c&k#36-0 ss - Canoe & Kayak

125mm, 360 degree LED light
Manufacturered by Great Stuff Ltd, email: greatstuff@woosh.co.nz
NEW
Safety Flag
& Light
Be seen
day or night
with Great Stuff’s
new Safety Flag,
LED Light unit.
• LED light with 20 hour battery life
• Waterproof up to 300 feet
• Visible up to 500 meters in darkness
• Available in traditional rod holder
mount or new easy install base
NEW
Easy Install
Base
• Very easy to install. Simply drill a
20mm hole and tighten the large
plastic nut until waterproof
• Rubber washers provide seal
• Base is small and inconspicuous
on your kayak
• Flag pole slides in and out
of Base for easy transport
thousand of adults standing around in groups like
stately gentlemen dressed in tails discussing the
day’s business. Further away chocolate-brown
chicks gathered in large rookeries, fluffed up as
though each had a down sleeping bag pulled up
about its neck.
Marcus simply shook his head slowly from side
to side as he took in the scene.
It was one of extraordinarily abundance, more
wildlife in one place than either of us had ever
seen in our lives. Dozens of elephant seal harems
dotted the beach into the distance and the air was
thick with the sound of penguins trumpeting and
elephant bulls roaring.
We flattened out a spot in the gravel for the tent
and battened down the hatches as the wind
increased. Spindrift blew along the ground
plastering the chicks white, swirling about our
legs like the visible face of the wind. The
wonderful light faded and the plains became
a mosaic of browns and greys, but the
magic remained.
That evening I tried to take a time exposure of the
camp, fixing my camera to the tripod and leaving
the shutter open, but a gust of wind knocked the
tripod for six and the camera was lucky to survive
the fall unscathed. That evening as the aches from
the day became fully manifest. I began to get an
appreciation of how tough the trip was going to
be. It had been brutal with a head wind most of
the day for a hard won 41kms. With the Polar
Bears loaded as they were this was a huge day.
The wind remained strong the next day so with
weary arms and backs it was an easy decision to
spend the day on our legs exploring our aweinspiring
surroundings. By now the sheathbills
had decided our boats were their new home. All
night long they pecked incessantly at the deck
fittings, all day they crapped over them and
pecked at their reflections in the shiny gelcoat.
The Bears looked as though they had spent the
night beneath a row of battery hens. Sheathbills
are comical for their apparent stupidity and their
antics, and loathsome for their habits, mostly due
to their diet, which consists entirely of excrement
from one source or another. We threw them
cheese and salami and crackers at lunch, but they
turned their beaks up at each morsel. Graham
returned from the intertidal zone one morning
appalled when he turned to find one beak-deep
in his business before he had time to cover it
with sand.
Next day, high on the tussocky slope of the hill the
plain below looked for all the world like a
rendezvous point for a great massing of armies
somewhere in Middle Earth. Great battalions of
brown were pinched between blue-grey
companies, while random individuals made
sorties between the various units, and a constant
stream of the adults returned from the sea as
though just disembarked from landing craft.
Diary 17 Oct:
The South West Coast looms large in my
consciousness. If the swell on this coast is
anything to go by then we are in for a test. We may
be lucky and find landings with enough
protection, but more likely face the prospect of
landings that, if we get it wrong, the expedition is
over, with busted boats, bodies, or both.
Better to focus on the immediate challenges. The
west coast would come soon enough...
12 ISSUE THIRTYsix • 2006