I restrained myself this month and only paddled 612 kms on the SUP (instead of 818 last month) and 110kms in my kayak. 612 kms though was enough to put me at the top of the SUP MY RACE leader board for December. 278 paddlers put their distances in. Although we had a few days with the wind being a little lighter, most training sessions have been against pretty strong wind.

You will notice from the table below, that Ascot's Isabel Combe is 11th and Hayley Williams is 17th.

Next week we have the Convict Fence Race. This is a great race especially for kayakers who are intending to enter the marathon championships in April or want to give portaging a go. 

If you paddle a K1 and haven't tried portaging this is the race to try it. It is great fun. Unfortunately for me when you get to the age of 65 they don't have portages in the marathon championships which I think isolates you and cuts out the fun part of being in the marathon championships. (Although some paddlers can't run at that age.)

For ski paddlers though or kayak paddlers who don't want to portage there is a non portage race. But if you have a K1, give portaging a go, you will love it. 

Convicts Fence Race.

Photo John O'Sullivan.

Paddling with Nishani Jacob at the 2024 World Canoe Marathon Championships in Croatia.

Photo Jade Kerber. 

On the last day of the year I took several photos of the birdlife on the river. 
A few shots are further below.

• From My Diary - Mali, Africa
• Kayak Technique Breakdown - Luke Egger
• Yukon River Descent
• Birds Along The Way
• What a Bargain - Two Kayaks & Lots Of Gear for $600.00
• Coming Events
• Epic 16 Kayak for Sale 
• Book Birds Along The Way

From My Diary 

March 1977 

Mali, Africa

I had hitch hiked across France, Spain, Morocco and Algeria to the edge of the Sahara Desert where I took a 10 day ride across the desert on a date truck.  At my destination Gao, I took a barge down the shallow Niger River taking 10 days as it continued to get stuck in the shallow water. Hygiene was not the best as we drank the river water that we were going to the toilet in. By the time I returned to Mopti after a visit to the famous Dogon Villages I was feeling very sick, stomach cramps and one eye was loaded with puss.

My plan was to stay the night in a cheap hotel and take the next bus to Bamako, but the hotels, well the cheap ones were fully booked so I decided to sleep the night at a busy, noisy, smelly bus depot.

With several hours to wait until nightfall it was an agonising wait in 40 degree plus heat. I had a terrible thirst and drinking water that was so warm that with every swig made me thirstier. I couldn’t eat anything as my stomach was cramping and if I did I would have to keep visiting the toilet which was not at all convenient. Finally darkness arrived and I said goodbye to my travelling companions who were headed to Upper Volta on a truck. 

Half an hour later I placed my tent down on the ground of the bus depot as a ground sheet and tried to sleep. The noise from the people and the buses was unbearable. Vehicle lights were flashing across my eyes and several radios, all on different stations and not tuned in properly were blaring out. Then I heard on one station that Kegan passes the ball to Toshack, but just as I was getting interested in the English league football match the guy carrying the radio moved away. 

I started to feel something dropping and crawling all over me. It was dark so I couldn’t see what they were. Then as one crawls across my face my chance came to capture one. I grabbed it, but it squashed in between my fingers like jelly. When I turned on my torch there wasn’t much left of it, but there were many more crawling on and around me. A wall next to me was full of them. They were coming out of the cracks and crevices and crawling along the ground to where I was sleeping. They were like caterpillars, all hairy and horrible, but I didn’t have the strength to care, I only had enough strength to roll over and get a foot or two further away from the wall.

Moving a couple of feet was of no use. They continued to crawl along my arms so when I felt I had enough strength and the opportunity I would squash them one by one, however they created a smell that wasn’t pleasant, but I was in no state to care. To make my life more of a misery I started to feel them crawling up my trouser legs as I was sleeping fully clothed. The ones I squashed in my trousers left prickles in my jeans, but I was too lazy and too ill to put my trouser bottoms in my socks to prevent them from getting in, although I did later in the early morning.

My nightmare night continued and although I dozed off and my mind was lost somewhere off this planet I could faintly hear the sound of a rat and the shuffle of its feet in an open drain a few feet away from me. Although I didn’t think much of rats when I was a kid, at this moment I had no fear, I just slipped into a dream and hoped it would go away. I was just about to dream that I was in paradise when I heard someone ask - "are you sleeping", in a faint voice.

