A friend of mine is an avid sea kayaker, and his hero (heroine?) is Freya Hoffmeister, who is currently involved in kayaking around the entire continent of South America, planning to complete the journey before her 50th birthday. She previously set the record for circumnavigating Iceland, and became the first woman to circumnavigate Australia solo.
Anyway, you can follow her journey via her blog, and with this map.
First I’ve heard of it - thanks for the info.
Brian
You’d think this would be more well known. Former Miss Germany contestant, gymnast, body builder, skydiver. One would think there was an amazing documentary film here, especially as she closes in on rounding Tierra del Fuego solo in a fricking kayak!
Nobody else? I mean, this is a pretty astonishing athletic endeavor - paddling solo around a continent (she’d already done Australia).
I searched the local papers but could find only the one reference. So it doesn’t look like she made much of a splash here back in 2009.
That’s a crying shame. One would think that 13,000km would impress people.
Thanks for the link, I’ll add it to the article.
She’s closing in on Tierra del Fuego, paddling like stink, covering 83 km on her 102nd day.
I should have posted this on MPSIMS, but I know some mod would have immediately moved it here. But at least it would have had a link where more people would have seen it. Ah well.
I suppose, but there seems to be someone in the paper every week who has just completed some ‘first’. I think people just gloss over it all now.
How hard of a pace is that? Like a marathon a day?
I followed her Australian circumnavigation and, I tell you, that woman is a machine.
She is the second person of only two in history to achieve Australia (but 28 days faster). Many have tried. Included in that feat was an approx. 575km open water crossing to cut off the Gulf of Carpentaria. 575km in a piddly little kayak in waters festooned with great whites, box jellyfish and such. So insane.
I am really looking forward to when she paddles the south coast of Chile, between Tierra del Fuego and Puerto Montt. That 2000km stretch is a sea kayaker’s paradise as it is stunningly set with countless inlets, islands, channels and mountains. However, it is very, very challenging, with it’s brutal conditions and in its remoteness. Take a look on Google Earth, the geography of this little-known area is amazing and surprising.
If she makes it, Holy Crap!