I’m in Sydney!

 

Jetlagged…

Monday 12.01.2009 – 4am

 

I’m finally in Sydney – Australia!

 

It was a long trip – it started with leaving home at 3.30 am driving to Hamburg airport.

 

Last things I was doing at home the final days was not checking on trip issues, but doing my 2008 employees taxes, and finalizing the 2008 account of my shops…not much thoughts about being on the water soon!

 

The best choice for me was renting a car and driving by myself to the airport that early morning. My own car can’t stay for a year in Hamburg, and I took it off the insurance anyway. No public transport is going at 4 am, and a taxi would have cost three times as much. Bothering anybody to drive me at that time of the day was not an option either.

 

Staying awake on such a drive is the trick, two powernaps and some loud rock music in the radio kept me more or less awake. They played “Burning Heart” from the Rocky movies – quite appropriate!

 

1,5 hrs delay on starting the second leg from London to Singapore – patience was required sitting already in the plane and nothing happens besides continuous de-icing…I’m glad they won’t need *that* starting off later from OZ…

 

I can’t say I was enjoying the flight too much, being squeezed in a middle seat on the last row. But what’s it worth complaining, cheap travelling doesn’t include first class service.

 

Missing my main equipment bag on arrival in Sydney didn’t really cheer me up either, but there was a long queue at the baggage service desk – seems like I wasn’t the only one. I hope it will show up the next day!!

 

Tony King from epic kayaks Australia was so kind to pick me up Sunday late night from the airport, but as he and his wife Jacqui Williams were leaving for a holiday on Monday, he could only drop me at a hotel room he rented for me.

But Dale Ponsford, a nice guy working occasionally for Tony and Jacqui/ epic kayaks Australia will take care of me and drive me around. 

 

Well – on my own then!

 

I was getting at least three hours of “horizontal sleep”, although in the plane I was nothing else doing than napping…

It was still 20 degrees Celsius at midnight, but raining first time since weeks. I hate air condition as much as hot humid nights; but I still chose the latter to get used to. There won’t be air condition in my tent, although on a beach with some breeze it might be much nicer than in this hotel room. So I’d rather choose to finish the “night” at 4am and start typing a bit…

 

Plan for today is catching up with Andrew Divola who was modifying my epic 18x sport boat to my needs, and to catch up with Adrian van Bellen and his wife Maree, the Australian Thule representative.

 

When my boat is ready to go hopefully soon, I’ll rent a car and drive down to Melbourne to catch up with Peter Treby and the Victorian Sea Kayak club. They’ll host me and organize the logistics of my gear for the whole trip. It will be good to eventually see the guys, as we have shared already quite some e-mails on preparations.

 

The sea kayaking community here is very helpful in general. I’m glad the internet connects everybody. What a small world!

 

 

I’ll hope to get my missing bag with my strapped on paddles today, will be buying an Australian SIM card for my cell phone, see where I can be changing money, and and and…

 

Blog enty written on a Toshiba Portégé R55-11Y

 

 

5 comments on “I’m in Sydney!

derrick

Nice to hear you arrived safe and sound. Enjoy the running around, exploring, and organizing. . you’ll be on your own soon enough. 🙂

Martin & Fiona

Good luck with the trip although with your determination I’m sure you are not just relying on luck. If I can be so bold as to give you one bit of advice – WEAR SUNGLASSES!

LaMont

How crazy to read this post in Alaska were it is still Sunday, Jan. 11th. Good luck with the and and and…

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