Two fat fresh turtle slides close besides my camp!!! No croc slide, I was wrong…

I had a wonderful long night’s sleep, knowing I won’t have to get up next morning, as I liked the hole in my boat dry out in the sunlight for a while. I turned around again and again, until the sun was too hot and I had to  open a tent fly.

I went out for a quick walk, and saw those new fat croc slides…up the beach to the dunes edge to a “nest” and down again…only 40 m besides my tent…hello, lovely neighbour! But I couldn’t spot him anymore anywhere in the water, so no worries…

I pre-typed my blog updates all morning in the sauna-like tent, dripping with sweat, but felt I had quite a story to tell. But no internet that morning.

At 11 am I decided to start fixing the hole, and thought some two components epoxy putty would do the job. It had to dry for about an hour, and I went for a quick walk up the beach. More old croc slides, and a motorboat around the corner.

I found some animal’s footprint, probably a kangaroo??? Must be…

Eventually the epoxy putty had gone off enough to turn the boat around and to re-pack everything. Amazibgly this time there was space left! Packing in Darwin under supervision of my friends and press made me obviously not being a good packer…or did I eat already that much???

I got afloat late, at 1.30 pm, but the plan was only 30 km for that day. Still a possible night’s landing…

At 6pm I spotted a colorful beach camp in the distance, which turned out to be a lovely friendly beach house! I decided to pull in already, ready to ask for fresh water for the next days. I was leaving the last 10 km to add for tomorrow’s 50 km x-ing…no more night paddle for now!

John and Carol Rykiert were surprised to see not a croc, but a kayak pulling up the beach in a beautiful sunset! They invited me to stay for the night! What a lucky girl I am… I got some landing help with all the gear on low tide, as John was pulling up with his 4-wheel drive on the beach and we simply loaded evrything up the back!

(sorry this pic is blurry, but still gives you a nice impression of Carol and John’s lovely house!)

I got a shower, a nice Pyroki feed prepared by John himself (he was polish origin!) and had even internet via satellite! Modern times even in the far OZ outback…

Thanks, Carol and John, for hosting me and repairing my boat properly!

I checked on my repair again, and saw the epoxy putty wouldn’t do the job on the long run…the hole was too big and soaking soft in the surrounding area. I was happy to leave the job for John, who was experienced repairing boats with fibreglas. Thanks, John!!! It’s so good to find handymen along the way…

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