Dry suit wearing !!

Essentially its in the name 'Dry suit '
Need one say more??

But Richie did well especially when the camera man said could he do it again but with more 'dynamism' !!!

Hollywood here we come!!

Timmy and I are making our TV debut tommorrow at 11.15am and 6.00pm. ITV Westcountry are running a little article on their news programme. Not sure I am a natural on the TV but who cares it is a bit of publicity. If I looked cold it is because I did all the rolling and Timmy did none - who was wearing the drysuit? eh! Timmy.

Happy watching

Good news and bad news

The good news is we had the shipping confirmed today for free!!!,kayaks handed into the port freight chaps on the 7th of Nov to arrive in the Falkland Islands 3rd ish of Dec.
Bad news Paul(Spider)Taylor has dropped out of the expedition.
More good news Richy has ordered a shiny new PH Scorpio kayak (lots of room for tea bags ) and should be ready to ship on the 7th.

Tims Update

I am the oldest one of the gang, a mere pensioner from the Metropolis.
I met Chris whilst on holiday in May on a wet and windy camp site in Sennen and look where its got me !

Still kayaking on a regular basis having paddled a lot of the West Country coast, Pembrokeshire and even atrip to greece, which was tough !!

Looking to raise a lot of money with your help, as well as paddle a part of the world I know little about.

Hi there Chris here just to add to Richeys team intro, Im lving in Kent at the momment,paddling mainly near Dover and Deal ,The Expedition will be run on a pritty democratic basis so more of Exped organiser than leader , untill we get there then we will wait and see how it all goes desisions mainly being to paddle or not weather dependant ,and to sample the tea from Richy each AM ,
I am 39 and have been in the Army since i was 16 so have been on a few Expeditions some work and some fun .Other kayak trips, Northern Irish coast,,Belfast to Fort William,, Cyprus coast from Karinia clockwise to Paphos.

Packing Practise

Hi there I am Richy (the youngest member of the expedition, probably turn out to be the tea-boy!!). I live in Truro, cornwall and work there as a firefighter. I learn't to sea kayak on the cornish coastline which tends to get it's fairshare of weather and sea conditions. I met Chris, the exped leader, through Timmy Carter (also on the exped and a climbing/kayaking partner)and got invited to come along. Living in cornwall I like to try my hand at most things the environment provides for so I kitesurf, surf and climb, occassionally a bit of cycling and running to keep my fitness up.

Logistics

It was while serving in the Falklands that i first came up with the idea of paddling around it.
As i looked into it i then realised the sizable problems . getting kayaks kit and team members there, sounds so easy but quickly became very complex.
The challenge of paddling around is another thing so will not go into that as most reading this will be seakakers and will be aware that it may be a litte breezie and lumpy.
As far as we know, Leif Ponciet ( a Falkland Islander) is the only paddler to sucsessfuly paddle around both East and West Falkland, (If you know of any one else please let us know)
At the moment there are 3 differant expeditions atempting to get round this winter (Falklands summer). Fiona Whitehead and Tom Parrick, and a solo attempt Marcus Demuth ,and us. Good luck to them all.
Chris Millington

Welcome

This is the first post of many which, hopefully, will lead up to a successfull circumnaviagtion of The Falkland islands. Four of us are attempting to do this in our sea kayaks. We are heading out on 28th December and have given ourselves 6 weeks to complete the challenge. We are raising money for Help for Heroes and two Falkland Island charities - The Stephen Jaffray Memorial Fund and the Falklands Outward Bound Trust. We are currently looking for sponsorship and have generated some media attention.

Sea Kayaking around the Falkland Island poses some specific problems but also holds some amazing experiences. The islands are almost uninhabited (just over 3000 people of which most live in Stanley). They are very remote and desolate which increases the exposure but allows you to experience a true wilderness. The wildlife is unique to the islands with an abundance of seals, dolphins, whales and bird life including a number of penquin species and a very rare and myserious wren! Despite going in the summer the islands are still far enough south to produce some bad weather. They are constantly battered by swells from the southern ocean and lashed by strong antarctric winds. These factors will kayaking quite testing at times. Due to the remote nature of the islands the nearest rescue could be a very long time coming especially if hindered by poor weather.