Sea Kayak Scandinavia Circumnavigation

South Georgia 2005

For me an expedition doesn't really start to feel like one until I have been away for at least a couple of weeks and have had the opportunity to shake off the cobwebs left by this world of what is often termed...

'a society governed by credit cards and protected by double glazing'

So the ideal type of journey I would like to embark upon is one where I know I am going to be away for at least a couple of months at a time, if not more! The expedition needs to be conducted in an area that is both remote and beautiful. So what better place to go than Norway, or even better Scandinavia as a whole.

It's a pretty big and remote region. More than 60% of Norway's coastline lies above the Arctic Circle and much of the outer coastline is open to all of the fetch of the North Atlantic but with many islands offering some shelter along its fjord lined coast.

We hope to see much wild life including both Orca's and Sea Eagle's, we may even experience the 'Northern Lights' or 'Aurora Borealis' and  meet the original descendants of this great seafaring and adventurous nation, the Vikings. In the North of Scandinavia is an area known as Lapland, home to the Sámi people, the last nomadic tribe of Europe. It is with these nomadic people we hope to meet up with in the far North.

I haven't placed a definitive start and end date to this journey because I want it to be a journey governed by the experience and not a pre-determined goal set in either time or place, so if the whole project is spread over 1, 2 or even 3 years, so be it. I also wanted to learn a new skill, hence the overland section. This part of the journey will be conducted, hopefully by Ski, if not then another form of traditional Nordic travel. It will be another learning curve for me and one that I look forward to.

We are at present set to depart from Escape Kajak Centre just outside of Gothenburg in early March and shall be paddling North, trying to get as far as possible before the beginning of May and then we will have to return home. Both Mark and I have a busy summer teaching and guiding for that year, at home in Cornwall and Maine.

In the spring of 2009 we will return and pick up the journey where we left off, hopefully accompanied by Ronnie Kemp from Sea Kayak Georgia. We will then start heading south, back down towards the Gulf Of Bothnia and out through the Baltic Sea making our way back towards our start point, or maybe somewhere else who knows, because the truth is the journey never ends!

Charities & Education

We have also decided to try and use the expedition to raise awareness for two charities, the 'Ovarian Cancer Action' Charity and the 'Children's Hospice South West' Both are very worthwhile charities and we hope to raise money for valuable research into Ovarian Cancer as well as securing financial help to have a children's Hospice built in my home county of Cornwall.

If you wish to help financially towards either of these two charities please click on the 'Donate now' link at the base of this page.

We are also hoping to develop an educational work sheet which any school or college who may be interested in can download and use as a means of helping us to develop this whole expedition into an interactive package which students from all walks of life can participate in over the next few years. Links with Falmouth Marine School have been developed to help and construct this.

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Expedition members are

Jeff Allen               Mark Schoon

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