Wow, it’s been a busy 2016 so far, but that’s just how I like it. Sorry I haven’t fitted in updating the blog. Here’s a brief update – more to follow when I get a chance I hope.

I spent a great 2 months in Indonesia, paddling with Sandy Robson 1000km or so along the West Papua and Papua coastline. Highlights included swimming with a whaleshark and the local culture and colour.

I had 5 days back in Wales before heading out to the West coast of America where I was the keynote speaker at the Port Angeles Paddle and Film Festival. I rushed from there to Orcas island to see my great friends Shawna and Leon of Body Boat Blade.

I set off from Orcas island on Thursday 28th April to attempt to kayak around Vancouver island solo. I’m writing this from Comox after 5 days. I’m loving the trip so far. I certainly haven’t been bored or lonely, although I did notice that on the day that I set myself a target and fixated on my GPS speed that I enjoyed it less. So the last 2 days I turned the GPS off, enjoyed the scenery and was a lot more content. There will be times for studying speeds and working out landing options but not every day.

I feel that doing a solo trip is great for my soul, especially one is such a beautiful arena. The mountains have a dusting of snow on top, like someone sprinkled them with icing sugar and every day I see some of all of eagles, sea lions, otters, seals and birds. Nature is intensified when you are by yourself and I’m loving it.

I have set up a SPOT tracker every night to show my location. The SPOT shared page will display the last 7 days here.

I tried to set up a SPOTWALLA map which should show my position every day for the entire trip. It’s not working at the moment – it only shows the last 2 days but in case I manage to get help to get it fixed here is the link to that.

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