It’s been a busy weekend already with concerts and rugby games but when the offer to head out on the ocean is made I simply cannot refuse. I love the water and having the chance to head out with a good friend Eddie Safarik for a spot of sea-kayaking isn’t the sort of opportunity I pass up on!

Eddie was the official photographer for Tourism Queensland throughout the Best Job in the World and we always talked about the possibility of joining together at some stage for a paddle on the water as it’s a true love of his.

He owns a fleet of kayaks and so early on Sunday morning I jumped on my bike and raced across the city to meet him at his house. But halfway there disaster… a massive nail jams striaght through my tyre and….BANG…..PPSSSSTTTT….FLAT TYRE!! Darn it.

Plan no. 2 – jump on the City Cat and race along the river to meet him at Apollo Road jetty. He’s there to meet me in his superb Land Rover. Now I’m a die-hard fan of these great machines and seeing one there loaded up with boats was almost too much to take! The mission was on…

We drove up the coast to Redcliffe with me drooling at the feeling of driving in a Land Rover again (if you don’t know why then have a look at my trans-Africa website www.afritrex.com and you’ll understand – I lived in one for a year!) and pulled into the car park at Scotts Point and met up with a couple of Eddie’s friends from Queensland Sea Kayak Club. Once we’d unloaded the boats from the roof we ran through a few of the safety procedures and hit the water.

It felt excellent to be out there, the sun was out, the water was warmish and I could finally start to train ready for the expedition I’m planning for 2011 – to kayak the length of the Great Barrier Reef.

This is a winter’s day here in Queensland and there was no shortage of life around either with tiny fish all jumping at once in front of us, pelicans swooping low over the water and the occasional splosh as we caught a turtle off guard.

We paddled across the bay to Brighton into a pretty light headwind and then on the way back Eddie demonstrated his sail setup; something I will be using when it comes to my expedition as the prevailing trade winds will be behind me most of the way and will make the journey that much easier….hopefully!

It was a great afternoon and I learnt a heapload about how to fall out of the kayak and how to get back in afterwards, the basics of paddling effectively to conserve energy and lots more – brig on next week! So the next step for me is to join the Queensland Sea Kayak Club and to start attending some of their meetings, paddles and try to learn as much as I can. There are only 11 months until I hope to be on the water…

Back to work with the planning now…

Ben