One Summer’s Paddling Kayak expeditions in the South Australian Sea, December 1980–February 1981 One Summer’s Paddling Kayak expeditions in the South Australian Sea, December 1980–February 1981 Text and photographs by Peter Carter Contents Introduction 3 Circumnavigating Kangaroo Island 4 Port Lincoln to Adelaide 13 Daily Log 19 ‘Cover’ picture: The final stage, across the Gulf from Edithburgh to Glenelg. Glassy smooth in the middle, Mount Lofty visible in the distance One Summer’s Paddling 2 Introduction ea kayaking began in earnest in South Australia in the 1970s. There daily log. It also became the web pages at <www.users.on.net/ Shad been some sea paddling earlier, inluding a voyage from ~pcarter/exped.html> Goolwa, out through the Mouth, to Outer Harbour in March 1934 to complete a journey down the Murray from Albury in a decked canoe, Now, 40 years later, I’ve revised the text, rescanned the key images and and a crossing from Cape Jervis to Cuttlefish Bay in the late 1940s by omitted the notes as no longer relevant. two Scouts in a frame and canvas kayak. The then recently formed SA I long ago lost count of the number of times I’ve crossed Backstairs Canoeing Association, now Paddle SA, organised a trip from Cape Passage, and I’ve visited the Sir Joseph Banks Group three more times, Jervis to Adelaide in 1973, using KW7s and other white water boats. been around Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, out into the Pacific with a In the mid-1970s the first real sea kayaks began to appear: the North NSW group, to Fraser Island in Queensland, to Flinders Island off our Sea Tourer, from a mould supplied by the Derwent Canoe Club in West Coast, and so on. Tasmania; the Trylon Sea Hawk, commercially built in Adelaide; and the Valley Canoe Products Nordkapp, also commercially built. Of the We hoped that our expeditions would inspire others to take up three, the Nordkapp, especially when it became available with paddling at sea, but the inspiration was slow to take effect. I could not, bulkheads and hatches (that system was new then, in fact my Nordkapp for instance, find a team to visit Neptune Island in 1983 (I went on a was the first Australian example so fitted), was the best performing, Tasmanian Three Hummocks Island expedition instead). However and soon became the sea kayak to have. These days, we are spoiled for Malcolm Hamilton and Phil Read were sufficiently enthused to make a choice. second circumnavigation in 1987, and Malcolm went on to make other South Australia has a long and interesting coastline. Some of it is major expeditions and form a sea kayaking business. Tim Vogt, Mark protected in the gulfs, much of it is exposed to the Southern Ocean, and Sweeney and Martin Minge made the third circumnavigation in the there are numerous islands to explore. Most of the early paddling took 2000–2001 summer, using kite sails. Later there was a solo trip by place in the Gulf near Adelaide, but there were several obvious ‘targets’ Stuart Trueman of NSW and then a group from Tasmania paddling for future expeditions. One of them was Backstairs Passage, the crossing to Kangaroo Island, and we did the first two way crossing in doubles. January 1978. Later that year we made the first crossing to a group of Other local expeditions have been to Neptune Island (1998), Flinders islands, the Sir Joseph Banks Group in Spencer Gulf. and Pearson Islands, Nuyts Archipelago, and others. David Williamson There were two big targets: a circumnavigation of Kangaroo Island, and has paddled New Caledonia to Queensland and Darwin to Timor Leste: a crossing from Port Lincoln to Adelaide. These pages tell the story of world class expeditions. Another to lead expeditions and set up a those two expeditions. At the time, I wrote two accounts, a short one business is Phil Doddridge. which was published in the British magazine Canoeing (No 42, May 1981), and a longer one submitted to the Australian Outdoors In that sense, the torch (or is it paddle?) has been passed. I’m happy magazine. That one was not published, but it forms the basis of this with that, and to have been part of the beginnings of modern sea document: I made only minor changes, but added some notes and the kayaking in Australia. One Summer’s Paddling 3 Circumnavigating Kangaroo Island 21 December–12 January “Idon’t suppose I can stop you fellows now.” The police sergeant was not happy. Before him were people with plans to do something that had never been done before, no less than a complete circumnavigation of Kangaroo