It’s November! (t-5.5 months to go)!

WOW!

What an amazing couple months it has been since our last update! We have some updates below, and please read through, because there is some amazing stuff to tell you… These blogs will be more and more frequent as we get closer to our launch date! These posts are an opportunity to learn a little more about the journey that we have delved into.

Lately a couple of people have asked us when we are leaving, and we tell them “May! Less than 6 months now”. To which many people say, wow! heaps of time! Well that is definitely not how it feels to us! We are getting down to fine detail of trip logistics partners, plans and more. A day in our lives does not look like your average, so we thought we would tell you what the average week can include..

Around our day jobs, we have to spend time both training and planning. Mathilde works from about 5.30am – 4pm and Lucy from 9am -7pm. We both do cross training at the gym, which includes weights, core and cardio. On average we will spend 3 – 4 hours in the gym a week. Alongside this we both do yoga and general fitness. Weekends are either 2 days of kayaking, or one day of kayaking and a day of planning. Extra planning is squeezed into the left over hours of the day! As well as this, Mathilde and I are both volunteering for local conservation groups, so it makes for a busy but full-filled time. We were laughing recently as we reflected that paddling 40km each day seemed somewhat simple in comparison to our average day at the moment…

Enough of that! We also want to tell you about some great new developments, if you haven’t already heard, Werner Paddles have agreed to sponsor our journey!! What did they say?

“Werner Paddles has reviewed your proposal for sponsorship of your Inside Passage expedition and more importantly your mission for the conservation efforts. Your descriptive project brief outlining the trip details, your current social media channels as well as your website all make it easy for us to say yes we would like to help support your conservation efforts. Our primary focus on this trip, from our perspective, is your plans for conservation efforts.”

I mean, those words truly meant the world to us! Werner Paddles have a great Healthy Waters program, and now we are are a partner. As you can see from above, it is the conservation element that Werner Paddles was really attracted to, knowing that they too are stewards of our oceans is incredibly important to us. It is humbling to be supported by such a reputable organisation.

We have also done some amazing clean-ups here in Brisbane! 22 volunteers collected 110kgs of debris from the shores of the Brisbane River. No one bothered that we were tramping around in mangrove mud, no one complained of the mosquitoes, and EVERYONE put 100% in. We were truly inspired by the people we met! My favourite quote of the day was this response from a volunteer when asked why they came:

I saw it advertised on Kathmandu’s Facebook page and I thought, ‘that sounds like a good weekend’! So I came down to help and enjoy the sun.

It made us both so happy to know that people truly do enjoy the feeling that comes from doing something important for our environment, our oceans, and a cleaner community.

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We are often asked how you organise a project like Passage Adventures. It is safe to say that so much of what we do is reaching out to people, making networks and working hard to build relationships. This whole expedition is a journey of sharing stories and information and changing the world through connecting and inspiring each other. Here are just some of those amazing people we have met along the way…

Heidi Taylor – Managing Director of the Tangaroa Blue Foundation. Heidi works her butt of to ensure that cleanups, conferences, source reduction plans, industry lobbying and more is happening around Australia, everyday!

Karen Wristen – Executive Director of the Living Oceans Society. Karen is doing great work in Canada, organising clean ups, community education and more. She is helping us to coordinate our  clean up at the finish, promote our cause in Canada and provide insight to the local area.

James Bartram – Vice President of Education and Youth at Ocean Wise Conservation Association. James has put us in touch with SO many people over in Canada/Alaska. He has truly been the connection that has built this project in to something amazing! He is someone who has ideas, passion and action to follow it through!

Rachel Schoeler Manager of Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Rachel has been invaluable in helping us develop some connections and ideas for our community outreach in Canada/Alaska. She is helping connect us to education centres and communities along our paddles, where we can stop, do talks, clean ups and help engage more people with the ideas and concerns of marine debris and the story of women in adventure. It is truly amazing to work with a woman, who herself is a big adventurer!

Marlies and Becky – these amazing women from Chuffed help us with the work we do promotion crowdfunding. We have lead two workshops in Brisbane now, and have more planned for the future. Marlies and Becky have coached us through the sessions, feedback promotion and are two women who truly believe in social power.

Carol – From Lunette Australia Carol has helped us promote our fundraising and promotion by arranging our sponsorship and promotion! She is easy going and a great person to work with.

Rob Mercer – What a legend! Rob from the Balanced Boater gave us 2 days of training down in Sydney. He gave us more time than we asked, his “contribution to our project”, he says! Rob is so calm, skilled and kind. The time we spent with him honed our skills and our spirits.

Sandy Robson – Most of you know will know Sandy, what a legend! She kayaked from Germany to Australia over 5 years!. Sandy was kind enough to sit down with us for a couple of hours. She shared her experiences, knowledge and networks with us. It was truly humbling to be mentored by such an inspirational woman!

That is just 8 of the many people we are talking to This project is not possible without the combined efforts of people all over the globe! We are humbled and inspired by everyone who has put a moment of time into our project, thank you!

Lucy and Mathilde