Day 173, Thursday, 09.07.2009

Beach at Cape Villaret

After that forced rest day at Cape Villaret I was happy to find the campsite at Barn Hill with easy access about 8 km south to fill up fresh water.

The next water stop would be Wallal Downs and I’m currently carrying 16 liters only, heavy enough. It should be enough for 6 days or such, but you never know how long it will take to teh next water stop in this desert like country. The weather is not as stable any more like in the tropical north, headwinds may occur and then this tidal thing with the water disappearing behind the horizon…we’ll see how it goes.

The landing at the beach below the campsite had quite a big dumper, but with some good timing landing and launching went allright. An elderly lady was asking me how I got the canoe down the cliffs from the campsite…when she realized I was not camping up there but circumnavigating Australia, she almost got a heart attack…

The cliffs around Cape Latouche Treville showed on Google Earth some nice sandy beaches, but all “upstairs” on some steep white cliffs…no landing possible.

Port Smith had a wide shallow sandy outlet, and as I was nearing low tide at late afternoon, it was quite a push through shallow breakers for miles. And th ewater went out and out…

 

I knew the beach before False Cape Creek was reefy and no good for landing, but somehow from the distance it didn’t look as bad and I guessed I found a gap in the reef at low tide. I neared carefully, and found the fringing reef was flatish rocks and it looked like I could wheel my kayak across the flat rocks to the sandy part!

This is what I eventually did…I simply didn’t feel like paddling into the night around False Cape Bossut to maybe find a nicer beach in Lagrange Bay on low tide, or even to paddle until midnightto high tide even further on. I simply had enough for the day.

The wheeling up the reef and beach proved for sure more tricky than it looked like, and I had to unload two bags of gear and water from the boat and to walk up the beach with them seperately. Nice sport at early night…but I was kind of proud I eventually made it! Good to have a working trolley…but no way to launch at the same low tide level next day…I’d decided to wait until there would be enough water to paddle easy over the reef.

 

Text message from Freya via satellite phone:

18.32 121.46.  before False Cape Creek.  50 km 7:30 am to 5:00 pm. A stupid haul over flat rocky and sandy reef at lowest tide. Didn’t feel like paddling into the night.

1 comment on “Day 173, Thursday, 09.07.2009

Ron Slobe

Comment a little late but I was on the beach at Barn Hill when Freya came past, help her push her kayak back into the water for her trip south.
I was amazed that she had allready travelled all the way from Melbourne around the top.
What a inspiration and record you will achieve when completed.
Good on you Freya keep it up, I will keep track on your amazing adventure as you head south.
Hope to catch up with you when you come through Albany.
Regards Ron

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