In April 2010 Stuart Trueman set off from Broome, which is in the North West of Australia and headed south on his solo expedition to circumnavigate Australia by sea kayak. He has 16 months to cover the 16,000km and get back to Broome before going back to work.

The coast of Australia has many formidable obstacles for a kayaker to overcome; such as the three sets of cliffs that are close to 200km in length, surf, lack of drinking water, winds, tides of nine meters and of course the sharks and crocs. It is because of these obstacles and the immense paddling distances that since Paul Caffyn first circumnavigated Australia in 1983 there has been only one successful circumnavigation, which was in 2010 by Freya Hoffmeister. It took 27 years for Paul’s expedition to be repeated, a sea kayaker ahead of his time.

“It’s taken three years of preparation to be able to get to Broome to start my trip”, says Trueman. “There are many problems beyond the actual paddling side that have to be addressed which if ignored can be just as much an obstacle as a 200km set of cliffs. With a young family, mortgage and regular job there are many confronting issues that take time to overcome before heading off for over a year. With the planning and preparation done I’m on my way.”