Day 37 Bribie Island to Caloundra
Im beginning to sound like a broken record each and every morning as I groan with absolute exhaustion and dread of putting on cold wet wetsuits. But it doesn’t matter how much I complain or how bad I feel I know I need to finish what I set out to achieve.
After what felt like took even longer than usual I eventually made it down to Woorim Beach, Bribie Island to launch. Beechy was out in the water waiting for me as I had a last minute wardrobe change deciding that I needed to get back into the long leg, long arm wetsuit with booties.
Things were looking pretty bleak as the sky filled with thick grey clouds, but I knew I had a few good hours where I would be un effected by conditions. Once out in the deeper water things felt much calmer, the wind was barely evident and despite the swell coming from the north east it wasn’t slowing down my paddle pace. Moments before I decided to stop for a break a shark swam in front of me, and again it was caught completely off guard and almost literally flipped out smacking its tail through the water to duck out of the way of the jet ski. I noticed on the upper tip of its tail that there was a small arrow looking cut out section, based on my shark knowledge I knew this wasn’t a great white. After a quick internet search I was able to identify that the shark this morning was a tiger shark, very common in these warmer sub tropical areas.
As the day went on conditions deteriorated, the sky became darker it rained, and the winds and swell increased. It turned into an absolutely horrible day on the ocean probably one of my worst. I eventually arrived at Kings Beach Caloundra in a mood, the elements at sea all working against me really frustrated me. The conditions wernt supposed to turn until 5pm so the fact that they turned when they did really upset me.
The frustration was short lived as I was greeted by Sommer, my mermaid goddess sister from the Sunshine Coast. It was wonderful to reconnect and de brief with her about the day and the past few weeks at sea. She was my land support crew when I paddled from Newcastle to Bondi so knew all too well the kind of things I was going through.
We left the beach and all headed north to Marcoola, a very familiar place for me as I used to call Marcoola Beach my office! We were lucky enough to be staying in Atlantis Marcoola Beach Front Resort (www.atlantismarcoola.com.au), one of my other favourite past times was to play in their pools and spas on my lifeguard lunch breaks!
The evening was lovely and quiet for a change with Sommer and I chatting for hours, the evening discussions got rather in depth and mythical as we discussed the myths of the Lost City of Atlantis, mermaids and sirens. Its amazing just how far back mythology discusses the prevalence of mermaids.