It was Axle and Gisele my travelling companions peering down at me. After realising that I was sleeping on the ground in Africa and I wasn’t dreaming, I asked why they were here. Apparently the truck they were leaving on spent 1.5 hours at a petrol station and then came back to the truck park. Only a dozen words were spoken and I just dozed off again. 

Up until 1.00am the bus station was too noisy to get some proper sleep, I was killing hairy caterpillars, thinking the rat was going to nibble my nose but when the noise abated, I did manage to get a little sleep. Then just as I thought my night couldn’t get any worse I needed to go to the toilet. I was so drained of energy and will power I didn’t want to move but I just had to muster myself to avoid messing my pants which would be worse, much worse. There was no toilet near by so my only option was to use the open drain a few feet away. As I squatted over the drain I could see the rat scurrying beneath me, but as long as it was down in the drain I was happy. I had diarrhoea so I was in a squatting position for a while, but as soon as I felt there was no more to give I pulled up my pants and struggled back to my bed.

The squeak and the rustle of the rat in the drain continued, but I didn’t give a dam. Anybody could have killed me that night, but I didn’t have the energy to care or put up a fight.  I was beyond caring about anything. 

It was a long night, thirst was agonising, my stomach cramps were hurting, my bowls were fragile so it was such a relief when morning came. 

No matter what day it is the river around Ashfield & Bayswater  is always busy with paddlers and rowers.

Ashfield Thursday morning.

Ashfield Friday morning.

Kayak Technique Breakdown

with Luke Egger

I and 31 other people were at Luke's last presentation and it was excellent. Not only did we get to know what happens at WAIS headquarters, see the amazing facilities and equipment and what the athletes go through, we had some of the best pizza's that I have ever tasted.

The technique presentation was outstanding. Luke spoke clearly and he broke down the forward stroke so it was easy to understand. He certainly did his research beforehand.

Olympian Steve Bird finished off the evening by going through 'Standing Starts' which he is the master of.

It was certainly a very worthwhile presentation, one which I suggest any aspiring paddler should attend.

Luke has another one coming up in January. Same format but instead of having Steve talking about 'Standing Starts', 2 x World Champion Pat Eley will present surf double legger jump starts.

Tour of the Western Australian Institute of Sport High Performance Centre, with insights into daily high performance practices within elite sport.

Dinner. Pizza (Plenty of carbs for all the athletes)

Technique Presentation. Comprehensive breakdown and explanation of the separate elements of kayak technique with Australian Jnr and U23 Sprint Team Captain Luke Egger.

Special Guest. 2 x World Champion Pat Eley will present surf double legger jump starts.

Tickets are available now

 https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/kayak-technique-breakdown-surf-focus-tickets-1088293307579?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

About Luke

Luke has been paddling since the age of 7 and made his first Australian Team 7 years ago. This year at the Junior and U23 World Championships he was the Australian Team Captain and came 10th in the K1 500m. He has been coached by a lot of the best coaches and athletes in the country, including Ramon Anderson, David Smith, Kenny Wallace, Steve Bird, Jesse Phillips and many more.

He has learnt a lot from each of them and has knowledge to share.

Yukon River Descent

Monday 12th July.

We slept in an hour longer than normal. When Ed went for his morning constitutional, he walked for about four hundred metres, realised that there were mozzies in the bushes and then walked back for his mozzie net. He then set off once again, this time draped in his net and better prepared for the mossies. Good thing it wasn’t an urgent call of nature! I had to smile though – he only needed to walk about 50 metres to the other side of a rise to be out of sight but instead he went much further.

The gnats were in plague proportions, making it impossible to eat or drink without them committing suicide by flying up my nose, in my ears and digging in. They drove us both crazy and as we were readying to leave, I even resorted to wearing a tightly woven head-net whilst eating breakfast but it was an almost impossible mission. Visualize putting the spoon into the bowl, lifting it towards your mouth whilst at the same time trying to move the net aside to get the spoon into your mouth and not let a dozen gnats in, it really wasn’t an easy task to accomplish. This is where Ed’s full mosquito veil would have been useful, that’s if the holes in the net were smaller. The net kept the mosquitoes out, but the tiny gnats were able to get through the holes.

