Day 233, Monday, 07.09.2009

I was seeing the first seal on the west coast today after the tropical north! It was quite a friendly curious guy, popping his head out of the water for about ten longish times, then swimming around and under my boat! I was talking to him, and I reckon he understood me…he looked so clever! 

  

It felt so good to “paddle” again today, on real unbroken water, with no seaweed or too many rocks. I quite felt my body from yesterday’s strain, but in a way it felt good. That paddling day definitively taught me to deal with breakers and to hang in there, even if you’re getting hammered and trashed again and again…but I could use some rest.

The weather was promising nice today, moderate to strong following winds, and I made my way down from Lancelin to Two Rocks. All the way south the beaches had almost easy landings today, a moderate dumper on shore, that was it. How different the ocean and coastline can be! Well, yesterday was 5 m swell, today it was below 3 m… 

I was aiming for the Two Rocks marina, in the hope there may be again some friendly host waiting like in Port Denison. All day it was almost easy water, and I didn’t had much to care about breakers on the open coast. 

But believe it or not, about 50 m before the Two Rocks harbour entrance, a single freak wave came out of nowhere, ambushed me in a strange angle and was able to throw me!!! It must have been the reversed normal wind direction, as the harbour is built for shelter from strong winds and seas out of the south west. Today was strong north westerly in the afternoon, which probably confused the sea a bit…

I rolled up easily, but lost my head scarf and visor, as my hood from the anorak wasn’t zipped up fully in no way expecting to dive under this afternoon! I had to backpaddle and to fish with some effort for the floating scarf and visor. It took me a while in that wind to catch both of them!

I eventually paddled into the harbour, and my eye caught instantly a very inspiring ship name on a bow on one of the docked larger fishing boats: “Sex Sea”! This will be the name of my next kayak… :-))

I landed on the concrete launching ramp, unloaded my boat and looked around for something nice…a water tap or even shower, and inviting place to camp, or for someone to talk to about just those basic needs…

Evnetually I found a guy sitting in the office of the volunteer sea rescue shed overlooking the harbor and the launching ramp. He must have seen me arriving already, and my boat was sitting down there just across his office window… I walked up the staircase, obviously disturbed him just in his toilet business and when he was finished I introduced myself:”Hi, how is it going? I’m Freya, and I’m just paddling around Australia! Would you know a place where I could have a hot shower and maybe a bed?”

“No, but there is a cold shower with the toilet building at the beach one km up the road, and we are closing soon at five…”

Grumpy old man…he was just interested in finishing work for that day, and to get rid of me asap…not any question about where I’m coming from, about my boat or how the trip is going…not to dream about that night about an invitation to stay in the rescue boat shed or even a homestay somewhere…well, I can’t be lucky all day pulling ashore in a town harbor!

So I thanked him nicely for that extensive information, walked up to that beach toilet building, had a freezing cold, but happy by myself shower with hairwash and cleaned some of my sandy gear. I even hung my stuff out for some minutes, until I guessed it’s better time to walk back to my kayak and to find a place to put up my tent for the night.

Just after half way back from the toilet building, it started to rain…heavily, with even more wind, and it didn’t stop any more all night…not a single roof or corner to get any shelter for at least my gear bags, and I still had to put up my tent…which I eventually manged to do in pouring rain and stormy winds, my clothes and tent getting soaking wet allover. At least I found a bit of flat green before the sandy beach, so I didn’t had to put up the tent on sand…

I was ready to move my gearbags inside, tried more or less to dry the tentfloor with my wet towels and was hoping my Thermarest pad would be my almost dry and sandfree island in the tent…my sleeping bag was kind of dry and warm with the additional duvet on top.

I pulled out my mobile phone and found a message from Terry Bolland that he organized a guy living close by to pick me up from the harbor…couldn’t I have listened to that earlier? I was so stupid to have left my mobile in the boat walking for the shower…Where was that guy?

I made a long motivating call to Greg, and then someone “knocked” on my tent door…there he was, the friendly guy organized by Terry…but I couldn’t find any energy to take my now half dry inside tent down again that night in pouring rain, and to move to someone’s place and to start the cleaning and drying up tonight…thank goodness I was invited to stay in Terry’s house next night! Thanks for looking me up anyway…but sorry, too late…

I rather kept on talking to Greg than eating dinner, and eventually fell asleep quite early, my body still sore from the yesterday’s hammering.

 

 

Email from Freya:

Two Rocks. 60km,  7:00 am to 4:30 pm. I was “paddling” again! No more getting hammered in the breakers, dragging the boat around, broaching, bracing, rolling…well, before one fat thing ambushed and threw me 50 meters before the Two Rocks harbor entrance! Unbelievable! Nice to strong following winds on quite choppy seas, but not much swell to feel today, and no surflines any more! Got a freezing cold shower with hairwash in a car park, and then more continuous cold showers from the heavens before I could put up my tent…means everything is soaking wet now! How nice! I’d like to be back in the dry warm tropics with the crocs in (mostly) calm waters rather than in cold big seas!

5 comments on “Day 233, Monday, 07.09.2009

Wilhelm

Hallo Freya, ich verfolge seit einiger Zeit Deinen Turn und komme gerade aus dem Urlaub auf Langeoog [:-) Heimatgefühle?!]. Vielleicht peppt Dich ja mal ein herzlicher Gruß aus der Heimat auf, noch dazu in Deutsch. Ich bin aus Bayern und drücke Dir von hier aus alle Daumen, damit Du Dir einen weiteren Traum erfüllen wirst!
Viel Glück!!

Dean Carnaby

Freya
for Gods sake be careful rounding the southern corner
I live on the South Coast and am an avid fisherman here.
You will be approaching one of the most dangerous sections of coast in WA where the indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean.reef line litter the shore and it can be difficult making landfall in many places unless you know of them in Advance
Windy harbour and Peaceful Bay being two of them
This time of year Walpole inlet mouth is a no.no (swells and a sharp left hand turn as you enter the outfall from the seaward side make it deadly even to powerboats.
Call peaceful Bay sea rescue who may be able to guide you in there when you get there. Radio Call sign Victor Mike Romeo 616.or contact Tony Duckett or Jo Ro (peaceful bay progress assn) on email 186jo@westnet.com.au
safe travels

Sandy

The last couple of days are good training to prepare you for the capes and the south coast. See you in Perth. You’re doing well.

Gayle

If it’s any consolation, it’s cold and wet and windy in SE of Oz too, enough to keep me indoors, because I lack your strength of body and mind. I guess it has to be warmer than your Iceland expedition though. Hope you’ve got all your thermal gear nearby as you venture further south, because springtime does not necessarily mean warm in the southern parts of Australia. Well done as another milestone approaches at Perth.

maree goulden

Hi again Freya, sounds like yesterday was very challenging!!
Brrrrrhhh!!! and the cold weather doesn’t help.
You’ve come this far Freya, you are nearly on the home stretch.
Pain is only temporary, quitting lasts forever,, So stay focused, & hold onto your dreams.
My guest room is empty with hot shower & warm bed, if you need to dry out further South.

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