Two adventurers have crossed Bass Strait in an unassisted 60-hour run that is believed to be the second-fasted on record.
The pair, comprised of army veteran, Brian Freeman and world kayaking champion, John Jacoby, departed from Wilsons Promontory on Friday the 7th of August before paddling rough, wintry conditions to reach Little Musselroe Bay on August the 1oth.
“It wasn’t the easiest run,” Freeman said in a recent interview with Wild. “Quite often we’d find ourselves 30 kilometres from the nearest land and paddling through very confused waters, which are conditions where the swell, currents and winds are all going in different directions.”
On two of the three days the paddlers covered more than 90 kilometres at a stretch, overcoming freezing waters when their kayaks were momentarily submerged by two- to three-metre swell.
“Normally you’d attempt a crossing in March, but due to the other events we had planned, it was decided to give it a go now.”
Freeman and Jacoby are welcomed to Little Musselroe Bay by a small party of family and friends.
While Freeman was in good company, with Jacoby being a four times world champion in endurance kayaking, he hadn’t had much time for paddling-specific training in the lead up to the challenge.
“My time has been taken up with preparations for other sections of the Great Australian Traverse, such as training for our Everest and Kilimanjaro climbs,” he said. “But we have paddled the strait in the past as well as having paddled from Australia to Papua New Guinea.”
Perhaps even more incredibly, Freeman completed the crossing after having run from Bamaga in Far North Queensland at a rate of 60-plus kilometres per day in just over 65 days.
Following the crossing, Freeman took off the next morning to walk a further 65 kilometres clear across Tasmania.
This enormous undertaking aims to raise awareness and funds for ex-soldiers as well the families of fallen servicemen and women.
So far, Freeman, his support team of wounded soldiers and parents of the fallen have passed through 89 towns and cities across Australia, in a bid to raise at least $2 million by the end of the year.
“We’re on well over $300,000, but that’s not included the additional $400,000 raised to support the event, as well as the thousands spent on gifts-in-kind, provided by the likes of Virgin Australia which has sponsored our flights around the country and around the world.”
Fundraising will continue up until Remembrance Day this year.
To find out more, or donate to the cause, visit the Track the Tribute website.