Blog

“Dougie Down the Pet” will be showing as part of the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival very soon. The festival runs from 4-6th March and screens a selection of some of the best recent outdoor films. You can see a preview of the film HERE. Or buy it from our store!

Now we are back in Britain, my thoughts turn to friends & family, the work I have been neglecting and what is going on in the world!

Here is a round up of other interesting happenings over the last few weeks.

Many years ago my good friend Cheryl Frost persuaded me to buy a bike and cycle across the Pyrenees mountains with her from coast to coast (and back). It was a great adventure, and back then I could keep up with her! Since then she has led various trekking and bike trips all over the world and she’s recently started her own company, Rather be cycling! Cheryl and her partner offer inspirational bike trips all over the world. Check it out here!

In April, the friendly human dynamo Sarah Outen sets off on her 3 year journey around the globe by bike, rowing boat and kayak. I’m delighted to have been asked to join Sarah on the kayaking sections of her trip, kicking off with a paddle from London to France. We’ll leave Tower Bridge on 1st April. On this trip, Sarah will be rowing solo across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. She has already rowed solo across the Indian ocean, picking up 3 Guinness world records in the process. Sarah has just released her book about this amazing journey, called “A dip in the Ocean”. I’ve heard about a few of the more exciting moments and I can’t wait to read it. You can order it here at a reduced price, or check out Sarah’s website for more info about her big London2London trip.

On the subject of crossings, in case you misssed it, a 64 year old Polish man recently successfully kayaked across the Atlantic ocean. Read about it here.

Australian paddler Stu Trueman is more than half way around Australia at the moment, in a bid to be only the 3rd person to complete the amazing trip.You can follow his journey here.

Another Australian kayaker Sandy Robson is also embarking on an ambitious journey this year. Over a number of years, she is tracing the footsteps of Oskar Speck, who kayaked from Germany to Australia in 1932. She starts in May 2011 with a 6 month paddle from Germany to Cyprus. More info here.

Freya Hoffmeister has announced her next trip which will be to kayak around most of South America over 22 months.

Simon Osborne & Marin Medak are currently kayaking around South Korea.

Harry Wheelan, Jeff Allen & Chris Millington will attempt a speed record around Ireland this Spring in their Rockpool Tarans.

The latest issue of “Adventure Kayak” magazine contains an article about Marcus Demuth’s record breaking paddle around Britain last year, including a photo that Barry took of me filming Marcus. I like the caption they used: “This is Marcus”. There is also a technique article by my good friend Shawna Franklin of Body Boat Blade, with endorsement from other experienced coaches.

Last week, I spotted a recent review of one of my first DVDs, ‘This is the Sea 2’ by the popular and topical blog KayakYak. If you haven’t seen it… maybe it’s time you did!?

For anyone interested in other people’s take on our Tierra del Fuego trip, a few websites reported on the journey. The website Explorers Web interviewed me prior to our trip to Tierra del Fuego. You can read the article here.

They published an update when we came home!

Adventure Kayak magazine was following the trip with updates on their website, including this final one.

KANU magazine followed the trip with some reports in German. The start. Later on.

Gianfranco Liotta from Sicily translated all of our TDF blog posts into Italian and posted them as ‘notes’ in facebook. Here is the link, although maybe you have to be a friend of Gianfranco’s to read them?

Now that our kayaking adventure in Tierra del Fuego has been  over for a day or two I have had a bit of time to reflect on things. Things were tough right from the start but the challenges that we faced were not the ones that either of us were expecting. Even before we arrived in South America things had been difficult for Justine as she was the one sorting out all the emails, paperwork and permisions. We had plenty of time to prepare ourselves mentally for the challenges that lay ahead with the increadibly strong almost relentless winds, the long distances that we would have to cover on some days for things to work and the possibility of surf landings which neither of us were particularly looking forward to. We had our trip plan all sorted and eventually after a lot of waiting for the kayaks to arrive off we went full of excitement. Unfortunately as soon as I started with tendonitis in my wrist the real challenges began which neither of us were prepared for. 

We knew that both the Chilean and the Argentine authorities would be following our trip very closely and I think at first both of us were a bit nervous of this. It soon became apparent that they were looking out for us and looking after us. We had to rest for 4 days close to a navy post to let my wrist settle and every day I was fortunate enough to be given bag after bag of ice for the inflamation. One very kind guy from the navy gave us bread and sweets and before they changed their shift invited us in for tea and toast. After what seemed like a very long 40 miles of paddling in a lot of pain we arrived at the border where Chile and Argentina both have a lookout about 20 metres appart. We spent all day being looked after by the Chilean navy and the Argentinian marines as if we were family. I spent the next three weeks worrying about how long I should wait knowing how difficult it was for Justine. I listened to all the advice and rested as long as possible. The first day back on the water was exhausting as I did very little but think about my wrist and try to concentrate on how I paddled. We made good progress but by the time we reached Rio Grande it was not 100% and the next day became the test paddle for the isolated and exposed stretch of coast ahead. After about an hour of discomfort I broke the news to Justine and reluctantly looked for a place to land.

It was a very dissappointing time and I felt that I had let Justine down and everybody who has helped us along the way. A few things have occured to me in the last couple of days. One thing that strikes me is how unbelievably friendly, kind and generous people who I have never met before can be. Another thing is that I have had a great adventure, just a differnt adventure to the one I was expecting. I can go kayaking anytime but I can’t always meet such fantastic people and develop new friendships like the ones we have on this trip. As a few people have pointed out, Tierra del Fuego will be here for a long time yet. I would like to thank everybody who we have met along the way for making things so much easier and pleasant for us. Especially Monica and Marcelo and Kiko. Thanks to everyone who has followed the progress or lack of it and sent messages and emails of support. It really is important to us when we see them. Thank you very much to Justine for being patient with me while I was being a bit soft about a little injury. Also a big thank you to our sponsors. We had quite a few and we really appreciate the help. I hope they dont feel too let down by us not completing what we had planned to do but it isn’t over yet. 

I had an email from a friend this morning which put everything in to context and made me realise that although completing this trip would have been nice, it really doesn’t matter. If anyone reading this could have a look at www.croydesurflifesavingclub.co.uk/?page=alfiereed then that would be great.