To The North Pole

By Kayak.

LONDON (AFP) - A British explorer unveiled plans Tuesday to kayak all the way to the North Pole to expose just how quickly the ice cap is melting.

But renowned extreme swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh, dubbed the human polar bear, is hoping his bid will fail -- and not because of the lethal conditions or a walrus attack.

The climate change campaigner said the mission ought to be impossible -- but some scientists predict that due to global warming, this year might be the first when someone could do so.

Pugh is due to paddle out from Norway's Svalbard islands on August 29, heading 1,200 kilometres (some 750 miles) north across the Arctic Ocean to the North Pole, kayaking up cracks in the ice.