[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-whA5XNph018/Un22Y6Fd2wI/AAAAAAAAYTA/sH9mJYMm3Ks/s144-c-o/PB010148.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage16VenezuelaTrinidadGuyanaCaracasToGeorgetown#5944107622224222978″ caption=”Camp high up enough on the very shallow beach” type=”image” alt=”PB010148.JPG” ]

Paddling into wind and waves not fully recovered yet

Pos: here
Loc: Shell Beach
Acc: tent
Dist: 19,2 km
Start: 5:25 End: 11:15

I slept actually well, even daring to put earplugs in against the surf noise. Still rolling from one side to the other, finding a position my sore stomach likes without aching too much. I even considered early evening pulling out the pills in my medicine bag, but when I started reading the package slip, I instantly already felt much better… these antibiotics were against any kind of sickness a human body could generate, including sexual diseases and my sore stomach with diarrhea. Too much of the good, I rather trust my body to repair itself. I emptied out today, so it can’t get worse… and this morning I actually could use the bush almost as regular.

I still felt a bit weak, last night I could only eat an apple and obviously all food energy went into the air. But it was a calm morning, and I started early to make most of the day’s before the forecast stronger headwind. There were beaches in about 9 km and 20 km, so I should make one or the other minimum. At some point I heard one of the most strange loud growling noises out of the jungle, I first thought this must be a fight of the large kittens in there…but the loud growling noise was swelling rhythmically on and off, and I got the idea this must be a bull frog? I heard about them making maybe such noise, by blowing themselves up. The other option may be some kind of monkeys having some energetic exercise, but I doubt their energy lasts that log, I heard the noise maybe for 20 min or so. It really sounded scary! and threatening!

But more threatening, was the upcoming strong headwind, quickly raising to easily 20 knots, creating on the shallow water an endless wide belt of low rolling surf waves. They ended up on a dark sandy “beach”, but also stirred up so much sand from the solid bottom that the water was just liquid mud. My originally cream white fleece shirt turned an easy coffee brown. Where there are such long rolling low breakers, the ground is not only shallow, but also solid. Eventually I was slowed down by wind and waves and lack of energy today to 2-3 km/h, and I decided to walk a bit, making almost 3-4 km/h 🙂

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-wcoh-_v4Sok/Un22D4FlNPI/AAAAAAAAYTA/pbVMbmployE/s144-c-o/PB010146.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage16VenezuelaTrinidadGuyanaCaracasToGeorgetown#5944107260910580978″ caption=”The endless rolling surf on the very shallow beach” type=”image” alt=”PB010146.JPG” ]

I had an endless shallow and flat dark sandy beach besides me, so the decision to call it a day on this useless effort was made easy. I first need to regain more energy from my yesterday’s diarrhea, then I could maybe fight a bit longer. And honestly, I think I am also very much worn in general form this whole large headwind section. My decision to call it a day in Georgetown to go into my x-mas break is getting more and more firm. This was the end of my originally planned second section anyway, just that my planning is three extra paddling months longer than expected for this second section. It just shows how tough it is to paddle continuously into strong headwind and counter current after Panama which really wears even the strongest and most determined nature (like me…) out to have a well deserved holiday break very soon. I’ll be back fresh mid-January then with Peter for energetic company! Does he really know what he has signed up for? 🙂 It will be such different paddling compared to the last leg we paddled together from Valparaiso to the end of Peru, there we had to fight big and technically tough water and landings, but always had the current and wind behind us and reasonable temperatures. And now it is HOT and you have the wind on your face all day, barely able to take a break while paddling and having a hard time to find a reasonable camp site…