Nansei-shoto, Japan, Jan/Feb 2008

Following an overnight stop in Tokyo on arrival, I then flew south to Ishigaki island - the most developed of the Nansei-shoto archipelago. In this era of airlines charging for every milligram of excess baggage, I pride myself on spending 6 weeks in the company of an extremely overweight bag (containing a kayak) and never once paying excess baggage charges. It did mean that my trips through airport security were always heart stopping affairs as I was sure I'd be halted with my minimum of 3 bags that I'd carry on board - backpack, paddle bag and usually some random bag with my drying laundry.

Ishigaki was my base and Kabira was the spot for the maiden voyage of the Khatsalano. Unfortunately I forgot to recharge my camera batteries and so don't have too many photos of the day!! Feathercraft's DVD states that the kayak can be put together in 45 minutes - I consider my 4 hours and 45 minutes a little excessive, considering I had also lost most of my finger nails and been bitten by a million mosquitos. I am much slicker at it now, it has to be said, but that first time was a nightmare!!

I explored Ishigaki's coastline as best I could, weather and coral reefs allowing. The reefs did worry me, being in a collapsible kayak, but they were irresistible for paddling around. Every day there were always locals in spear fishing and the colours and variety of both coral and marine creatures was amazing. The weather was pretty poor - rain and wind a lot of the time, so I got to know the town pretty well as well while I plotted the next stage in the trip.....

In a nutshell.....

Hmmm....where did the last 13 months go?? Last posting was from a snowy, cold Hokkaido. This post is from a snowy, cold Halley. That's about where the similarities end.

I'm going to use the next few posts to summarize my movements over the last 12 months and then, once I've caught up on myself, keep this blog a little more up to date. Fingers crossed!

Konichiwa

The last few weeks have seen me go from Dublin to New York, to Dublin, to Devon, to Dublin and then to the very very south of Japan and now the very, very north of Japan. Why? Why not.

New York was a quickie trip, to collect my latest investment, a Feathercraft folding kayak. I'm now the proud owner of a lovely Khatsalano, which is a Greenland style kayak, so it looks sleek and moves fast. And is a tad twitchy in windy weather, but that just adds to the fun. While in New York, I checked out the New York kayak company and spent a really enjoyable hour there chatting with Randall the owner and his colleague about paddling and gear and how I wanted to get out and paddle on the Hudson outside their shop window. They have a fab location and run kayaking trips in summer for all abilities which has to be a top class way to view Manhattan.

The kayak had been shipped to my ever obliging aunt and uncle in Secaucus, NJ, and it was with some trepidation, not entirely unfounded, that I opened up the box that had taken up residence in their shed since before Xmas. In a nutshell, it looks like you're lugging around a dead body in a big black bag. Weighs as much too. But it's a lovely colour, very important to a girl, and it was all so shiny and smelled so new that I could not wait to put it together. But wait I did.

New York was great. Really mild for early January, no snow, sunshine every day, very few tourists and I just spent my days wandering the streets pretty much. Did none of the usual tourist stuff apart from going to the ballet at the Lincoln Centre which was lovely, even if I did lower the tone by wearing runners. Got buses up and down Manhattan and into Harlem and Broadway and hopped on and off any time I felt like a closer look. Also managed a pint or two with a classmate from college, Austin Duffy, who's living it up and managing not to work too hard. And increasing his media profile back home by appearing in the national broadsheet enthusing about the jazz scene in NYC. It was slightly surreal to be meeting up with him after a good few years at the fountain of the Lincoln Centre as opposed to on a street or a hospital corridor in Dublin. Surreal but a good laugh.

Hot on the heels of NYC was a brief foray to Devon to locate a place to live for my 7 months in the UK from April on. Sally Welsh, a friend's mum had put in some leg work for me and pointed me in the direction of a couple of places to rent in a lovely village on the banks of the River Tamar. I fell in love with the first place I saw and despite it having 3 bedrooms and being both way too big and way over my budget for my stay, nowhere else was going to come close. Check out my new abode on www.bereferrers.com. It makes the move over so painless when I'm dying to move into this lovely old Sunday school with a stream in my garden and a river outside my door.

The rest of January was spent moving all of my possessions to my parent's house. Time consuming, painful, stressful, and it rained all the time, just to make things that bit harder. My dad was a trooper and shipped up every day, did his best pack mule impression and put up with my grumpiness. But eventually it was finished and Stoneybatter resembled a minimalist pad, while the study in Athgoe resembled a warehouse. Full of bags and boxes marked 'Devon', 'Antarctica', 'April 2010'. Before I left the Batter completely, an open house was held in the hope of depleting my alcohol supplies. Unfortunately I ended up waking up the next morning with more alcohol in situ than the night before. But at least myself and Marie Kelly had managed to down a litre bottle of Baileys between us between 2am and 5am.

I abandoned Ireland, and indeed left my family with an unfurnished house to be let out - thanks all at home for getting through that shopping list. And headed straight to Japan. Which is where I am now.

Big brother Brian is demanding my attention, so the Japanese update must wait! Later....

What's with the name of the blog??

Ah yes, the rather pretentious sounding title of the blog is me taking the mickey out of the fact that I've managed to get myself a job in a place I have always wanted to visit, and by extension paddle (even us recreational paddlers have dreams too!!), and yet will be living on an ice shelf with a 100 metre drop to the sea, on a good day.... in summer. The alternate route to the sea is by falling into a crevasse - not to be recommended.

When I first announced that I'd accepeted a job as medical officer with the British Antarctic Survey people's responses were fairly clearly delineated. Lots of the medics laughed and said 'my idea of hell but fair dues to ya etc'. All the kayakers went 'amazing, lucky you, totally want your job'......probably because they all, like me, had visions of an amazing paddling experience. I'm learning the realities......ice cliffs, pack ice, strongest winds on the planet, these winds pushing icebergs across pack ice so fast that even a ship on full throttle can't get out of the way. Then there's the leopard seals and orcas who might mistake you for their usual lunchtime snack. So despite the location, the paddling is going to be pretty much non existent. Which I imagine will be breaking my heart on the ship's voyage down and back when I'll be seeing what I'm missing. But you can't have it all and I'm not doing too bad as it is.

More later on the recent trips to New York (hiya Austin!!) and Devon, but the big house move is taking place today so had best get out of bed and get working. Later.......

Where do I start?

Oh dear, it's January 3rd and I'd vowed to start this blog on the 1st. Best laid plans and all that.... Decided to head to Kerry on New Year's Eve to fulfill my need to have made at least one trip to the Kingdom every year since I was born. I hadn't made it down once in 2007 (too much work!!) so decided to slip in there on the last day of the year and be there on the first day of 2008 and have killed 2 birds with the one stone. And it's been a great trip. Great company courtesy of Uncle Pat and Fifi the dog, plus my own dear dad, great food from the garden and a few good walks on the beach at Ballyheigue - amazing surf and some huge boomers in the bay...there's a reef out there somewhere! Set off back home via the Gaynors in Bandon and managed to find myself at the bus station in Cork without a wallet. One very helpful counter assistant later and I was on the bus back to Dublin to prepare for my next venture.....Big Apple here I come.