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Final Blog
MONDAY, JANUARY 05, 2009
The Journey is over for now
Firstly my apologies for the delay with this, my final blog. I have put Christmas, New Years, family and friends before my literary commitment. For those people who have asked where it is I thank you for your attention to my adventure.
Crossing the Finish Line!
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 09, 2008
Scott will write the final blog sometime in the next day or so. He is home safely snuggled up with Simba (his dog), and resting!
Crossing Lake Alexandrina
MONDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2008
We went to bed early and were woken by our guide Brad Butler who had caught the ferry and brought the Lake crossing early as it was the safest time to cross. We had had about 2 hours sleep at the most, maybe even only an hour by the time we actually got to sleep.
We kitted our kayaks out with neon sticks so that we could see each other in the dark. We had a three quarter moon and we set off from Wellington Marina at about 10.30pm, it was cold and we paddled 13km's out of the River Murray across to Point Pomanda.
We were paddling out there and all of a sudden we hit a low spot. Patto had to get out and push his boat! Coming up to the point the winds were 8-10 knots and the waves were coming up on top of my solar panel. The waves were just too big for Patto and I. We got onto the point and it was very rocky and we had to pull our boats up. There was no point setting up camp so we just grabbed a sleeping bag each and slept in the freezing cold under the moon and starts.
Brad was supported in his double kayak by Emily an Outdoor Education Teacher.
We had a really restless sleep because it was so cold. It was the 3rd time we'd had a short sleep during that period. Brad woke us up at about 3.30am and we were freezing cold and wet. Thankfully Brad had a thermos with some hot coffee in it that warmed us up.
The winds had changed direction, although it was still about a 5km wind. We set off across the lake at about 4am in total darkness. We were well prepared and we had a great guide. At about 4.45 the sun started to come up. It took about 2 hours to come up, and to start with you just see a faint glow over the horizon. We paddled to Ralcon Point, which took about 2 hours. By then the sun had fully come up, and it was a very very pastel soft pink, and made the sky a very very pastel soft blue, very different to a sun set and just absolutely magnificent, the sky at night paddling before the sun coming up with no moon was just absolutely beautiful, we saw shooting stars and a meteorite . It was the most splendid thing - We can't describe it on a blog, but it was amazing!
We got to Ralcon, we then turned a little bit right to Point Sturt, which took another couple of hours. The wind was still strong (8-10 knots) but had turned so that was helping rather than hindering us. The seas were getting quite choppy, like a washing machine and the waves were meeting each other and colliding, it made paddling interesting. Not too much that we couldn't handle! We always felt safe!! Finally at about 8.45 that morning after about 4-5 hours paddling we reached point Sturt. It was undoubtedly the most difficult part of the paddle! We had been paddling very very hard and with great concentration. We got to point Sturt and it was FREEZING cold. We had to get out and drag our boats about 200 metres.
We then had a 3 hour paddle to Clayton. It seemed to take forever to get there, as we were absolutely exhausted, with major paddles and very little sleep over the previous 24 hours! If we hadn't have been so tired we would have been over the moon when we arrived at Clayton at around 11.30am, but we were so tired. We are not over the moon of course!
Our sincere thanks to Brad Butler for what he did, if it wasn't for him we would have turned back at Point Pomanda, we wouldn't have crossed the lake. If it wasn't for him and Emily we would not have crossed the lake and it would have been something would have been missing from out journey so thanks so much to Brad and Emily, we owe it all to them that we got across the lake safely. Patto has just said that it's one of the scariest things he's ever done. It was magnificent and scary but we were planned and prepared. I don't think we were ever reckless but it was certainly very harrowing. The enormity of the Lake is just incredible. It's such a big lake, it's certainly not something someone should do without prior preparation and knowledge. It has claimed lives before, 6 at once a number of years ago! Not something to muck around with.
Thanks so much to the Clayton Wetlands Caravan Park for putting us up tonight, the locals have been lovely!
We've got about a 3 hour paddle tomorrow and will head under the bridge at Goolwa at about 11.30am.
Final day of paddling tomorrow!
Final Day of United 4 A Wish
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2008
An eventful night in Murray Bridge, with some youths planning to steal one of our kayaks during the night. Mike, our security guard was fantastic, we were so glad we had him! Thanks again!!!
We got up early and set off at about 8am. We had a bit of a head wind to begin with which turned nicely and we had a really nice days paddle. There were 11 of us paddling of us that day, with a 2nd group of 6 lagging behind as well as a group of 8 from Wilderness College that paddled independently.
We were met at Tailem Bend by Kate and Ray from Channel 10 who were great, and took some really good footage and put a great story on the news tonight! We also had some great lunch from Subway while we were there.
Then we paddled to Wellington. On the way there a couple of paddlers were approached by a fairly big snake, which thank goodness darted away as they got closer.
Thanks so much to ALL the paddlers who joined in with United 4 A Wish, over the various stages.
Once we were in Wellington and had said goodbye to our fellow paddlers we set off to the local hotel for an early and healthy dinner of Kangaroo and Pasta, as we had to eat a good meal and sleep early because we were setting of at 11pm to cross the lake!!!
We were in bed by 8pm as the sun was setting.
Scottie
United 4 A Wish is here at last!!!
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 06, 2008
Restless nights sleep as some of the locals in Mannumt hought it would be funny to come over to Bolto reserve and race around and do burns outs etc. There were a lot of campers in the reserve and we all got fed up with it. There about 6 people camping here for United 4 A wish.
We got up early and headed off about an hour late, with about 18 people for the first leg of the paddle. It was a fantastic day and fantastic weather up until about 2pm in the afternoon, which is where we encountered a head wind which is to be expected in these parts of the river. We picked up another 6 paddlers at Mypolonga and another 6 had taken off before we got there, but were still part of United 4 A Wish!
When we got to Murray Bridge we were met by a group of people who had been waiting around all afternoon.
GJ Gardner Homes (our major sponsor) had set up a tent and had a guess the number of lollies in the jar competition to raise money for Kanoe4Kids. Make A Wish volunteers were there handing out balloons to all the kids, as well as facepainting anyone brave enough, and the loveley people of the Murray Bridge Rotary Club had put on a sausage sizzle for everyone. It was a great family atmosphere (so I hear)!
Most people were able to hang around, and were there to cheer and clap as we came in!!!
United 4 A Wish is about people being invloved in the charity, yes we asked for a $100 donation, but the main thing is that they have participated! I don't know most of the people I'm paddling with, but they are all wonderful people that have given up their time and efforts to come up here to paddle for United 4 A Wish!!! So thanks so much to everyone to everyone who has joined me in this event!
We've had an interesting night with 4 young kids deciding to riffle through our tents while we were all in having dinner. We came out to them bailed up against a police car, as someone had called the police!!! Our night is now going to be safer thanks to Twin Bridges Logistics Security who have supplied a security guard for us for the night. I really appreciated all of the locals help
Another 40km paddle tomorrow so we're all in bed for now!
Scottie.