Congratulations on your progress so far Freya…and all the best to you as you paddle past those cliffs! Most of all, just enjoy that wonderful part of the world!

Freya, when you get to Steep point keep an eye out for whalesharks. They often feed in the currents there. Not sure if it’s too late in the season there but they may still be around.

Kelvin

Doug and Glicker…well done! Love your limerick Doug…hopefully someone will read it with gusto at Freyas’ arrival ceremony in Melbourne in the coming months.
Glicker…your addition of historical details is such an asset to all readers who are trying hard to get a grip on the area Freya is paddling through. The competition between Boudin and Mathew Flinders was highlighted well in the journals of Mathew Flinders which Tim Flannery edited into the book “Terra Australis : Matthew Flinders’ great adventures in the circumnavigation of Australia”. This is especially so in the waters off the southern coastline of Oz.
I had the delight of pressing my nose flat to the window in a flight over the top end south of Darwin this week on our way back from Singapore. I was thinking of Freya the whole time…..its a very very lonely looking coastline and the irridescent blue of the ocean contrasts so beautifully with the red / orange ochre of the landscape.
Freya should be paid a hefty endorsement fee from the NT and WA Tourism Bureau I reckon.
Go safely Freya
Janita
Hervey Bay
QLD

A limerick for Freya –

There once was a paddler named Freya
She wanted to kayak Australia
We’re talking circumnavigate
Amid whales, sharks and aggregate
Only brave, strong Freya could beatya!

She’s tackling the elements solo
Versus headwinds, big surf, waves – go low
Oh courageous one, be the first
Never mind the fatigue and thirst
Freya Hoffmeister beats every foe!

All the best in your journey,

Doug Stirling
Lake Oswego, Oregon

Freya – für die Etappe ab Denham alles Gute, hoffentlich ruhige See und wenig Wind. Ruh Dich wirklich erst mal aus. Machs gut. Frank

I guess Denahm (pop. 607; well, 608 if you hung out there) is a bit on the sleepy side. I just read that D. is 831 kilometres (516 mi) north of Perth, and is the westernmost town in Australia and named in honour of Captain Henry Mangles Denham of the Royal Navy, who charted Shark Bay in 1858. Today Denham survives as the gateway for the tourists who come to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia, which is located 23 kilometres (14 mi) northeast of the town.

The Denham area was the first part of the Australian mainland discovered by European sailors. On 25 October 1616, Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog and crew came unexpectedly upon “various islands, which were, however, found uninhabited.” He made landfall at an island now called Dirk Hartog Island off the coast of Shark Bay. Hartog spent three days examining the coast and nearby islands. He named the area Eendrachtsland after his ship, but this name has not endured. Finding little of interest, Hartog continued sailing northwards charting this previously undiscovered coast to about 22° South. In 1696 the Flemish explorer Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island. Later explorers included William Dampier, and the Frenchmen Freycinet, Hamelin and Baudin20in the early 1800s.

The coast remained uninhabited by Europeans until the middle of the nineteenth century. The first pearls found in Western Australia were discovered in Shark Bay in 1854 by a Lieutenant Helpman, the so-called ‘Admiral of the Swan River Navy’, who found the dense beds of pearl-shell oysters that are abundant there.

When does the cliff section begin? How long does it last?

The earlier name to that of Denham was ‘Freshwater Camp’ when it was a pearling camp