[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-mWwGtk6C23Q/Un2vj6NCCLI/AAAAAAAAYTA/lNR6cWQjE4E/s144-c-o/PA280134.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage16VenezuelaTrinidadGuyanaCaracasToGeorgetown#5944100114653120690″ caption=”The last chance for staying dry this night – a relatively well built fishing platform. Unfortunately inaccessible for a solo kayaker on low tide…they forgot the ladder!” type=”image” alt=”PA280134.JPG” ]

A good day – but no camp site…and a F(*&^% hard night.

Pos: here
Loc: Punta Guaini/ Guyana
Acc: tent
Dist: 91 km
Start: 5:40 End: 08:30 Tuesday, 26:50 h paddled

My river pilots and boys from the station helped me to launch at 5 am, all gear and the kayak had to be reversed down the rusty staircase and loaded from the last step. Not an easy task! Unfortunately one gear bag with the last two water bags fell into the water when one guy was handing it to me, I could grab the gear bag and one water bag which was floating, but the second water bag obviously contained no additionally air and was sinking into the muddy murky floods of the river below the rusty staircase. Shit, but oh well, I could get additionally bottles instantly. But then one heroic guy decided to blind dive into the muddy water and really found it and could fish it out! Thanks! You are my hero! 🙂

I hugged the guys good bye, and launched into the calm river with a boat full of fresh water and food for the next maybe ten days to Georgetown. I was passing again the indigenous village, and many people were waving – and flashing with their cell phones for pictures… amazing in such an environment.

I obviously opted to go outside the shorter way, hoping to find a beach or at least go on that fishing platform the Henry brothers have been staying on. If nothing works, I will have to continue paddling through the night.

I made good progress, but had to stay far out as the water was shallow and with soft mud underneath, yuck. When high tide came around noon, I paddled more in and enjoyed the scenery. But soon I noticed the ground became too shallow again, and out I went again… after about 25 km came a reasonable sandy beach, and another open forest where I could land and stay. But my mind did not tell me to stay – there was still this platform…later I had a dejá vue from my second day after Trinidad where I also rejected the one and only beach already after 25 km. The remaining 55 km I could have paddled in one day! Could have…

I was passing two relicts of such “fishing platforms” what the boys were describing, simple frameworks with few logs on top, these two were located on the edge of the forest. Those were not in good shape, but I already was wondering how I could get up there? The boys were two people, one could hold the boat while the other climbed up somehow, and then they could reach and throw gear bags up they needed for the night. For one person an almost impossible job…

When the fishing platform with my marked GPS position came up, it was standing offshore in shallow soft muddy water, the tide was half and I almost got stuck approaching it. But a quick look confirmed my guess – I have no chance as a solo kayaker to get up there, never mind getting gear up and get back down and load again! Ok, seems like I have to keep on paddling into a long night…

Some islands came up, but all the same bushy and “heavily wooded” like the whole are was marked on the map. There may have been a spot in some shallow grassy area to park the kayak afloat, but this kind of night had a myriad of bugs I was not really up for deliberately. Then I rather keep on paddling those last 25 km through the night to the land spit behind Waini river mouth where I knew for sure there was a beach. Should be there with my current good speed around midnight. I should…

Another last platform came at dusk up behind the islands, also offshore, this one quite fancy constructed with fragments of a roof for a tarp and giving a lot of space, but they also forgot the ladder…really no chance for me not even to climb up, not to talk about getting gear up and down again! F***… this one was really inviting! No chance. Keep on paddling, Freya! Only 25 km more!

I had already 55 km on the clock, averaged almost 5 km/ h, the additional km seemed not to be a problem after a quite calm day in this also calm looking upcoming night.

I was aiming for the headland with the promising name “Punta Playa”, of which there were two marked on the chart. Maybe this was a chance I couldn’t see on Google Earth in the cloud covered area? But in last light I only saw and felt muddy shallow water and I had to stay far out not to get stuck.

