a nice write up of my local paper in my hometown in Husum, Germany, with a lovely picture of my great “on the spot” shop manager Ilona Sierks with three of my about 40 employees!

Thanks to all the ladies (yes, ladies only…) working for me in my absence! I’m proud of all of you!

http://www.shz.de/schleswig-holstein/artikeldetail/article/111/extrempaddlerin-uebersteht-hochsee-etappe.html

Healed and recovered more than enough…

It’s a 15-days paddle up to Darwin. 

I may arrive on the 20th.

Yesterday was marathon typing – from 6am to 10pm I was updating my blog with all the knowledge and pitures I gained the last days…

Would I do this crossing again with all this experience?

The answer is a clear “YES” – if something (or someone with LOTS of money…) would motivate to do it…it is short enough to not get in extreme sleep deprivation or pain, but long enough to be to these days the only one on earth existing who has done it in a solo kayak…I am definitively not tempted to do longer ones like the Atlantic or Tasman Sea, as I still like to be existing for quite a while on this earth!!!

But it would be quite interesting to do it “better” – faster and with less sores – next time…but bet there won’t be a next time, as there are so many other interesting stretches of water to paddle on this world!

I will need to get ready with my gear and such today, I may launch tomorrow…TTYS!

Not that I was half-dead, no, not at all, but I simply needed some rest and my privacy the last two days after the crossing.

I’ll start with write-up of the oldest missing days from day 89 onwards, and then will slowly work my way upwards to up today! It will take some time, but please enjoy reading the back-entries as well!

I’m sitting cool (with air condition), dry (very important to heal my skin) in a nice calm, clean and private appartement of the William Gove House, owned by the local mining company. I’m still (again…) in bed… )

Charles and Mandy Rue, who are mainly looking after me, are employed by the mining company and were able to organize a sponsored stay. Many thaks for that!

It is a large appartement complex with a nice canteen full of delicious food for all mine workers who stay only briefly or/ and don’t have family to settle down for longer. Nhulunbuy is a minig town, with about 4500 (mostly white) people living here, plus some 3000 more in the outskirts. It is a modern, nice and clean place! I didn’t know what to expect about such a remote place, but apparently in these days civilisation with it’s comfortable amenities is simply getting anywhere. Internet, big supermarket, schools, pool, sports complex, everything…not too bad! No need to post a food parcel here…but oh well…

It is raining almost continuously since my arrival, and whoever has never experienced the tropical rain, will learn about it here…it is simply flooding! What a cosy (gemütlich…) feeling to be dry inside…almost like home…no feeling yet like “I need to go…!”

Beeing out there on the water in such rain is simply and experience and doesn’t matter at all, as you are wet anyway and it is still warm. Just the skin soakes worse in fresh water. But making and breaking camp would become ugly after one night.

I still need to heal my skin anyway, estimating I may leave earliest Wednesday or Thursday. Hope the rain is getting less until then….

They said the last month up the east coast was unusual dry for the last month of the “wet season”, and the heavy rain here may be quite local…I’ll take what I’ll get. The winds are moderate with the rain, so it won’t be too much of a trouble to go out again, I think.

Charles and Mandy Rue and Greg Wheelan at Greg’s BBQ party on Saturday night. Thanks to all of them taking, good care of me!

If Saturday was my “body pampering” day, this day was my “gear day”. I took stock of all my gear as usual, and everything got a check-up and little repairs here and there. No internet-updating yet…as I knew I had to give my skin at least 4-5 days rest.

Thanks to Mandy who was washing my clothes and bags and stuff at her house, as I didn’t feel like touching water on Saturday at all!

I got my parcels already Saturday from the clever post-office lady, who brought them to the surf club as the office is closed on weekends…thanks!

I spoke to Freya via Skype from Nhulunbuy. She’ll be taking several days off to rest and to let her skin recover. During the crossing she developed several small but painful sores on the backs of her hands, elbows, feet and lower legs.

