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Australian Adventure
Over
It took him 17 months,
involved encounters with sharks, crocodiles and whales, and
many days of battling the weather, but Katoomba canyoning
guide Jason Beachcroft last week finally finished his epic
circumnavigation of Australia.
Mr Beachcroft, who became only the fourth
individual to have successfully completed the trip, was inspired
by a book written by one of them, New Zealand Paul Caffyn.
He set off in his 20-kilogram, five-metre
carbon fibre sea kayak in January 2013 and returned to the
same spot - at Rose Bay in Sydney's east - on Saturday to
be greeted by a crowd of his family, friends and media.
He said he had never really doubted
his ability to finish the 18,000-kilometre trip.
"I knew I stood a reasonable chance,"
he said. His mother Judy described her 45-year-old son as
a man with "dogged determination".
Mr Beachcroft counted among many highlights
paddling along the Kimberley coast and his trip around Tasmania.
He is the first kayaker to travel across the treacherous Bass
Strait and around the island state in a circumnavigation of
the country.
Maria and Hunter Islands in Tasmania
were particularly beautiful, he said.
He couldn't name any low points, although
there had been times when it was too dangerous to take to
the water.
"There were days I just didn't
move. You couldn't because it was too wild," he said.
"Sometimes you had your hard days
but you just have to bear with it, I guess."
He didn't mention the encounter with
a two-metre saltwater crocodile on Gregory Island off the
West Australian coast in July last year. On that occasion,
he woke up to hear the sound of the croc trying to drag his
kayak into the water and the two of them ended up in a "tug
of war".
Mr Beachcroft was left with no option
but to hit the salty with a spear.
In a first-hand account he posted on
Facebook he wrote: "With one hand I untie the hand spear,
two whacks with the blunt end no change, two whacks with the
sharp end it lets go, two more whacks it heads back to the
water. Ten minutes it's back again. A few harder whacks and
I claim both the boat and beach as mine. I'm nearly meant
to be out of croc territory. HA."
He also had dozens of battles with sharks,
which tried to bite the kayak's rudder but once they had a
"mouthful of metal" they let go, he said.
Some of his regular companions included
dolphins, sea lions, little penguins, turtles, sea eagles,
boobies and albatross.
And, memorably, humpback whales, whose
song he described as "hauntingly beautiful".
Mr Beachcroft organised five food drops
to various remote locations along the way, but mostly picked
up food along the route. Many, many strangers gave him meals,
the chance for a shower and a bed for the night.
He said they started off saying to him
"you're crazy" but ended up saying "good on
you".
Mr Beachcroft has some ideas for his
next adventure, but "nothing on that scale [of the round-Australia
adventure]. And probably something a little more terrestrial."
The day after he arrived home, rather
than resting on his laurels with his feet up, he drove down
to Jindabyne and the ski fields, giving his lower body something
to do after all those months.
"At least it isn't paddling,"
he said. "It's a bit more leg work than arms."
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A spoonbill and Ibis
on a side creek of the Swan River in Redcliffe
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