Row, row, row your boat - all the way to North Pole

Jock Wishart and five others hope to make history by rowing 450 miles across the Arctic Sea.

The trips, estimated to take four to six weeks, has not been done before. It is only possible now because of more ice-melt in the Arctic, organisers said.

Mr Wishart is leading the Old Pulteney Row To The Pole challenge to highlight the effect of climate change on the ice around the polar regions. He has carried out two previous expeditions to the North Pole and has also rowed across the Atlantic.

Before setting off, he said: "No-one has ever attempted this before, so we are quite literally heading off on a voyage into the unknown.

"I've seen the satellite images showing a route through the ice in late summer for the last two years, so, as the expedition leader, I'm looking forward to meeting the challenge for real and making a bit of history at the same time.

When asked what he would miss most during the expedition, he replied: "A glass of malt and a change of clothes."

Dumfries-born Mr Wishart captained the team that broke the London-to-Paris rowing record in 1999, and in 1992 he was part of the first group to walk unsupported to the geomagnetic North Pole.

Scottish cyclist Mark Beaumont is on the boat to make a documentary about the voyage.

He said: "For me, the thing I'm anticipating most is filming the journey, its ups and downs and excitement, trying to capture the spirit of an unprecedented journey".