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Wednesday, 18th April 2012
In Japan Travel News,
British woman to row her boat from Japan to Canada
A British woman is preparing to undertake a gruelling feat of endurance by rowing from Japan to Canada.
Sarah Outen will set off from the Japanese port of Choshi in the Chiba prefecture this week and will be completely alone until she arrives on Canadian shores, the AFP reported.
The adventurer is no stranger to such an attempt, however. In 2009 she rowed solo across the Indian Ocean and became the first woman to complete the remarkable achievement in the process.
Facing up to the breadth of the Pacific, Ms Outen is aware that this time she faces an altogether tougher adversary.
"The distance is really huge," she confessed to the news agency.
Acting as the only engine to her 22-foot long boat Gulliver, she has her work cut out for her to complete the huge 4,500 nautical mile trip. But as if that wasn't enough, when she arrives in Vancouver she will hop on her bike and cycle to the east coast of North America.
The trip should take her between six and seven months and packed into her two-cabin boat will be everything she needs to survive for the entire duration.
This includes all her food, a desalinator to purify sea water into drinking water, equipment to generate power, navigation systems and her all-important satellite phone.
Speaking to the news agency from her base in Yokosuka, she admitted to being an adrenaline junkie.
"Three years ago I crossed the Indian Ocean it took me four months to row from Australia to Mauritius.
"Whilst I was doing that I thought I would like to set myself an even bigger challenge; I want to journey across land and sea in one big expedition."
This began on April 1st last year when she set off on the 30-month London2London expedition that saw her kayak from Tower Bridge in London to Europe, then cycle across Eurasia before jumping back in her kayak to paddle to Japan.
The next leg of her journey is about to begin and she hopes to return to London by autumn next year.
Written by Graham McPherson
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