Day 8 Scott's Head to Hat Head

It has been awhile since my last blog and have no excuse other than have been a little lazy...sorry about that ladies and gents.

So tomorrow signifies the half-fricking-way point, woop-woop bloody WOOP! We are expecting fireworks, chopper escort and ticker-tape parade when we arive into Port Macquarie tomorrow to signify this momentous occasion....only time will tell Port Macquarie, only time will tell (you have roughly 16hrs to do final prep FYI).

Today's paddling was good apart from dropping the bag with our 2 way radio, food, sunscreen, flares, digital camera and Rob's water bladder when we launched from the beach this morning, but besides that today was a good day. The good news is that the folks up here are the honest type and my dad i mean *ahem* "support crew" when he went back to search had already called it in and had the items out drying them for us. Good on you Scott's Head town folk, good on you (its not just a clever name after all)!

We managed to do just over 40kms today in just over 4 hours and both myself and Rob have noticed the difference in our stamina and endurance that we have slowly built up thanks to those lovely southerlies we encountered last week. All in all we are in good strength and the afternoons aren't so filled with calls to the girlfriends or friends looking for sympathy cause we are so sore and tired...well not me anyway! Some mornings are tougher than others though as you just want to curl back up in bed and get a few more hours sleep rather than getting up at 4am knowing that you have to get into the water well actually this is every morning but who's counting? That said once you get out on the water and you warm up little everything is ok and you just point the nose to the most distant headland and paddle.

When you are out on the water and have been paddling for awhile and you have taken as many stabs as you can at Rob and you are both sulking cause that headland is not getting any closer and you swear, i mean, you know that you are going backwards (you never actually are but at the time you know this to be the truth) you start to think about a lot of things, some random and some not as random as others. Here is a list i have compiled of some of the things that you think of and bear in mind some of these are at the darkest of hours:

1. Food - that you have eaten, you are going to eat and you would eat if it was right in front of you at that exact time

2. The future - so much about the future...

3. Work - contemplating where you have started, where you are going and general work stuff like 'where did that stapler go i had 6 months ago...?"

4. Love - what a craazy notion!

5. Sex - same as food above just replace 'eat' for 'have'

6. The paddle - actually finishing the paddle and making it to Bondi. Then the following day watching the kayak go up in flames as you laugh like a jackal.

7. Mortality - kind of a big one out on the water as there are certain times when you have no other humans around and a national park for massive stretches and you start to wonder what if a shark....what if we got knocked out and....would Rob jump in the water if a shark grabbed my arm mid stroke to save me?

To answer the last one Rob asked me this question and i said probably not so would not expect anything less from him.

There is a lot more things that go on in your head out on the water but they would be the top 5 but i will be sure to update you if there is anything else that bumps something off the list.
WE are currently staying with some family friends in South West Rocks for the night which is great of them to put us up for the night. WE went for a wander through town earlier and stumbled across the local Thai takeaway and being a fan of a good pun we had to take a picture and i have included the image for you all.

About it for me today but stay tuned...

Love Scott.