We were glad to leave the island just to get away from the gnats, but some of them followed us on the water and managed to make our life a misery. Opposite the mainland there was a rugged shore with steep sided gullies, and in the hope of finding water we paddled across to one of the gullies. We were in luck, a stream of freshwater was cascading over the rocks.

We parked the canoe up a creek bed and walked a little upstream to where the water cascaded over a large boulder. It continued its descent moving across a path of rocks creating a miniature white water course. The water was absolutely freezing and I do mean freezing, we couldn’t leave our hands under the small waterfall for very long and it was much too cold to even attempt to have a wash. By the time we filled all our water containers we couldn’t feel our hands; fortunately the heat from the sun soon warmed them up again. We entered the canoe and floated along the clear stream checking below for fish. The clear water from the stream edged along the side of the shores for a few hundred metres before it eventually mixed with the murky glacial waters of the Yukon and was gone.

The day was hot and calm and with the sun beating down and the little sleep that I had the night before, I kept dozing off. We made good progress but it was hard work. The gnats were persistent in following our every move, which was very annoying. At lunch when we stopped on an island they were even worse. When we finished lunch Ed walked into the river to wash his plate and suddenly fell up to his chest in the water. I broke out in laughter but for some daft reason I walked to the river’s edge to check it for myself and when it gave way, I too went for a swim. Dripping like sodden rats on the sand, it took us both a while to stop laughing and to dry off. Obviously, there were no shallows at this water’s edge!!

There was little variation in our paddling, so we really needed some rough conditions to wake us up and break the monotony. Reaching Mickey Island we decided to have some quiet time, so we lay back, rested and drifted. The gnats however were still very persistent, making our quiet time a misery. I placed my T-shirt over my face for some relief but they still managed to get under it and into my ears and in my mouth. We drifted for about 4kms to the end of Emerald Island where three channels joined and the current became faster.

As we rounded a big sweeping corner at Kokrines, we could see a cabin and some people way over to our right. They shouted pleasantries to us, we shouted back. They were several hundred metres away but we could still hear them clearly. Our shouts echoed for miles. They invited us over for a cup of tea, but unfortunately with the wide river and the increased current it was too difficult to get across to them in time so they soon faded from sight. We paddled on to find our own camp.

Fox Island divided our route and my map indicated that a place called ‘Horner Hot Springs’ was to the right side of the island. It sounded great to me, like an up-market holiday resort, but Ed thought it would be mozzie country so he wasn’t keen to head that way. Instead we headed to the left of the island and soon found a glorious sand bar that made a perfect camp. Behind us, to the north, were the peaceful Kokrine Hills giving us magical views to savour once again. Although it was the most perfect of campsites, the gnats were relentless and annoying the hell out of us. We washed in the river, which was wonderfully refreshing but it was also the only way to get away from those infuriating insects.

Back on shore the gnats were so bad that I had to retreat to my tent to get away from them. It was unusual for me to be driven inside but it was the only refuge. To my annoyance several got inside as I opened the tent door, so for the next ten minutes I squashed them against the inner tent which left blood marks all over it!

As I settled in to do my diary it was about 25°c outside and about 40°c inside, despite the fact that it was 10.00pm. 

Tuesday 13TH July.

It was such a beautiful morning but the nightmare of gnats continued; they kept us company all the way to the village of Ruby. Ruby was situated between two hills and it was the most scenic location for a village that we had seen so far on our journey down the Yukon. Some of the houses were like palaces and, perched high on the summit of the surrounding hills. What an awe inspiring view they must have had.

Arrived at Ruby

We bypassed the first bunch of anchored boats and stopped next to a large barge loading at the main ramp. We jumped out into thick mud and pulled the canoe as high up the shore as we could manage; the mud was like a huge suction pad. There were three guys on the shore talking so we walked across to them. One was the captain of the barge and the other two appeared to be the local drunks. The big barge was carrying boats, gas cylinders and a variety of stores for the villages along the Yukon. The barge was based near the city of Fairbanks which is the second largest city in Alaska and is situated on the Tanana River. So far, this was the only barge that we had seen on our journey.

We walked up the hill to the store to buy some special treats to celebrate. There were now less than 1,000kms to go and the feeling of elation that it brought was fantastic. Coke, bread, cheese, spam spread, snickers bars, pop tarts and muffins were grabbed. What a feast! Lunch was eaten in a timber picnic shelter overlooking the river accompanied by none other than the ever present gnats!

