AN AFRICAN adventure awaits Westhoughton couple John and Jennifer Ramwell.

For the couple who run the International Sea Kayak Association are off to South Africa next month to do a reconnaissance for the British Schools Exploring Society to assess its suitability for a future expedition.

The couple will be concentrating their efforts in the small country of Lesotho, and if it passes the test, then a group of young people, aged from 16 to 20 will be heading off, possibly next year or the year after.

As secretary of the International Sea Kayak Association, John, became involved with the Society in the early 1980s when he was asked to help with an expedition and has been part of many more since then including trips to Greenland, Alaska and British Columbia. Jennifer became involved after been invited on a Norwegian expedition as base camp manager. It will be the first time their travels have taken them to Africa. Jennifer said: "I am looking forward to it. It will be a new experience for me as I've spent most of my travelling in the Arctic. I've never spent much time in a hot country and I'm not sure how I'm going to cope with it."

Jennifer says they will be looking for a fairly isolated area where they are able to take a large group of people without being a nuisance and upsetting the nature of the country. At the same time it should be accessible so they can buy food and be able to transport supplies and equipment.

"We will also be looking to carry out some scientific work and will be contacting universities and museums to see if we can help with a particular project," added Jennifer.

There will also, of course be room for some canoeing on the expedition, as the country has two large inland lakes and plenty of rivers.

Land-locked Westhoughton may seem an odd place for the headquarters of the International Sea Kayak Association, but Jennifer says most members, like themselves, do not live anywhere near the sea.

John, a great lover of the outdoors, founded the group 28 years ago, and at the time it was known as the Advanced Sea Kayak Club, before changing its name.

The Association now has some 500 members from all over Europe, including Switzerland, as well as far-away places like China and America.

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