Two Royal Marine commandos, who hope to be the first Britons to walk "unsupported" to the North Pole, will be sending back weekly reports to British schools via the Internet.

Sergeant Sean Chapple, 30, and Corporal Alan Chambers, 29, plan to set out from Ward Hunt Island on March 1st and arrive at the North Pole by May 20th.

Sgt Sean Chapple, team leader of the Arctic walking expedition

The journey is more than 720km in a straight line but, because it will be over constantly-drifting ice, the actual distance they will cover will be closer to 1000km. They will each drag a "pulk" weighing over 150Kg behind them with all their supplies for the 80 day journey.

Each walker will be dragging a pulk weighing over 150kg

They plan to make weekly radio reports to their base camp in Resolute Bay and answer questions relayed to them from UK schools.

Robertsbridge Community College will be collecting the questions and providing further information through its Website. It is also planning an arctic expedition of its own - eight children, aged 13 to 15 will be the first British schoolchildren to visit the North Pole.

The children, with their teacher Kevin Hayter and his wife Ann Diver as guides, will go to Resolute Bay on 1st April.

They will study pollution in the Arctic, monitor the ozone layer and take part in other educational activities, then fly out to the North Pole for a day.

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