|
The "North
Face" Tasmania Circumnavigation
The first all-female circumnavigation of
Tasmania by sea kayak.
Have you seen the opening
scene of the DVD "This is the Sea"? Well,
those 3 girls paddling in buoyancy aids
(sorry, PFDs) that look remarkably like
bikini tops decided they had so much fun
surfing in the tide race at Penrhyn Mawr
that they should paddle together a bit more.
Justine hasn't been forgiven for making them
film that scene in the chilly February seas
so a bit of sun was called for. So, in
November and December 2004, Justine
Curgenven, Trys Morris & Gemma Rawlings
swapped Wintry Wales for Southern Hemisphere
Summer sun.
 The
Australian island is about the size of
Ireland, approximately 1,500 km all the way
round. We started on the East coast at
Eaglehawk Neck ( about an hour from Hobart)
and travelled anti-clockwise to make the
best use of predominantly Northerly and
Westerly winds on the most tricky sections.
In fact headwinds were our biggest challenge
- no-one had told the weather gods that the
wind was meant to be behind us! Constant
headwinds were particularly bad on the north
coast where our morale was beaten to it’s
lowest by day after day of battling into
stroing winds. We constantly got up in the
dark at 4am, to try to be on the water at
first light at 5.30am.
We knew the West coast would be challenging
as big swells roll in from the Antarctic and
there are few landing spots, people or
roads. The swells were up to 3-stories high
but we managed to avoid landing through big
surf most of the time. Sometimes we had to
commit ourselves to paddling up to 40km to
the next "safe" take-out. We had a tense
day, in the aftermarth of a storm, paddling
past beaches with raging surf, hoping that
we had correctly identified a sheltered
landing spot on our map. Fortunately, we
were right.
We completed the journey in 37 days, with 4
days off due to bad weather. IT was 1350km
the way we did it and a fantastic experience
for all of us.
UPDATE: COMPLETED,
READ TRIP BLOG HERE.
TRIP REPORT AVAILABLE:
CLICK HERE.
TASMANIA PHOTO GALLERY:
Click Here.
TEAM MEMBERS
Justine is an experienced expedition sea
kayaker with past trips to Kamchatka,
Alaska, around Wales and a solo trip around
Iceland's West Fjords. She is an adventure
filmmaker and will film the expedition for
international television and for a
commercial DVD.
Trys was the first woman in the world to
pass the BCU level 5 seakayak coaching
award, putting her at the very top of the
coaching ladder. She has worked as a kayak
instructor and guide all over the world.
She's a qualified expedition leader who's
past trips include an 8 month journey from
the UK to Greece. She's currently writing a
book about sea kayak leadership.
Gemma is a gutsy, talented paddler with a
broad background in canoeing and river
paddling. Since starting work at ASSC a year
ago she's had some of the best tidal races
in the world on her doorstep and she's taken
full advantage to become a skilful sea
kayaker. Past trips include crossing the
Straits of Gibraltar and exploring the Outer
Hebridees & Jura.
SPONSORS
The headline sponsor is 'The
North Face' - thanks very much to
them for their generous support.
Other sponsors;
Nigel Dennis Kayaks
Lendal
Reed Chillcheater
Snapdragon
Extreme Vision Systems
Cotswold Outdoors
Cafe Active
Kaynau
Thanks to Olly & Leo of Rock and Sea
Productions for use of their ERIPB.
Thanks to Axel Schoevers (www.seakayaker.nl)
for donating us the best map cases ever.
Thanks to Aled Williams for setting up our
Trip Blog (www.rockpoolkayaks.com)
Thanks to everyone who helped us and
entertained us along the way in Tasmania,
particularly Matt who was like a 4th member
of the team, and to Jeff and Rex.
|
