"All the Way Round"

Stuart Trueman's account of his kayak trip around Australia in 2011/2012 - starting and finishing at Broome.

Stuart was not the first person to paddle around Australia - but the other two had land support help where-ever the road was close enough to the coast. The paddlers would arrive after a long days paddle and have the tent (or campervan) already, and a meal waiting for them - and of course someone to help carry the kayak up the beach and launch again the next day. These other two quite often paddled nearly empty kayaks. Stuart was entirely on his own, having to unload the fully packed kayak sometimes a long way from the high tide area and struggle to get his gear and kayak to where he could camp. In my opinion Stuart's journey was a far greater achievement. If you have ever been in a kayak out at sea looking for a way in through the surf on a remote beach you will appreciate some of his problems.

An extremely well written book.

"Ice Bird"

David Lewis's journey solo to the Antarctic in a small yacht. Capsized several times, lost the mast of course. Jury rigged a spinnaker pole as a mast till it too broke several times - then used the boom as a mast. Made it unaided to the American Antarctic Base. Continued on later to South Africa. A terrifying account of a journey on the sea amongst ice and snow and 30+ metre waves.