Movie stage XX & XXI
| start date | activity | place | from - to | days | km | km/ day | comment |
| 30.12 | windsurf, bike | Tugerrah Lake | The Entrance - San Remo | 1 | 38 | ||
| 31.12 | rest | San Remo | 2 | 0 | New Year at friends place | ||
| 2.01 | windsurf, bike | Macquarie Lake | San Remo - Minimi | 1 | 55 | ||
| 3.01 | bike, stilts | Minimi - Hawks Nest | 2 | 95 | 38 | ||
| 5.01 | kayak | Myall Lakes NP | Hawks Nest - Bungwahl | 3 | 55 | 18 | With family and friend |
| 8.01 | rest | Myall Lakes NP | Bungwahl | 1 | 4 | With family and friend |
I stood on the lake's shore and wondered if I would be able to cross it by windsurfing. The wind that day was strong, it did not add comfort. After all I haven't been on a board in 23 years, not counting a one-hour lesson a month ago that reminded me the basics.
However, I was lucky enough to find Lyndon, an experienced local windsurfer who came to meet me. He pulled out 2 boards, 3 sails, and after a short test he matched the most suitable set for me taking into account my skills and wind strength. Not only that, Lyndon also accompanied me for the first kilometer of the route which greatly boosted my morale, and at the end of my windsurfing adventure he came to shoot some drone footage.
However, it was not so easy to reach the destination because it was completely against the wind, I had to tack several times. But I made it, so I can confirm that once skills learned they stays with us for the rest of our lives, just like with cycling - you don't forget it.
I cycled to the south shore of Lake Macquarie. The wife brought the windsurfing equipment and I jumped on the board again. At first it was going well, but after a while I sailed out to the middle of the lake where the wind gust reached speed over 15 knots, and a lot of motor boats intensified the waves that capsized me. In such conditions lifting the sail and starting again weakened my strength. I had to rest, my hands were sore, I was using harness more and more often which was a frequent cause of my falls into the water - it just pulled me forward with it when there was an unexpected gust. That day I landed in the water about 10 times, but still covered the distance of 16 km in only two hours. It was fun!
I don't know why I had such a stupid idea, but I figured I'd be walking on stilts. The problem is that for the first time in my life I put them on just two days earlier. Maybe I had no problems with balance, but such a walk required a lot of effort, and the worst part was that I couldn't stop unless there was a tree or a sign pole nearby to hold on. I also couldn't sit down, pick up the dropped thing, and the abrasions on my calf hurt mercilessly. For these reasons I decided to give up on stilts after two days - fun, but 8km was enough for me.
We arrived at Myall Lakes National Park where we were joined by Radek who brought kayaks borrowed from the excellent kayaker Richard (who is currently paddling solo from Australia to New Zealand). We waited for the high tide to start coming in because we had to paddle upstream and it was easier that way. The first night turned out to be the best - alone in the forest (Ewelina and Natan walked 2 km), with a firecamp, in peace and with birds singing.
The next day Radek and I crossed the first lake, but on a narrower section Natan jumped into a double kayak and my friend was struggling in the too maneuverable single kayak. My son was impossibly happy, he also helped with paddling, we were breaking our speed records, rocking on the waves from motorboats, watching ducks and cormorants.
There was a strong wind in the morning but we continued along the shore together with son. Then Natan changed with Radek and we paddled out to the open lake, where in the middle of it we were caught in storm. The wind was whistling horribly, the fog made it difficult to navigate, the downpour was flooding us, but the waves were the worst as they tried to capsize the kayak. With some water on board we tried to paddle to the shore, but that meant a course sideways to these half-meter waves - it rocked us so much several times, I thought we would fall over, we were a bit scared with Radek. Then we decided not to go in direct line, but on a very detour route along the shoreline. It reminded me of the horror of South Africa where 2km from the shore the waves took away my and Evelina's kayak, we were drifting in the cold ocean known for its great concentration of great white sharks. From that moment on Evelina will not get into the kayak with me, but fortunately she trusted me to take our son.
We stayed two nights at the last campsite to enjoy ourselves a little more. We played dice, football, badminton, endless conversations, just great father and son and husband and wife time. However, Ewelina's annual leave was ending and they had to drive bsck to Sydney, but this time we will see each other soon, so the goodbye was not painful.