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When not sea kayaking,
Paul Caffyn lives on the edge of the Tasman
Sea on New Zealand's West Coast. He works as
a coal exploration and mining geologist, a
job which takes him deep underground in the
local coal mines. Although Paul began
canoeing at the tender age of 9 on the
Brisbane River, he only took up serious sea
kayaking in 1977. In the following 15 years
he has notched up over 30,000 miles in his
single Eskimo style kayaks. His Australian
trip is regarded as one of the great small
boat voyages of recent history.
Paul's first sea kayak expedition was around
Fiordland with co-paddler Max Reynolds. From
Jacksons Bay, Paul carried on solo to
complete the first kayak circumnavigation of
the South Island. This trip was the subject
of Paul's first book Obscured by Waves. In
1979 Paul kayaked 1700 miles around the
North Island, another first, and completed
the trip with a Cook Strait crossing. This
trip was the subject of a second book
Cresting the Restless Waves. In August 1979,
Paul teamed up with Max Reynolds again to
cross Foveaux Strait and complete a tough
kayak circumnavigation of Stewart Island.
Dark Side of the Wave completed Paul's New
Zealand trilogy of his kayak travels around
New Zealand. In 1980 Paul
teamed up with an English paddler, Nigel
Dennis, to complete the first kayak
circumnavigation of Great Britain. This
2,200 mile trip took 85 days.
In December 1981, Paul set out from
Queenscliff near Melbourne and spent the
next 360 days achieving the first kayak
circumnavigation of Australia. This 9,420
mile paddle is acknowledged as one of the
most remarkable journeys ever undertaken by
kayak. Paul had to contend with a tropical
cyclone which nearly swept him off a small
offshore islet in the Coral Sea, raging
surf, tiger sharks which frequently bumped
into the kayak in the Gulf of Carpentaria,
crocodiles, sea snakes and three sections of
sheer limestone cliffs. To overcome the
three 100+mile plus long sections of cliffs,
Paul used Nodoz tablets to stay awake and
lomotil to keep his bowels dormant during
these overnight paddles. The longest stint
along the awesome Zuytdorp Cliffs in Western
Australia, took 34 hours of continuous
paddling. After 10 years of trying to
interest a publisher in a book about the
Australian trip, in April 1994 Paul finally
self-published his story as The Dreamtime
Voyage. In 1985 Paul
completed a 4,400 mile 112 day paddle around
the four main islands of Japan. With
co-paddlers, Paul has twice attempted to
kayak across the Tasman Sea from Tasmania to
New Zealand but has been thwarted on both
occasions by the Tasmanian authorities and
bad weather. In August
1991, Paul paddled into Inuvik, in the
North-West Territories of Canada, to
complete the first solo kayak trip along the
entire coastline of Alaska. Commencing from
Prince Rupert in British Columbia, this
4,700 mile trip took three northern summers
to complete. Highlights of this trip were: a
herd of walrus swimming around the kayak, a
large brown bear ripping open Paul's tent
while he was asleep, being charged by a bull
musk ox, and meeting the Eskimo villagers
who are the descendents of the Inuit people
who originally evolved the skin kayaks of
the Arctic waters. Paul filmed the 1991 trip
from Nome to Inuvik, not easy when paddling
solo, and Canterbury Television edited the
tapes and some Television News footage of
Paul training on the West Coast, into a 30
minute documentary. In
September 1997 Paul, and Wellington paddler
Conrad Edwards, completed a 550 mile
circumnavigation of New Caledonia. 1998 -
690 mile trip along south-west coast of
Greenland, from Kangerslussuaq to Narsarsuaq
with Conrad Edwards 1999 - 700 mile paddle
along the west coast of Greenland from
Kangamiut to Upernarvik, with Conrad
Edwards. 2001 -2002: 610 mile trip from
Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, to and around the
island of Phuket, in Thailand; with Conrad
Edwards.
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