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PHEW! We made it to Sydney!
Life’s been pretty hectic lately and I was still packing at 3am the night before we left for our Australian adventure. This photo is taken at midnight when I’d just started packing!! Being somewhat more organised, Alun left me to it soon after that.

Michael Steinfield kindly met us at Sydney airport at a ridiculously early time and brought us back to his and Audrey’s home. ( see bottom photo of me trying to look up Michael’s phone number on my laptop – impressive red eyes!) Thanks to Michael & Audrey for looking after us.

Since we’ve been here, we’ve had a look around Sydney and admired the sights a bit before trying to get prepared for our Bass Strait crossing at the start of April. Oh, and trying to get over the jetlag.

Later today we drive down to Batemans Bay with Michael for the annual New South Wales kayak club get together which we’re really looking forward to. Then we spend a 4-5 days kayaking and camping in the Nadgee Wilderness reserve with some of the locals, before Laurie is kindly driving us down to Port Welshpool to start our Bass Strait crossing. We expect to start this around 2nd April.

Some exciting developments mean that we’ll be trying to bring you daily podcasts of the Bass Strait expedition. For anyone who doesnt know, that’s a voice recording of the daily events. I hope it will be like a daily blog, but that you listen to rather than read. I’m not sure exactly where it will appear on my website at present or exactly how it’s going to work, as I have the easy job of making the phone call.

I’m excited to be working with Race Recon, www.racerecon.com, ( sorry, I can’t make links work from my mac!) who provide support for some cutting edge expeditions around the world. They will be putting the podcasts and a map of our locations onto my website, and some other places so you can follow along.

Derrick Mayoleth, my fantastic website designer & upkeeper, and creator of www.kayakquixotica.com , will be working with RaceRecon to make this happen.

So keep an eye on the website and I hope you enjoy it. Alun & I plan to do an initial podcast today hopefully!

Alun and I are back in Wales after a sleepless overnight flight from Chicago. It’s 5pm and the struggle to fight the eyelids from closing is getting tougher! Despite that, I’m feeling warm and content after a succesful and fun world premiere and launch party for “This is the Sea 3”. I’d guess that 15-20,000 people rushed from stand to stand at Canoecopia over the 3 days of the show, white bags bursting with kayaking and canoeing goodies. The days flew by for me, filled with giving presentations or chatting with old friends and new aquaintances!

The launch party on Saturday night was full to capacity with about 400 people crammed into the High Noon Saloon in Madison to watch the world premiere of “This is the Sea 3”. We watched two thirds of the DVD before it got late and the band started playing. After my initial nerves, I really enjoyed the evening as the atmosphere was lively and happy. I’m very grateful to Lendal for sponsoring the launch party and paying for me to come over and present the film. I didn’t have my camera with me at the party so these photos were kindly sent to me by Derrick. Either he’d had a few beers before taking them, or he didn’t stop dancing to take them!! Well, maybe it was just pretty dark in the room, but I actually think I look better with a little soft focus so I’m not complaining!

Next weekend is the UK premiere of “This is the Sea 3” at the Outdoor Show in Birmingham.

So it was like this…. a sunny California morning, clean glassy 4foot waves on a reef break, no battling to get out back, just a paddle out on flat water; turn, wait and surf back in towards the shore at Sunset Cliffs. Alun and Jake were ripping it up on either side of me and pelicans were crusing by in convoy just above the waves. I found myself thinking I could every easily move to California!!! And after 3 days in the Spyder surf boat I’m finally getting to grips with it. Instead of catching an edge and flipping on almost every wave, I’m feeling comfortable turning it on the wave and really enjoying it. We had the pleasure of meeting the man known only as Spike (!), who designed the boat and I can aspire to be able to do some of the things that he can in it!

We had a good time filming in Baja with Jen & Jake from Aqua Adventures, and the Johnson Outdoor Crew. It’s a beautiful stretch of coastline about 2.5 hours drive south of San Diego and we enjoyed rock hopping and touring in the sun. We have some great shots which will be fun to edit. It was all topped off with delicious food cooked by Jock Bradley. Some work is better than other work !! The photo is of Jeff from Canoe & Kayak magazine by the largest blow hole in the world.

We’re off to Canoecopia tomorrow with a bright and early flight to Chicago…. I better go and get organised!