Greg found that beautiful snake on his drive today

Another long paddling day was planned, around Cape Pasley, Point Malcolm and Point Dempster into Israelite Bay.

Conditions were perfect again, and I was heading due east across the Sandy Bight  to the high rounded elevation of Mount Pasley. To the left a white band of clean beach, as far I could see.

After that headland, I turned slightly north-east, and the south westerly wind was even better pushing me along! It was quite a ride with good speed.

I passed inside Bellinger Island, and saw a cross from the distance on the island. Who was buried there? It was not like the European habit to erect a cross just on a mountain peak…?

Passing so many inviting camping beaches again, I was thinking how would I love to have enough time to check them all out! But the mission is still on…

I paddled inside another tiny island before Point Malcolm, and then it was the last bay to cross before the famous Israelite Bay. This is where in 1877 the overland telegraph line across the Nullabor Plains from Western to Southern Australia was passing by. Now the old route of the telegraph line provides excellent 4-wheel drive tracks, which Greg would be using the next few weeks.

Before Point Dempster and Isrealite Bay, I spotted already two vehicles and a bunch of people on the beach and rocks, what a crowded place!

To my left, a BIG black triangle fin started to emerge out of the crystal clear blue water…and another one…I thought shit, now there he is, the BIG great WHITE …but luckily the fins turned out to belong to a on it’s back floating whale, with a baby whale playing besides the mummy…and they were soooo close to the beach! I hurried to give them way to the open water, but couldn’t help but turning a circle to get a better look. When they were passing behind me, mummy and baby started a jumping performance par excellence! Each of the huge animals with a white belly leaped out of the water about five times, to land on the surface with a cannonball-like splash. I wish I’d have a professional camera to film such experiences…beautiful!

I thought I was paddling close to the Point Dempster headland, but suddenly another whale surfaced to my LEFT, between me and the headland! I could almost touch him! Why the hell are they that close to land? Maybe they are just bored and like to show off to anything distracting their lazy floating around…I’m sure they realize I’m approaching, as on several other occasions the whales are emerging right besides me, as if they like to say “hello”. I’m still dreaming about surfing down a whale’s humpback…”Rutsch mir doch den Buckel runter!” – (just slide down my humpback…) means in German, a bit more friendly, way of simply saying “kiss my ass”

It was only 3pm when I turned into Israelite Bay, and I called Greg on the radio I’d like to push on a bit, to the end of Israelite bay or even around the south-eastern corner turning north already. He agreed, and followed the good track to find a good spot to meet me.

The water was calm as possible, and all beaches had piles of seaweed on the sand. Greg told me on the radio the beach track further north around the corner is no good, and I decided to call it a day in one of the sheltered beaches on the southern side before rounding the coast to the north.

I landed easily on a beach full of seaweed, pulled the boat up quite a distance, as it was so shallow from the low tide level of only 50 cm which uncovered here in this bay a 100m wide beach already!

It was now just the task to find access to the track Greg was driving on, and this proved to be not as easy as we thought! We had radio contact and both a GPS, but some trouble to find each other across a narrow belt of dense bush…

Eventually I was able to climb a low dune and to overlook a bit of the bush, and saw Greg and the van with the spare kayak on the roof driving just 200 m away from me, trying to find the side track I was looking down at. After a bit of back and forth driving, he found the entrance and pulled into a dead end of the track where we made camp in the shelter of the bush.

Text message from Freya via satellite phone:

33.34 123.56, past Israelite Bay. 80 km, 5:00 am to 5:00 pm. A nice easy day! 6 whales close by!