Follow Scott's Progress

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!