In my last post, I wrote about not being afraid to paddle during the cooler months.

Well, look no further than Hayley Sheperd, a native Kiwi who's now living in British Columbia, for inspiration.

For the last seven years, Hayley's been guiding and leading kayak expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctica. Now, she's getting ready to attempt the first solo sea kayak circumnavigation of South Georgia Island, starting in January 2009.

Never been to South Georgia? Me neither. By all accounts, it's a desolate, wind-swept outcropping of rock and ice in the Southern Atlantic that puts the burliest of polar explorers to the test.

It was South Georgia where Ernest Shackleton landed in 1916 after sailing from Elephant Island some 800 miles to the southwest, seeking help for the crew of the Endurance, which had succumbed to the Antarctic ice.

South Georgia was also one of the main points of dispute during the Falklands War in 1982, when both Argentina and Britain laid claim to the island, a point of contention that hasn't been resolved to this day.

Sounds like a fun place, huh? So why would a presumably sane, sea-kayaking Kiwi want to undertake such a venture? To help save another iconic fixture of the Southern Ocean: the Albatross. Since 1985, South Georgia's Albatross population has been cut in half, largely due to the birds drowning when they get hooked on long-line fishing bait.

"Right now in the southern ocean an albatross could be dying," Hayley says on her Web site, which she's using to help raise funds to save the gigantic birds, with the help of several sponsors, including Kokatat, whose dry suits will help keep her warm. "In fact, on average, every 5 minutes another albatross is hooked and drowned."

Haley estimates that her 490 nautical mile expedition will take three to five weeks, if the weather is good. January, of course, is the middle of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, so maybe she'll get lucky. She plans on spending 12 to 14 hours a day in her kayak during good weather, and will likely have to take shelter during storms.

In 2005, Graham Charles, Marcus Waters, and Mark Jones -- also all Kiwis -- completed the first successful circumnavigation of South Georgia. Hayley, if successful, will be the first person to complete this formidable journey alone.

"As hostile, as dangerous, and as foreboding as it feels, South Georgia's charm, its dramatic and ruggedly stunning beauty, has a power that I will be forever drawn to," Hayley says. "I shall not rest until I have seen the intimacy of it all."

We wish her -- and the Albatross -- good luck, and will be watching for updates as her journey draws closer.