Island, Australia’s second largest island: by kayak. It would be too easy, and totally wrong, to criticise his attitude. After all, part of his responsibilities include, at times, having literally to pick up the pieces of broken boats, cars, aircraft, and people. He didn’t want four more. We explained that we had planned carefully, that we had all the necessary equipment and knew how to use it, that we had made arrangements to communicate through the fishing cooperative network and promised to keep him advised of our progress. Months of planning and organising were put into effect at about 14:00 on December 21 1980, as we launched from the beach at Kingscote, passed the jetty for the local paper’s editor to take pictures, and headed north across the Bay of Shoals. Before long we were walking again, towing our heavily laden boats behind us across the shoal. Leaving Kingscote at low tide was not such a good idea. The four of us made an assorted crew. John Hicks and I were both teachers, although John has had many other interesting jobs elsewhere in the world. David Nicolson and Mike Higginson were both ‘outdoor’ workers, David for a climbing equipment supplier and Mike was then an instructor for Outward Bound. David and John, both very experienced in the outdoors, were making their first major kayak expedition, but Mike, besides being a very competent surf paddler, had been a member of a 1978 British kayak expedition down the River Nile. Wading across the Bay of Shoals, John in background That year I had made an expedition to the Sir Joseph Banks Islands. When John woke next morning he wondered why his boat had come to That night we camped on the beach at Boxing Bay. Among the flotsam be above him, not below, on the beach. on the beach was a length of very heavy hawser. It would have been good for a tug of war, with the first team to manage to pick it up The forecast warned of a change, and included a Strong Wind Warning. becoming the winner. During the night there might well have been We decided to leave as soon as possible, but by late morning found more items of flotsam as the tide rose higher than the previous one. ourselves with a headwind of some 25 kn, making the going heavy. We Circumnavigating Kangaroo Island landed for lunch at Dashwood Bay, where some fishermen were calling it a day. During lunch there came the sound of an approaching helicopter. It circled us and landed, bringing a television crew and journalists, who somehow managed to get my name wrong, even though I wrote a monthly column for their paper. While others were reading about us on page three the next morning, we were having problems launching from a boulder beach near Cape Cassini, where we had landed after it had become clear that both head winds and opposing tide were not worth battling against. In moving the boats down the rocks I lost my footing and fell on my knees, on an abalone shell. Out with a first aid kit. John then had some difficulty with a wave on the way out, but we were on our way in fine clear weather. We lunched on the beach at Middle River. There, we replenished our water supplies from someone who had read page three that morning. Stowing a fortnight’s food into a kayak is simple enough, but carrying The helicopter near Dashwood Bay. L–R John, Mike sufficient water in summer is always a problem, and we needed to replenish every two or three days. Wine casks make good water containers, being light, tough and flexible, and we had bought a quantity (empty!) to carry and leave in the food dumps set out before our departure. Much of our food was dehydrated or freeze dried, supplemented by vitamin and mineral capsules. Not the most exciting fare, but sufficient. By evening when we arrived at Western River Cove we had the Sun full in our faces, making for uncomfortable paddling. It was dark when tea was finished, so the washing up was left until morning. Approaching Cape Cassini, Mike at left One Summer’s Paddling 5 Circumnavigating Kangaroo Island Our fourth day was a very easy one, moving along with the tide in almost calm conditions. We passed Snug Cove. There, at the top of a pinnacle was an eagle’s nest, with one of its owners watching us through a veritable cloud of terns. We landed at Kangaroo Gully and spent the afternoon drying out some gear. Making the first days of an expedition fairly easy allows things like not quite waterproof packing to be found and corrected before they become real problems. One problem that David found was a gremlin in his SLR camera. That was something we couldn’t fix.