Pulling into the beach at Little Musselroe Bay, Tasmania

Just landed in Tasmania!

Boats awaiting cleaning the first night in Tasmania

Well, we are back in warm Queensland! What a journey we have been through! As I get back into routine I’ve been thinking about the last year and what our team has been through to make this trip a success. From the doubtful beginnings but ever increasing desire; asking who would come on the expedition; support, scepticism and people calling us mad, to the lengthy and tedious planning stage; then the fundraising for Destiny Rescue, the preparation; the ever increasing intensity of training; more people calling us mad; countless hours working on the boats and equipment; writing our wills; packing and final preparation; the trip to Victoria; finally the expedition; Tasmanian whirlwind tour; and then back home. Through all this God has been with us every step of the way and with the help of so many family, friends and people we may never meet, Destiny Rescue has been able to do so much more for kids that think they have no hope! For a few more kids the gap has been closed and they can now live in freedom.

I feel so excited and honoured that I could play a part in this project but on the other hand realise now that the scary part may have not come yet. I believe Gods desire is to see us grow and take bigger steps of faith. Since we arrived in Tasmania, I have had a feeling that is hard to explain - it’s sort of like being awe struck and momentarily in neutral but awaiting a higher gear.

Crossing Bass Strait was a highlight in my life and people that know me well, know that this is my type of relaxation. I had time to think and learn concepts and ideas. Below are some of the things that I learnt while paddling Bass Strait or waiting on an Island:

• The awesome scenery, landscapes and nature were inspiring and sure evidence of the creative hand of God. Some of the sights and experiences you would pay almost anything to have friends and family see, feel and breathe. Just amazing!

• The power of positive focus: When you focus on things that motivate you, you are capable of a whole heap more! When I became tired, I found my mind wandering and taking itself wherever it pleased. After pulling in the reigns and controlling what I was thinking about, my performance increased significantly.

• What I call bumping up the threshold. As an outdoor instructor, I am often in situations that many people would call challenging, uncomfortable and hold a high level of perceived risk. (An example may be walking in thick mountain fog, off track in tropical rainforest, in the dark, pouring rain, uphill, hungry etc.)I am often called strange because I quite enjoy these circumstances. I believe my enjoyment of these experiences stem from exposure to similar challenges in the past. Brent also had a revelation of this on the 70 km leg of the crossing. This is termed ‘Challenge By Choice’ by the outdoor rec industry. Basically, by choosing challenges rather than avoiding them you stimulate growth in yourself and character development. This is also Biblical. (See Romans 5:3-4.) By choosing to challenge yourself beyond your comfort zone, you inevitably set yourself up to be able to face bigger challenges in the future. I suppose I understand this now at a deeper level.

• On some of the large crossings, for the first few hours we couldn’t see the destination. We would have to trust our navigation skills until we could see our target. It’s kind of interesting paddling towards the horizon for hours only seeing ocean. Then very slowly the size of the Island builds until you are right beside it. Something I share with Craig, is we find that the more we see the island the more we are motivated towards getting there. I find this with life and faith, when we start our journey toward God we find him hard to see and we may even doubt if he exists. We need to take steps of faith toward God trusting our navigational instrument (the Bible) until we start to see what God is like and learn more about him. We even hear his voice when we get close to him. Life often throws its rain, wind, waves and even storms at us to distract and discourage us but as long as we keep heading in Gods direction we will know security and hope. I believe the more your course is lined up with Gods direction, the more fulfilment you will see in your life.

Other tid bits:

• If you want to eat fish from Bass Strait I hope you like Parrot fish! One afternoon we caught 50 parrot fish! And not a single other fish. On the whole trip, with the hundreds of parrot fish we caught , there were only 2 other fish we caught... an eel and a weird red fish.

• Good equipment and well thought out outfitting of boats makes paddling so much more enjoyable. Get a good tent and if bad weather sets in you will be happy. I had an Exped Venus 2 tent that was donated from Expedition equipment...Fantastic! Lavacore Hoods are great in cold weather. Externally tape seam your mirage kayak and put straps over the rear hatch or you may come to grief. Merino wool shirts are the bomb!

• Walking up Rabbit Island makes you feel guilty (You had to be there).

• The bakery at Whitemark is the best bakery in Australia!

• Never walk backwards while dragging your boat up the beach after a loooonng paddle (especially when there are large chunks of seaweed)!

• Remember the milk powder OR learn to like muesli and water!

• Pack at least 2 weeks of food when crossing the Strait.

• Don’t lose Doug (trowel) he is your friend and zip lock your toilet paper!

• Make friends with boaties, especially when hemmed in by bad weather (Thanks to the yachts Anaconda and Waltzing Matilda).

On behalf of the others, I would like to thank the following people: All our generous financial sponsors; our equipment sponsors (K2 Base camp and Expedition Equipment); the many family and friends that supported us in so many ways; the many friendly people along the way that were hospitable and gave us special treats; the tourism places in Tasmania that gave us discounts (Tahune skywalk and Mole creek caravan park); the volunteers that helped on the fundraising days; the many people praying for us while we paddled, paddling experts who gave us advice such as Mark Thurgood, Rob Mercer, Richard Condon, and Olympic paddler Amanda Rankin; Destiny Rescue who helped us to help others; organisations who helped to spread the word about Destiny Rescue; our team member Maxine who did all the fantastic website work and visited the Destiny Rescue Homes; our immediate families who were without us for a few weeks; my supportive wife Jess, who has been a fantastic support to our team and specifically me and has been the person behind most of the fundraising efforts with her creativity and motivation (She has also run over 20 fundraising jewellery parties); to all those that I haven’t mentioned and lastly to our awesome God who we give the glory for our success.

Thank You.

P.S. Keep posted for our last fundraiser and just a few more blogs to wrap it up.