The British Arctic Air Route Expedition 1930-2024

“The White Kayak”

The White Kayak is a film project that will tell the story of Gino Watkins his fellow explorers and BAARE (British Arctic Air Route Expedition ) . Epic expeditions involving canvas covered airplanes, harrowing boat trips, winter dog sled journeys and hunting by kayak. “Into Ice”” will tell of how these intrepid young Men entrusted their lives to local Inuit hunters, how they learned the skills of hunting from a seal skin kayak, how to drive a team of dogs and how they shared their love of jazz via a gramophone, dancing the long Winter evenings with Inuit guests. This is a story of the true spirit of adventure & exploration, it is a story of boldness, confidence , good leadership and a shared respect for nature and the indigenous people they shared it with.

In Summer 2024 a team of 5 adventurers will travel to East Greenland to film and tell the story of Gino, his life, his untimely death in Greenland and the epic journeys made by BAARE members. We will sail to the original base camps used by Watkins and his team, explore and follow some of the land & sea journeys they made in the challenging East Coast of Greenland. Sharing original maps and many fine images taken by Watkins & co during the 1930`s, we will document how the local environments have changed in the intervening decades and how regional Inuit culture has changed from they way of life during Watkins time and the digital age of today.

”The White Kayak” expedition seeks to tell these stories in a way that highlights the dramatic beauty of this Arctic region along with the extreme hardships faced by them, the peoples who lived there then and the challenges faced by those who live there today. This is a story told by modern adventurers & film makers, by people living there today and through the words written by Gino Watkins himself and his fellow team mates along with the wonderful images they took during this series of expeditions. This is a story of early aviation, of the birth of modern European sea kayaking, of scientific research above and beyond, of wholly committing, life threatening sea journeys and of dog sled journeys in Winter of epic proportions.

We hope you can also follow or join us on our own quest of discovery into the life of explorer Gino Watkins, of these extraordinary expeditions they undertook and be inspired as we have been by the tales you will hear and the images you will see !

Meantime. if you would like more info, like to contribute or join our expedition team, please do get in touch, we would love to hear from you !