The start leg 2
What a build it’s been just to get to this desolate barren godforsaken lost point of Madagascar. Eight days of travel, trouble, emotional turmoil and the long legged chicken belly, finally the most southern tip. Looking around, there is nothing. Civilization has forgotten about this not hot, boiling cauldron of sand with the odd bush [...]
What is hot?
Red sand, cactus scrub, bonsai Baobabs, prehistoric trees, top this with over 40 degrees of heat no wind no water and finally just add a cherry to it with a humidity of 100%. That’s southern Madagascar. Being a novice to this area it’s a quick learning curve. Who can teach one better than nature? The [...]
Cowboy of the sky
Sitting at Majunga airport I was pleasantly surprised to see that the flight was early, contrary to what we were told about the unreliability of flights to outlying areas.
The scream of the turbo prop drowned the entire bustle in the humid airport building, our enforced sauna. The plane taxied up to the departure door and [...]
Storms
There is a line 40 km of shore of the Madagascan coast of daily storm action, as the land air flows out over the ocean, meeting the moisture laden coastal air. Building massive banks of cloud and lots of static electricity, and this then lets rip into some of the scariest tropical storms every morning [...]
Madagascar
After days of relentless paddling, over 7 to 8 hours a day, all that I have had to hang on to is the reward of land some day when and where I was never sure. Each day a mind game, just to overcome a sterile visual cocoon, nothing around you but water, glare and ever-changing [...]
Madness takes its toll
Hour after hour, day after day in searing heat sometimes just less than 40 degrees. I tear my paddles trough the water stroke after stroke. Without a sound around me, except the slosh- slosh of the water as my paddles continuously break the surface. No land in sight for hundreds of km, nothing to break [...]
An ocean morning
Its 4.30, the morning is just starting to evolve. Its dead quiet on the ocean as the Adventurer slowly rocks in the swell. I have a reoccurring nervous feeling as I get ready to board my Kayak, a feeling that hits me every morning as I begin the day. The Crew release the ropes that [...]
Drift
The current has been the single biggest challenge over the past few days. Original estimates were a 1.5 knots per hour, but to our dismay we have been fighting a 4 knot drift side on. Because of this I have had a course set at 50 Degree angle to it so that this will compensate [...]
Day 1
It was a 4.30 wake up, coffee and then the engines slowly purred as we steamed out of the estuary to the start point some 20 km away. Mixed emotions were going through my mind as I watched my first Mozambique sunrise at sea. The sea is so daunting and some thing new to me, [...]
A few local fisherman
A few local fisherman seemed to creep out of the bush along the little beach, gathering to stare at my kayak, they stared at it , came closer and the discussion started in earnest as well as the comparison to their dug out lying nearby. You can then imagine what went through their mind when [...]
