The long cliff line next day was again changing to more sand and dunes, and eventually Cape Keraudren showed up in the distance.

There were quite some cars and vans around, and I believe there must have been even an “official” campsite somewhere. But as I didn’t need anything and liked to go as far towards the next big bay crossing as possible, I kept on paddling across a smaller estuary until I spotted on the headland before the next big estuary a beautiful hidden beach between mangroves.

The entrance was still quite shallow, and I got a bit confused about the tide times.

My GPS was this time definitively wrong with the tide station “Cape Keraudren” showing a two hours later high tide than the previous and following one! Greg told me on the phone he didn’t like the GPS tides, as they have proved to be imprecise more than once. This tide station simply even didn’t exist in his professional tidal CD…

It was quite a *low* high tide when I arrived, and I thought the next high tide line is where the water would be in two hours? But it *was* already full high tide, and as the next high tide in the morning would be a higher one than this one, getting out in the morning 2 hrs later wouldn’t be a problem.

I had to put up my tent on a sandy spot in the high flat grass, as the beach was steep sloping everywhere and full of branches and debris from the mangroves…this was it!

I would be making my first campfire of the trip, and as it was exactly half a year since I was launching the 18th of January, it would be an appropriate celebration…

I was even able to reach my son on the sat-phone that night, and to ask him about his just received school report…missing you, my boy!

As I’m used to have a fire going on my fireplace in my backyard, this night I was feeling a bit homesick…

I think the hardest part of the trip as I’m doing it now – solo and unsupported – is, besides paddling a heavily loaded boat and doing all the organizing and camp settings by yourself, the lack of social interaction and communication. All input for the brain not to shrink…

Text message from Freya via satellite phone:

19.58 119.44 after Cape Keraudren. 50km, 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.  First time on the trip I have a campfire on a croc-free mangrove bay beach, to celebrate a half year.