Getting ready has been a trip in itself.  It sometimes seems that everything that can go wrong, has. On the other hand, I have met some wonderful people who have just amazed me with their kindness and willingness to help me and their excitement for the venture.

Some people think the journey will be hard once I get on the water but from here, paddling looks so easy!  All I will have to do each day is paddle till I am tired, look for a place to camp, set up camp, cook a meal, sleep… and then do it again the next day.  Lonely, ha!  I long for the brilliance of the Milky Way without light pollution.  How about falling asleep to the sound of the ocean and crickets instead of distorted, head banging music and screaming drunks.  Camping on cays and islands while diving in pristine reefs and taking as much time as I want to get that perfect picture sounds pretty darn appealing right now.

In comparison, this past six months has sometimes been an absolute nightmare of chores, dealing with lunatics, frustrations, and ‘you can’t get there from here’ problems.  Preparing the kayak, getting the website up and running, dealing with all those little fiddly bits and pieces that go with organising a trip, things breaking after I have already fixed and installed them keep slowing the progress.  Packages not arriving on time or at all, software not working properly, and the time differences between Western Australia, the U.S., and the East Coast of Australia making it difficult to contact people and get things resolved.  Modifications to the kayak not working and having to start from scratch didn’t help matters.  To top it off, the stress of imposing on people as a result of things that are out of my control and a looming deadline to get started.

Soon this will all be behind me and I will be out on the water, just me and my kayak, and the beautiful Coral Sea.  It’s what is keeping me going, come hell or high water, I am going to launch.  I am going to paddle out into the sunrise and the real journey, the point of all these messy preparations, will begin.