Feeding The Sponge

It was late May, 2010 when I was languishing on the couch resting my badly swollen and sprained ankle. Our dreams of competing in an adventure race in Vanuatu in August sorely rested, soggily wrapped in a tea towel with a bag of frozen peas. What to do now? How to escape the tedium of the daily grind?

The idea had surfaced several years previously. A paddling trip from Cairns to PNG, at least that's how it first bubbled to the surface. Not big enough! Dream bigger! All of a sudden, with a steady flow of freshly brewed beans, an odyssey emerged from our brightly muralled lounge room.

Pros and cons considered, deliberations mulled, details discussed and commitments made - our journey began, and a thirst for knowledge and inspiration parched my tv-stained grey matter.

I rapidly exhausted any relevant books from the bookshelf, mostly congested with heavily thumbed adventurous tales, and a seemingly endless catalogue of animals, plants, bushwalking routes and travel guides to long-forgotten destinations. Almost every week since then I have excitedly opened a well travelled parcel containing titles to fuel this fire of knowledge.

Books on kayaking techniques, navigation, and adventures like Paul Caffyn's "The Dreamtime Voyage" - a truly inspiring tale. Stories of adventure, travel and discovery, and of people who have made similarly crazy decisions, to take what they could and head off into some far flung corner of the planet. Desperate shipwrecked survivors' detailed descriptions of the body's response to dehydration and starvation are balanced with recipes for dehydrated meals, and desalinator manuals.

I wonder if this thirst for the written word will dissolve into the horizon next year, or whether I'll try to squeeze just one more book into the crammed crevices of my trusty kayak.

Malarial Pirate Crocodiles

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

When we mention our Archipaddlo plans to friends, colleagues and family we are inevitably met with plenty of encouraging remarks like "You're crazy!", "Sounds like hard work" and "Nice knowing you". In almost every case the first question is, "But what about .... (insert highly deadly and apparently unavoidable danger here)?"

It is true, like all adventures, this expedition is not without risk. Lain and I are of the "You might die falling off the couch" school, so we figure we may as well just get out there and have some fun in the short time we have on this planet.

Calculated risk allows us to decide when to cross the road, what food to eat (surely eating Maccas is a high risk activity!), and how much tropical strength insect repellent to apply whilst sitting in a New Guinean swamp being carried off by the mozzies. Perhaps Lain and my concept of 'acceptable risk' is just a bit broader than many other people.

Here's a short list of the main obstacles that seem to jump instantly to people's minds:

Crocodiles:  Over time it seems crocs in Nth QLD have developed a taste for kayakers, and I suspect many a dugout canoe has been emptied of its contents into the gullet of a New Guinean croc. We are just going to be as sensible and aware as possible, following the suggestions of those who have trodden some of this path before. It is basic stuff - don't swim in the Daintree, stay out of estuaries at night, and don't throw fish guts around your kayak. Either way I am reassured by Homer Simpson, "Don't worry, being eaten by a crocodile is just like going to sleep in a giant blender!"

Sharks:  Yep, they are sharp and pointy but I reckon they'd rather eat fish than me. Quite a number of kayaks have returned from expeditions with a few patched up teeth marks but it seems sharks are more curious than aggressive - at least I hope that is the case. We are not taking a Shark Shield, but thank you to all those who have asked.

Malaria:    The doctor at the TMVC happily informed us of the enormous list of dangers for which we needed inoculation. Tetanus, Typhoid, Hepatitis A, B, C, D, E, F, G etc, Polio, Japanese encephalitis, and a pile of pills for Malaria. I've had so many jabs I feel like I have run blind through a field of cacti. Once we drown ourselves in repellent, and hide inside bug-proof cocoons we should be half way to avoiding most of these nasties.

Pirates:   Do we really look like a target for pirates? Two half-starved, salty, sunburnt Aussies in the middle of the ocean, miles from anywhere, sitting in tiny, sun-bleached, plastic torpedos. Pirates are more likely to stop and offer us food, water and safe passage to the nearest island. We genuinely believe that people are good, and the people we meet along the way will fill our adventure with wonder and joy, not piracy and terror. No, we are not taking a gun!!

Tides/currents:    Planning, knowledge, information, timing. We know the sea is unpredictable but sound judgement, strong skills, sensible decision making and an awareness of our environment with all its subtle cues should see us avoid getting into trouble too often.

There's plenty of 'worst case scenarios' and we can prepare for many of them but ultimately two minds to deal with problems, and a desire for our own safety should at least see us fending off most of these deadly risks.

Food, glorious food.

Food, glorious food: The dehydrator is busily humming away.

Our plan is to stuff our boats with about 6 weeks worth of healthy home-dried food, and prepare a further 6 weeks worth of food that we'll send to Thursday Island. We are planning to take about 6 weeks to paddle from Cairns to TI but we are not going to be in a rush and are happy to take longer. We expect to supplement our dry rations during this period with fish, coconuts and whatever other bounty nature wishes to offer us.

Juz pretending to be a fisherman!

Unfortunately I am no fisho - I have tried trolling lures behing my kayak for hours on end with not the first hint of a bite. The pic above is my proudest fishing moment - a bonito that any serious fisho would hook up and use as live bait!! I know we have to be careful fishing from a kayak in shark and croc-infested waters. The thought of trailing a burley of tuna blood behind the kayak doesn't get me excited. I think a trip to the local fishing shop to get some tips might be on the cards.

For the PNG and Indonesian sections of Archipaddlo we are hoping (and relying on the fact) that we can obtain food along the way. We'll take 6 weeks of dried food with us, which is as much as we estimate we can fit, but this will really just be to supplement whatever we can find, catch, buy or barter for along the way. Whether it is sago, mudcrabs, bananas, or old leather boots - the uncertainty of what we'll be eating is a big part of our adventure.

We try to eat fresh and organic food as much as we can, and avoid processed food like the plague so we recently purchased an Excalibur 9 Tray Dehydrator (www.excaliburdehydrator.com) which is awesome. We have been testing all sorts of foods, fruits, meals, snacks that we might be able to take with us. I recently found some cheap strawberries and dried 40 punnets of them! That is really not that much for two people for three months. I recommend you try dehydrated rockmelon - a true gastronomic sensation!

Lunch ideas are proving hardest to dream up. Neither of us are Master Chefs - quick and simple food works best for us but we don't have a massive repertoire. We are not yet sure just what we'll eat day after day while sitting in a kayak miles from land. The experimenting is fun though - the house is full of yummy treats (lucky I'm not on a diet).

Anyway, for now I'm off to test some not-so-dehydrated roast lamb - I may as well eat it while I have the chance!!

Holiday in Cambodia

Well, the tropics are calling.

We are off on a cheeky trip to Cambodia this week. There's a few bits of gear to test out, not least all the jabs from the TMVC so why not test them all out in the flooded Cambodian jungle.

More expedition details to come when we return.

Not my pic - Thanks Google.