 Time to take stock of my body sores…was the crossing worth the (few) pain? Yes, definitively…all sores heal pretty quick, once out of the salt water and humidity and in a dry climated room for some days.

My lower legs got the worst look, I was not even aware that they will be looking so ugly! I just noticed some sore spots developing on the calfs from the constant up-and down movement of the lower legs – they hit some strapped across bungees which hold my manual pump on the bottom of my kayak. I had to take the bungees off and to store the pump somewhere else to have a clean kayak bottom again.

But the lower legs, as well as the hands, were quite swollen for the first days off the water, and this red rash took a while to get better. The small open sores on the calfs, hands and elbow heal much quicker!

I simply need to *walk* a bit and to move my hands again as well to get rid of the swollen feeling and the red rash, but walking was tough the first two days with the sore spots under both of the little toes and typing all day Monday and Tuesday is not great for your hands either…

I may have prevented the sore toes better by swapping sandals from TEVAS to filpflops occasionally, and by NOT wearing my neoprene socks all the last four days constantly to prevent more rubbing. Next time…

What I basically did the first day off in Nhulunbuy was to decide which ointment to put on which sore…to re-paint my toenails and to find a hairdresser to get rid of my grey hair, a fresh cut and a bit of pampering!

I sat at the hairdresser the first hour incognito, but as someone saw me rubbing my lower legs with some ointment and asked where it came from, the chatting allover the salon started! After the treatment I was happy to pay my bill – but had to learn a lovely lady, Jo, from the other end of the salon was willing to come up for my expenses! Thanks, Jo! Very much appreciated!

I used some Betadine on the first night on the open sores, but I was even *more* sick just of the yellow look and the messed up sheets next morning. I had to jump under the shower again to wash that ugly stuff off, change sheets and simply used tea trea oil after cleaning everything, as I used the other weeks as well on tiny sores. This desinfects and dries my small open wounds much better and doesn’t look so sick…! Some good moisturizing cream on the skin, and by Tuesday morning everything looks pretty good already. I may launch tomorrow, latest Thursday…

So many people all over the world following my trip - it is amazing and fascinating what the internet in these days can do!

Please stay tuned!

Freya

(Days 89-104 updated!)

FREYA HAS LANDED

Report from Chris Cunningham:

I got a call from Freya at about 7:15 pm Australian Central time. She is safely ashore, having landed about an hour ago. No details—she’s headed for a shower to wash a bit of salt off.

This email received from Charles Rue of the Gove Surf Club:

Freya is safe in Gove arrived at 6.10pm cst tired but in good health. Found her somewhere to rest for a few days. Found her due east a couple of kms offshore. She was surprised by the surf near Gove

Charles Rue from the Gove Surf Club paddled out on his ski to look for me – and found me!

The last night and day developed more promising than expected – I had 90 km to go when I set up “camp”, and this would have been too much for daylight’s paddle only. To land safely in darkness next night, not sure who or what or how many crocs were expecting me, I decided to rather stay another night out than to risk anything. Climbing the mountain (paddling the crossing…) is one thing, getting down (landing safely…) another…

I was not too uncomfortable sleeping, so I was quite relaxed to get hopefulle this night a good rest in after the last very rough one!

At midnight I noticed already a drift of 5 km into the right direction…why not paddling a bit on calmish seas? I took everything in, and started to paddle, but probably mor ein trance than in reality. No good feeling on th elong run, after an hour and 5 km only I deployed my floating camp again…to get good quality sleep until 5am. I noticed another 5 km drift…I was already down to 75 km left! Ok, only one hour paddling in the darkness NOW rather than before landing – and you’ll be there probably in last light, I reckoned!

Camp in, paddling started again at 5.15, and watching my GPS constantly, it seemed to work…the first half of the day was the current with me, then against me, and with me again…mixed with heavy rain and strong wind! But i was in good paddling spirits, knowing I would arrive tonight, and probably in daylight!!! I was calling Dave Winkworth as the easiest contact to tell people in Nhulunbuy surf club about my estimated arrival, and as reported below he was organizing everything! Thanks, Dave!

