Justine’s Blog

More than 6 months after leaving London, Sarah Outen has reached Japan by human power alone! She’s cycled, kayaked (& occasionally walked) all the way. I’ve been with her for over a month now, my  main role being to kayak with her as she island hops from Russia to Honshu (the largest island of Japan) but also to film, edit, & generally help out with cooking, setting up camp and whatever else needs doing. Right now, Sarah is cycling down the northernmost island of Japan (Hokkaido), heading mostly down the pretty, cliffy, incredibly windy and occasionally very tunnel-ridden west coast. She’s drawing near to wrapping up Stage 1 of her mammoth round the world voyage. She’ll overwinter on Honshu and prepare for a 4-6month solo row across the North Pacific.

She’s tired – she’s been exercising for 6-10 hours almost every day for 6 months, with a few 200km+ even longer cycles thrown in there. I’ve been cycling with her for a few hours on the last couple of days and I was tired last night after much less exercise! As I write this, Sarah is on her bike Hercules trying to reach the South end of Hokkaido by Saturday and kayak with me across the Tsugaru Strait to Honshu on Saturday. According to our trusty forecaster, Karel Vissel, bad weather is due on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so there’s a bit of pressure to try to get there before the window closes. It’s about a 245km cycle over 2 or 2 and a half days.

The last kayak crossing is 10-12 nautical miles across a channel with a very strong easterly current. The current will probably be the strongest that we have paddled in on this journey but at least it’s only half the distance of our last crossing and we will be crossing closer to the middle so it’s fine if we are carried east a bit. We need good weather though because the strong currents and shallow channel will be really rough if it’s windy. After the final crossing, Sarah cycles south to Tokyo and I head home, hopefully in time for the UK storm gathering on my doorstep in North Wales.

Thanks to Leon from Japan Adventures for lending me a bike and panniers so I can join Sarah cycling for part of every day. Leon specializes in guiding multi-day treks & snowshoeing on Hokkaido for anyone interested. And while I remember, thanks to Vladamir from Khabarovsk, Russia for efficiently helping Tim & I support Sarah . His company, World of Adventures, helps people wanting to do hiking, kayaking, off-road 4×4 driving and other outdoor adventures in Far East Russia.

Sometimes you have to take the long way round to get to your destination. Its 24 nautical miles from the SW tip of Sakhalin to Japan which is already a marathon paddle. If you have to start 13 miles outside off russian waters and get swept away from Japan by a strong current then it can become nearly 40 nautical miles….

Hopefully the video tells the story.

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Rules aren’t always convenient or logical for every situation. Sarah and I want to kayak to Japan from Russia across La Perouse Strait but we aren’t allowed to leave from the closest point on Sakhalin because we can’t be stamped out of the country there. So… we spent 2 days kayaking from the end of the road to the SW tip, Cape Krillion which was a lovely approx 80km paddle along a wild coast. Despite being no road, at almost every river outlet were some wooden shacks, or occasionally more permanent looking buildings, occupied by fisherman who drove there along the beach in a big jeep, or on some pretty dodgy roads inland. We expected to see no-one but were invited in for tea by one settlement, looked at with bewilderment by a few others, and finally invited to stay inside a house for a night by an elderly man who was living alone in an extensive set of buildings with a wonderful view of the sea. He gave us eggs from his hens, milk from his cow and otherwise pretty much ignored us as we got on with cooking in his cabin. He did try to talk to us sometimes and we tried to talk to him but with limited success. It would have been great to ask him more questions and find out if he lived there by himself all year, or what his story was.

Yesterday we and our kayaks got a ride back to civilization on 2 jeeps which was quite exciting on a beautiful and sometimes dubious ‘road’. Today we get stamped out of Russia and then go by yacht back to Cape Krillion where we will be lowered over the side in our kayaks to start paddling to Japan. A further complication is that we aren’t allowed to be dropped off within 12 miles of Krilion because once we have ‘left’ Russia we have to stay out of Russian waters which extend to 12 miles. So to allow for this, yesterday (before our jeep ride) we kayaked offshore from the Cape for a few hours to get as far away possible, but not so far that we couldn’t get back again. Tomorrow we will try to intersect that line so that we effectively kayak from Russia to Japan… even if we did it in 2 stages. Our 24 nautical mile crossing will be a bit longer than that because of the way we have to do it.

I’m excitedly nervous about the crossing. The forecast is good (thanks to Karel at kayakweather.com for sorting that out), although the strong current and tides in the area are a cause of some worry, especially as information about them is not verrified. What I expected to happen with the tides at the Cape yesterday didn’t happen so we will to some extent have to react to whatever we find. However, I’m looking forward to the challenge.

We now have 30mins to get packed and leave the hotel… lemon drizzle cake is in the oven, kit is all over the floor… better go.

Sarah leaving Yuzhno today in the snow! Cycling to the sea where we will start kayaking south tomorrow. We will kayak to Cape krillion, the SW tip of Sakhalin – taking 2 or 3 days to paddle about 40 nautical miles. We will probably have to come back to Korsakov, a town where we must sign out of the country for customs (by 4wheel drive ) then go by boat back to the Cape to kayak to Japan. Check Sarahs’ website for updates. www.sarahouten.com