Dec 18 to 22 - Day 42 to 46 - Christmas Rock to Fish River Mouth

The wind has been howling for the last few days and has made Robert's progress very slow...

On day 42 Robert had no choice but to stay on the beach...

On day 43, he managed to do 29 km but he had the wind against him all the way... He would have liked to go further but the next planned stop was just too far and he would have arrived past night time which is certainly not a good idea. So he settled somewhere between Hamburg and Begha.

On a positive side he caught two nice fish on that day and so could have a very decent meal. He landed in a very beautiful place as you can see below...

On his way there, Robert passed a HUGE superpod of dolphins! He is quite sure that there were several hundreds of them... And he actually heard them from about 500m away. He says the noise in the middle of the sea was similar to the one from a river in a mountain. Once he was amongst them the whistling and jumping was amazing...

He also went over a reef but with wind gusts reaching 24 knots, he got hit by a wave, found himself unable to do a eskimo roll and could not manage to get out of the kayak... Adrenaline helping, he eventually managed to get out somehow, he is not even sure how... He then realized he could see his sunglasses slowly disappearing, even though they are supposed to float, and had to dive to go and get them back... What a day!

On the beach, amongst all the shells, Robert found porcelain chards, just like the ones that are washed up at Double Mouth from the Santo Espiritu that sank in 1608... I have tried to see if I could find something about a shipwreck around there but so far I have not managed... If anybody knows of a shipwreck in that area, I would love to get some information! The other possibility I guess is that someone could have broken a plate or something recently but I would rather think that Robert has found pieces of a little treasure!

Robert had to stay on that beach on day 44 and his job was to find some more treasure bits but he did not find anything more...

Day 44 was a tough one. Robert decided to paddle even though the weather conditions were not great as he is making very slow progress... But with the wind in his nose he only managed to do 11 km in 7 hours!!!!!! The counter current was so strong, it was pushing him away everytime he took a break from paddling... He set up his camp about 3 km north of Begha and got sandblasted... He then walked there to try and find some food and water... There is however no shop in Begha but a nice guy gave Robert a beer so that made him feel a lot better...

The weather conditions were once again very bad for yesterday and Robert was unsure about leaving... But around 10 am, the wind became Easterly and he decided to make a move. In 5 hours he paddled 26 km so that was worth his while! He settled at Fish River Mouth where he will have to spend the day today as the weather conditions are not good once again... On his way there he met some fishermen on a boat who invited him to spend the night at their place, Robert declined the offer but asked if he could have some bait and they gave him a nice squid. With that he managed to catch a nice fish for his supper and also had enough squid left to eat some too, so last night's menu was: coconut oil grilled squid with rice and steamed fish... Unfortunately pudding is amiss as Robert has already eaten up his stack of Lindt chocolate...

Comments

[Sonjawookey@gmai]

I would have loved to experience that super pod of dolphins. And your last photo of the sunset is magical. Amongst the hard times you are having some incredible experiences. Vasbyt Robert but above all enjoy.lov s