Arrival coverage

Day 20 - At home

We got into Bondi yesterday after a hard 3 hour paddle from Manly into strong southerly winds. It was a bizarre feeling to come past that final headline and realise that this was it; no more getting up at 4am, no more paddling for 8 hours a day and no more mind numbing exhaustion. Strangely I kind of miss the simplicity of it all. It's actually odd to be back. I slept 11 hours last night, I've been for a surf, bought a TV from Bing Lee and watched 4 movies already. I'm still pretty knackered. My plan for tomorrow is to rent all 3 series of Dexter and watch them back to back whilst Ali feeds me grapes...apparently we don't have any grapes...but Dexter is on, guaranteed.

Here's a couple of pics from Bondi. A massive thanks to everyone that came down to show their support. Now that the internet connection's better, we'll get a gallery up in the next few days.

I'm not sure what Scotty's up to right now but I bet he's missing the view of the back of my head. R

Rob sux!

Not much else to add other than that.

Se y'all at Bondi at 1pm tomorrow.

Scott.

Day 18 - Umina to Manly

It's another Southerly, shoulder busting head on wind. We started with one so it seems fitting to be ending with one too. Tomorrow's going to be one last hard haul to Bondi and then it's done: we'll have completed 740kms down the east Coast from Byron Bay to Bondi beach and we can finally rest, see our girlfriends, eat pizza, watch DVDs, wake up at a normal time and stay as still as possible for as long as we can. It's such an awesome feeling to be here. We've been in such an alien routine and so consistantly physically knackered for so long that being back in normality is actually weird. I'm slightly freaked out. We landed at Shelly beach in Manly at around 12.30pm with Lee waving a couple of beers from the headland and I'm now at home. Scotty's blow drying his hair and dreaming of soy lattes (who knew Aussie's were so metro?) and I've got to go into town and get a new phone having drowned the last one. Bring on the Bondi finish tomorrow. We'll be coming in at around 1pm if you can make it. Hopefully we won't stack it infront of everyone. Proper thanks will come to everyone tomorrow but needless to say Mr and Mrs and Ms, Doug, Christine and Joanna Timbrell have been living legends in supporting us down the coast. See you at Bondi. Rob

42km's to go and 42km's to never paddling again!

Hello to you all. As stated above we are nearing the end of our trip and we are only 42km's off finishing this ridiculously stupid paddle down the East Coast of Australia. To date we have paddled 698km's and both Rob and I are feeling a little tired and worse for wear Rob seems to be doing the worse though out of the two of us as the whinging pom is starting to rear his ugly head a little but is expected i guess!
I thought that for this blog I would share with you some of the things that i have learnt whilst in the middle of the ocean paddling a kayak...
1. Peeing in the middle of the ocean is an artform and takes a little getting used to at first. Once mastered it is a very nurturing feeling with the boat rocking back and fourth that you feel at one with the ocean. I have considered once i arrive home that i will need to go for constant swims in the ocean or have a bath to simulate this feeling again.
2. The further you travel down the East Coast the slower the coffee service becomes and don't, don't ever ask for soy milk in a regional town unless you are ready to accept a knowing look of "what a poofter"...I am came to accept this early on and instead of asking for the regular soy latte optede for a skinny latte (fair enough i guess).
3. Everyone you meet down the EC seems to be named either Dave or Sheryl?
4. Over thinking is over rated. I officially know how it feels to be a female now and over think the smallest thoughts and then dwell on them and then get woeked up about them and then cry and then laugh and then just move onto the next issue. I cant wait to get back to Sydney so I can be distracted by at least 30 different things at any one time and spend a total of 20 seconds on each subject.
5. Paddling 8-9hrs a day is really boring!
6. Watching Rob paddlr for 8-9hrs is boring!
7. Steak, eggs, sausages, baked beans, Nutri Grain and toast is always a good combination for breakfast at 4am...dont knock it before you try it.
8. Paddling for 8-9hrs is boring...wait have i said that one?

Have to go now as getting kicked out of the internet cafe we are so will fill you in the rest later.
Peace,
Scott
PS have had no time to proof read so sorry in advance!

Day 17 - The Stockton Bight

For the fact that I'm typing this, you know that we've not been swallowed by sharks on Stockton beach. I might be typing one handed and have lost an arm having heroically prized open the jaws of a monster attempting to eat my friend Scott, but actually I still have two hands, Scott's watching TV and we didn't see a single shark all day...very disappointing. We did however paddle 5 hours without a break, get followed by a playful pod of dolphins, play 'shag/marry or chuck' for the umteenth time and do interviews with The Herald and Channel 9 on the beach. All up, a successful day. We've got an early start to Norah Head tomorrow. Looking forward to Sydney. R

A cloudy, hazy day...

As Rob has mentioned today was a little foggy to start with but a good 5 hour paddle to get the blood flowing and clear the mind a little was a welcomed distraction.
We were paddling with the wind behind us today which in most cases is quite good to push you along but with 2 metre swell and hidden bombies (little reefs in the middle of the ocean where waves will build and break suddenly) appearing it was quite a trying and at times scary paddle. With the constant fear of sharks after the first 2 we sighted within 5 minutes of each other the senses were switched on as neither of us wanted to capsize in the middle of the ocean. Its funny when you see one shark as you then constantly keep seeing more and more sharks out of the corner of your eyes, if these sharks are there is another matter but for a split second you see that fin and then again and again....
Not much else to report but I am looking forward to a nice early night and hopefully waking up with a more positive outlook in the morning.

Peace,
Scott.

Day 16 - The day of shark fear

We paddled into Boat Harbour today, just south of Nelson Bay and for the first time properly got fin fear. It's a little like Sunday paranoid hangover fear except you're afraid of being eaten by a monster with 1000 teeth rather than just being looked at or bumped into whilst queing at the Coles check-out.
It was a sunny but really windy day and we'd left late because of a few beers with Scott's cousins the night before...so essentially we had Sunday paranoid hangover fear, but with high winds and choppy seas in an unstable 2 person kayak surrounded by sharks - sound like fun? First we saw a 1 1/2 metre juvenile hammerhead, then a 3 metre shark, then a menacing piece of sea weed, leading eventually to both of us getting twitchy and imagining every bit of white water and dark shape was Jaws about to take an arm off. We didn't have much to say as we were both feeling sick and were concentrating too hard on staying upright. Tomorrow's a big paddle to Newcastle accross Stockton Beach. Stockton beach is known for it's Great Whites - see SMH article http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/reeling-in-great-white-sharks/2005/10/22/1129775998728.html .
It's going to be so much fun!

Pics

We've had problems using flikr so sorry for the lack of photos. Here's a quick update from our Olympus 1030 camera. http://www.flickr.com/photos/b2b4prostate/. Lots more to follow.