After lunch I fetched water from the Washeteria and took the opportunity to have a relaxing and utterly enjoyable sit on the toilet. No mossies or gnats and the bonus of a seat, it was so perfect! Oddly, I think, some of my most relaxing times have been sitting on the loo. This was the first Washeteria that I had seen with a change machine and a machine where you could buy washing powder. Pity we didn’t need to take advantage of it. I noticed that this Washeteria closed at 5.30pm and it was also closed on Sundays.

As we were packing, a float plane landed on the river outside the village and motored to the shore close by, its propeller stirring the water. On board was a female police officer from the town of Galena. She had a quick conversation with us and then walked off towards the village. The wind had now picked up and the pilot of the plane informed us that the weather was going to be windy for the next few days. It was somewhat depressing to hear such news.

We paddled away, loving the fact that we only had twelve more days to go, if we could keep averaging 80km a day. Twelve days was nothing and we both knew it would be easy to keep paddling that long. Our journey was almost complete and although I was still enjoying it, it was a great feeling to know that an end is near.

Leaving Ruby

Birds Along The Way

On a morning paddle with Julie McDonald over Christmas we spot a Osprey and before I could say Jack Robinson it died in the water to grab a fish.

On the last day of 2024 I took several bird photos. Here are a few.

A magnificent Osprey.

Females usually have a more prominent breast-band.

Male on left. 

Female on right with more spots and streaks on the chest.

Buff Banded Rail

***************

Pelican and darter.

Great Egret.

Crested Tern.

Welcome Swallow.

Only $600.00 the lot.

1 x Explorer 515 double kayak 

1 x Finn Kayak with pod

4 paddles, PFD, cags, helmets and other gear.

All set for the Avon Descent.

Junior Paddle Camp

Paddle WA sprint committee is super excited to share the details for our Junior Paddle (Guppy) Camp. Ages ideally 9-12 all equipment provided. Please share widely with younger siblings, cousins, children and friends. We have some wonderful coaches lined up and we are initially capped at 16 only so register below. https://www.webscorer.com/register?raceid=372692

Sprint Regatta #4 

2024/2025 Season 

Saturday 11 January 2025

Paddle WA LiveLighter Sprint Canoe Series

Saturday 11 January 2025   Targeted Guppy with Guppy Camp Thurs-Friday 9-10 January 2025 - Sign up for Entry to regatta and Camp. 

Encouraging Surfskis to enter as well - specific grids across 200, 500 and 1000 distances. 

First Race 8:00AM (Expected finish 1:30pm) Standard entries close Saturday 4th January Midnight Late entries after this time and until WEDNESDAY 8th January are likely to be UNSEEDED.  

Enter and pay on Webscorer AND select races on link below to the GOOGLE Sheet  - All individuals must enter and register.   

Go here:-

https://www.webscorer.com/register?raceid=372692

Marathon #5 Mandurah Canals

Epic 16 Kayak

For Sale

$1200.00

Due to having over 50 kayaks I have decided I have to let one or two of them go as I'm getting short of space in my garage.

Epic 16 kayak. 19kgs

$1200.00

This is a demo kayak that I have had tucked away in my garage for a few years. It's been used very little and is in amazing condition.

A great river touring kayak.

Two hatches and large storage areas. Rudder operated by foot pedals on a nice wide foot support. Self adjusting foot pedals.

The Epic 16 offers a unique combination of stability, maneuverability, and speed that touring paddlers of all abilities appreciate.

Excellent condition.

Construction & Material  (Carbon)  (Fiberglass) (Kevlar)

• 19kgs

It’s back. My Book - 
‘Birds Along The Way’

The new reprint has arrived.

It has 412 photographs, 285 of them are of birds, 127 are scenic and various other shots.

Books can be sent out for $11.00

Or they can also be picked up from my home in Ashfield by appointment. 0417977330

The book is a soft cover, has 150 pages, is an A4 landscape size, 30cms x 21cms, weighs 670 grams.

Price $45.00

($35.00 for Paddle Australia Members.)

If you would like one, email me with your details and I will put one aside or send one out.

terry@canoeingdownunder.com.au

0417977330

Please let your friends know..