Sorry for my last bear/gun post, I got the subject header screwed up. Another tale of kayaking survival appeared in the paper today. As I'm on the digest version, I don't know if anyone has beaten me to the draw: "Java kayak trip turns into tropical forest nightmare" Two adventure paddlers, Dave Stibbe and Frank Wolf were trying to paddle the length of Java, when 6 meter swell crashing ashore destroyed their double kayak (probably vacuumed-bagged :-)). They had to trek across 30 kilometers of dense jungle, just missing encounters with poisonous snakes and crocs, but one member coming face to face with a big leopard (where's that 44 magnum when you need it, eh?). The confluence of currents from the Sunda Strait and Indian Ocean funnels nasty chop and terrible seas off the Indonesian island. Forced off the water, they came crashing ashore in a wave the size of a house. The attempted hike was done portage style with the men ferrying gear and the collapsed kayak to try to get to a road marked on a map, somewhere inland. Dehydration, encounters with leopards, tendon damage and abraded skin being torn off, crushing fatigue, a sleepless night watching for the big cat, took its toll, according to the story. Eventually, and fortunately, the men came upon a ranger station, recuperated, and later flagged down a passing fishing boat. Frank had done a previous trans-canada canoe paddle in 1995. The men had had a recent disappointment when they abandoned their 3,300 kilo paddle from Thailand to Bali, one month prior to the above incident -- when an infection took route in Frank. They continued on to Bali, after the second disaster, by train. Don't know if they were using a folding kayak. BC'in Ya Doug Lloyd (your kayak-war correspondent) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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