ferry west across the Straits of Magellan to Punta Arenas and I couldn’t help notice that it was a perfect following sea if we were heading east. Kiko met us on the other side, and despite the fact he is going on holiday first thing in the morning today, he made us feel very welcome, fed us pizza & got up at 3.30am to take us to the airport. I am still gutted about not being able to continue our trip – when I stood on the beach for the last time, listening to the waves pounding on the pebbles, feeling the wind blowing through my hair and yearning for the adventures waiting further down the coast, it was hard to walk away from that…… but as we keep saying, and many of our friends have pointed out, the kayaking adventure is still there for another day, and by not kayaking, we have build strong friendships and shared great experiences.

    The kayaks are still in Rio Grande. One of them now belongs to Marcelo but he has promised to let us use it when we return. We are now in Santiago airport on the way home, and looking forward to catching up with friends. I have a feeling that a part of my brain will keep on thinking about that view south until I come back! After all, no-one said goodbye, only “hasta luego”!