Kayaker’s ocean odyssey stops over in Singapore
SINGAPORE — In about 10 days, female kayaker Sandy Robson will be refreshed, restocked and ready to resume an epic sea journey that has taken her all the way from Germany, and closer to her final destination in Australia.
The Australian is retracing the route of Oskar Speck, a German canoeist who took seven years to paddle from Germany to Australia in the 1930s.
“If you have a dream, then you should just do it. Once you start, then things start to fall into place and it becomes easy,” said Ms Robson, 47, at a press conference yesterday.
She landed at Raffles Marina shortly before 2.30pm, having paddled from Kukup, a small fishing village in Johor.
The weather-beaten Ms Robson is almost finished with the fourth leg of her five-and-a-half-year journey, which started in West Bengal in India and will end in Indonesia.
Ms Robson said she was glad to arrive in Singapore, where she will rest for about 10 days and wait for clearance to enter Indonesia. She will be stocking up on water, dried food snacks, noodles and other essentials.
Ms Robson began her expedition in 2011, making her way first from Germany to Cyprus.
The next leg of her journey took her down the west coast of India to the Gulf of Mannar, when she then hugged the coast up along eastern India. The fourth leg wraps up at Ambon Island, one of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, before she moves on to Papua New Guinea for the final stage of her trip.
Ms Robson, who has over 20 years of kayaking experience under her belt, covers an average of 40km a day with the aid of a compass, topographic map and, when technology permits, phone apps for navigation. Along the way, Ms Robson has had her share of unwanted encounters, including an attack by fishermen in India who thought that she was a terrorist.
“It happened a couple of times, and it got me thinking that it can keep happening. It was very dangerous, they ran over my kayak and broke my boat .... and that’s when I started to question it.”
Thankfully, the local authorities intervened and informed the villagers of her journey. The misunderstanding resolved, Ms Robson was able to resume her interactions with the locals — something she enjoys most during her travels.
Ms Robson said her expedition has helped her to understand the true meaning of a happy life.
“Just seeing these people that are living in poverty — even though they lead a simple life and don’t have many things, they are still happy. It made me realise you don’t have to have a lot of things or money to be happy,” she said.