I actually spent the last hours singing loud, to keep me awake or out of relief? Probably both…

Land was in sight only 20 km before the landing, due to the heavy rain all day. The lights showed clear where the surf club would be – and eventually I saw two paddle blades coming up to me!!! I was happy and surprised, wondering since when they must have spotted me? Actually, Charles went out without having seen me, simply going for a good paddle as most nights, but hoping to find me somewhere in last light – a good omen, as I could have been much later arriving!

He was speeding in then on his ski, but waiting for me frequently…even falling off once in the rough sea, as a surfski is not really made for floating around only. He was probaly wondering why I was so slow and not surfing? Well, a 80-100 kg boat paddles simply different than a 15 kg ski…and I didn’t think I paddled not strongly on arrival!

I was actually wondering about surf, murky water, ski paddling with falling off chance and crocs and sharks…but if the locals do it…

Heading into Nhulunbuy towards the surf club – the camera was probably as blurry as my view that night

The “welcome party” at the surf club was quite big, but the party was not really set up for me…it was simply Friday night’s BBQ, and quite overwhelming after so many days out there by yourself! I must admit I’d rather have landed on a more quiet spot, and would never have gone in on high tide almost against the wall below the surf club…but Charles went in like that, and waited for me in the water surfing the small waves in.

Jumping out of the kayak and standing up was mostly a pain on my feet, as they developed some ugly sore spots on the little toes on the last day. I was strugglig a bit with balance, and noticed my little toes were simply numb and very painful after stripping my sandals. Helpful hands emptied my boat into my gear bags, as I could barely prevent some strong men lifting the whole loaded kayak – I’m sure it would break apart!!! 

My boat got safely stored in the surf club, and Mandy Rue, Charles wife, was driving me to the William Gove house, a nice appartment complex owned and run by the local minig company.

I was getting some very short sat-phone ok-calls in and had a quick bite to eat on the food Mandy brought into my room before enjoying the looooooong hot shower!!! I had to carefully examine my sores – more about that tomorrow…

Thanks to Mandy and Charles taking care about me that night and the next days as well!

Report from Chris Cunningham:

I just got a satellite phone call from Freya (8:05 am Friday,

Australia Central Standard time). She got some sleep last night and is doing well. She picked up 10 km of good drift overnight and added another 10 km paddling at night. She will be landing at Nhulunbuy tonight (Friday) somewhere around 6 pm to 9 pm. 

The Gove Surf Club and the town of Nhulunbuy is awaiting her arrival. Charles Rue has thoughtfully alerted local air and sea traffic of Freya’s progress so there are a lot of people keeping an eye out for her. She has a warm welcome awaiting her.

Freya also called David Winkworth and he reported:

Call from Freya 0840 EST. The little white kayak is 60 kms from Nhulunbuy and Freya estimates she will arrive at the surf club between 1900 and 2100hrs today. She is travelling OK.

12.00 137.35. 7th night out. 90km left. Will arrive Saturday.

At 9:40 am (Central Australia time) I got a sat phone call from Freya. The signal was not good so I couldn’t hear much of what she was saying, but she’s doing well. There are some strong currents in the area. She set her sea anchor and checked her GPS and noticed a strong drift, not in a favorable direction so she pulled the sea anchor back in. At some point it was calm and foggy. She was able to take a 30-minute nap in the daytime, I’m not sure when. She sounded well rested and in good spirits. There are 143 km left to go. She plans on taking it slow and aims to arrive around noon on Saturday. She is getting some chafing on her hands from sleeves and pockets, but she reported no other problems.

11.56 138.15. 160km left. I will paddle a bit more but will arrive Saturday rather than land Friday at midnight or so. Body is OK with quantity rest, if you don’t get quality…