I was aiming in now darkness for the second headland named also “Punta Playa”, and got too close somehow, although I was constantly probing the water depth. At 7.30 pm I was stuck in only 10 cm shallow water with deep soft liquid mud underneath, I was literally paddling through mud soup, hard work, but no more progress shown on my GPS!- F***!!! I had to admit I was trapped. Fortunately low tide today was at 5 am, so it could get only better by waiting…but the tide difference in this period was only 50 cm, would the raising water give me enough play to keep moving out of the death trap? It was already 3 hrs after high tide at 8 pm, and I still couldn’t move…my mind became really desperate being stuck here forever, when high tide at 11 pm couldn’t lift me fully… was my destiny now the same as the many wrecks around the pilot station? Who could get me out of here? No boat, maybe a helicopter could rescue my person, but the kayak? Or could a helicopter drag me inside the kayak with a rope out of this trap? Quite a stunt I would have to try… fortunately I knew the pilot station had a helicopter…

But before my desperate rescue plans needed to come true, the lunch time high tide next day would be 10 cm more.  But at 8 15 pm, after really horrible 45 min, my GPS showed a movement on my still occasionally paddling attempts… slowly first, but then – I was free!!! THANK GOODNESS!!! No more wreck and mud carcass to be sacrificed here! I was not often as relieved as now…

After some more paddling with good progress the night turned soon out not to be calm at all, soon around 11 pm I had ugly 15 knots on my face and had to fight harder. There was no moon yet, it was supposed to raise at 0.45 h. Still one planet (Venus?) and many stars gave enough light on the open sky. When the fat cloud came up around midnight, it turned very dark instantly, and surely windy in the approaching rain. I already had my wind breaker on, and could only keep on paddling! Not a great feeling, fortunately the sea stayed relatively calm and manageable with just few low soft breakers. But that was the only advantage…my speed dropped again to 3 km/h, but all I could do was keep on paddling through the now very dark night and hope for the moon to come up soon.

At 1 am, it was a bit more light and calmer, and I got new hope and was already around the last Punta Playa, heading now across directly to the headland after the river mouth. But just for 15 min… and another fat cloud came, and the wind now around 2 am breezed up to solid 20 knots. I was only 12,5 km away from my destination, but soon had to learn that 20 knots on my face plus counter current with quite high waves was too much for me after already 70 km in this night. I simply was not able to make any progress any more! What to do? I paddled my ass off, but was not moving forward much. Fortunately I had all the time a convenient navigation light which turned out later to be a huge ship out there. But now I had to make a different plan…I had to let go of my direction, and paddled only so much not to get blown back too much, but shifted sideways to my right shore where I didn’t really want to go…but I thought rather keep on trying to get some land there when I was still not getting progress after sunrise, or even being stuck in the mud close to shore seemed now to be better than this useless fight against headwind and current.

On letting go my direction, I managed not to lose too much overall remaining distance, only from 11,5 km to 12,5 km. These maybe two hours I paddled in trance, almost asleep, only watching my side shift and not losing too much head way. At some point I woke up a bit mentally, my body still working, and was probing the water, realized the cloud, rain and wind was gone and the water turned calm, as I had only maybe 40 cm of depth left, underneath the dreaded soft mud. This can’t be a “beach line” after Punta Playa! Soft mud means no accessible coast.

I regained some new energy to tackle now the left 12,5 km across to the beach headland, and started to get on track again, now able to make 3-4 km/h. This should be enough to reach just after dawn and to see the possible beach choices! Actually much better than arriving at darkness. I dug in hard again and deep, amazing what energy I still had left in my body. I just noticed many skin sores developing here and there, paddling so long and hard without many breaks is not good for my skin in this heat. The water was salty again, the outflow of the river didn’t give a fresh water area like in the Orinoco delta. At some point after dawn I saw the brown, here clearish and not muddy river water bordering some area of green water upfront the sandy beaches. Yeah! I was back to the sea with real salty water! Still I had to activate my last energy for the last kilometers, with another rain squall coming up. But I saw beaches! Or were those red areas cliffs? They were looking so steep…

Sure the best looking steep beaches were inhabited with few houses, I picked one ending up in a light forest with many gaps between the trees. The beaches were really all steep with a moderate dumper washing high up, but no problem for me. My forest beach had enough space with no logs, I landed easily and checked the sand pile in the light forest. Good! If the boys at the station wouldn’t have told me bout jaguars being around here…would I be better off on the inhabited beaches where I smelled a fire going? But I was so knackered I needed rest and not curious locals around me and decided to stay, keeping my camp stove as a “torch fire” handy and my paddle, just in case….

I put up my tent on top of the beach, but decided after a short sleep to shift it more into the forest on the now sloping down sandy spot, as I heard the dumpers now close to high tide washing heavily high up and coming dangerously close to my tent. All done in a swarm of bugs, completely covered. The shower already had proved to be very quick and I was really sinking half dead into my sheltered tent! I just need rest in a safe, dry and bug free place!