If you’re new to my blog and are wondering why this is the end of a chapter, here’s a quick explanation: On the 20th of August, I’ll be starting the INSULIN 360 challenge – a 360km mountain bike ride across the Haute Alps region of France with T1D mountaineer Jerry Gore, with the aim of raising money for Action4Diabetes.

Thanks to everyone who has donated, I’m now at over £4000! Please share my story and just giving page with your friends, because I’d love to hit my £5k target. Remember – £360 is enough for one child for one year.

I’ve left my boat in Bari and when I return I’ll have used up my post-brexit 90 days in the Schengen EU so I’ll take the ferry to Albania and paddle north through Montenegro and Croatia. After that I don’t know what will happen and even this plan may change, but I’m content with that.

Here is the blog from my final day of paddling in Italy and a reflection on the past couple of months.

With strong winds forecast for later in the week and my body really craving a rest, I decided that tomorrow I would make the final push to Bari. So my night on the beach in Torre Canne would be my last sleep on the sand for some time, and I didn’t really care that I slept fitfully, a group of people standing nearby staring at me, their dog barking aggressively, for I only had to paddle for one more day. The sun stirred me awake in the morning as usual, a violently hot alarm clock I just can’t turn off, and I clambered into my boat, taking my first strokes with a determined focus on the finish.

I’ve always found the last push to be very mentally challenging – the last interval of a session, the sprint finish of a race, the final hill from home on a cycle ride. Perhaps in my mind I’m satisfied with the effort I’ve put in up to that point and the fact that it will all be over soon, so I struggle to fully commit. Today was no different. I’ve been thinking of getting to Bari for the last week, and now it felt so close, but in reality there were still another 9 hours of paddling to get there, and it was all the more painful because I wasn’t mentally prepared for it.

So I struggled through the day, my mind never quite accepting that it still had to put in quite a lot of effort. The beautiful Puglian coastline became more urban as I approached Bari, the biggest city on the Adriatic coast of Italy, and I had a visit from the coastguard who told me to put my buoyancy aid on (which I haven’t worn recently because it’s been so hot). Clouds built up and the sky rumbled with thunder, blocking out the sun and sending the hoards of incompetent motorboat drivers fleeing for the safety of the harbour. By the time I reached the big harbour wall of Bari, I was thoroughly fed up with sitting in a kayak, and it was a welcome distraction to surf the last few kilometres on the wake of a yacht.

I spent the next few days at CUS Bari, an impressive sports facility with an athletics track and an Olympic swimming pool, a place you can go sailing, rowing or kayaking too. CUS kindly agreed to look after my boat and made me feel very much at home while I waited to fly out of Italy. I slept in a mosquito-infested gym, washed my kit and spent my days resting and exploring the streets of Bari, old and new, on a bike stuck in one gear.

Each morning I’d go to a cafe for an espresso and croissant with Antonio, who worked at CUS, and he took me out on the boat to coach the kids, brought me fruit, and treated me to dinner at a seafood restaurant. Mimmo, head of the kayak section, also took me to the restaurant, where I ate delicious pasta, lightly fried seafood and tiramisu, and he drove me to the airport. Thank you guys, as I have said before, the fruits of such generosity are much appreciated, but the spirit that inspires it is what really warms my heart. None of this would have happened if Gaetano hadn’t seen my post on facebook. I’m not a fan of social media and all of the negative effects it has, but on this trip I have come to see how it can be used as a power for the good.

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I’m back home now for a week before I head out to France for INSULIN 360. Climbing in to my own bed, I can honestly say I haven’t had a good nights sleep since I left it, or at least not good enough to catch up on all the bad nights. Paddling late, mosquitoes, heat, morning sun, music, drunk people, low blood sugars and high bood sugars – those are some of the reasons. The last three nights I’ve slept for 13 hours, uninterrupted sleep triggering my body to remember what it’s missing. The adventure took a lot out of me, more than I felt at the time. Sleep deprivation certainly made this leg tougher, and perhaps it was responsible for my wild blood sugars because since I’ve stopped paddling my diabetes has been very easy to control. Eating a meal that during the adventure would’ve resulted in a massive spike now results in a flat line, despite no change in my diabetes management. I want to write a detailed summary of my diabetes management, so I’ll save further analysis for that article.

On the day I walked out of my front door and stuck out my thumb, what was I going in search of? Adventure obviously – experiences exciting and memorable by virtue of their unpredictability. Arriving at the canoe club in Pisa and being welcomed to their party for example, or getting caught out in a thunder storm and sheltering under a restaurant canopy with the bin men, wrapping ourselves in the hotel’s dirty sheets, that happened to be in a bag outside, to stay warm. Plus the less dramatic aspect of adventure – not knowing where I’ll sleep, what I’ll eat or what’s around the corner in a country so diverse it feels like a continent.

Starting the trip by hitch-hiking to Italy was a release of my new found freedom. For the 6 months prior I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to go on adventures again, so I’m still just delighted and grateful that I have been able to. It was wonderful to reconnect with Nicola on the way, to bring the journey full circle and close that chapter.

I went in search of connection too. Connection with nature and the beauty of the earth, with my body and mind, people I met along the way and people who read this blog.

In the first week of the adventure I didn’t really meet anyone, and I did worry the tourist season combined with a language barrier would make for a lonely trip. I need not have worried though, because the Italian surfski community soon got word of my adventure and I was welcomed ashore with astounding warmth, generosity and delicious Italian food. Lots of the latter. And not just paddlers, I met interesting people from all walks of life wherever I went. I can’t single anyone out, because every meeting was special, so thank you so much to everyone who reached out, you guys made the adventure an adventure!

As for beautiful places, so many sections of the Italian coastline were amazing. Rugged cliffs, mountain views, crystal clear waters in every shade of blue, from deep and inky to as bright and vivid as a cloudless winter sky. Wild camp spots on my own private beaches, pods of dolphin and an underwater world that made me forget time exists. If you’re planning a holiday, some of the highlights have to be Cinque Terre, Palmaria Island, Elba, Parco Regionale della Maremma, Monte Argentario, Capri, Amalfi, Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park and the coastline of Puglia.

I had an expectation to learn from this adventure, and I’d view it as a failure if I hadn’t. Learning about myself, that’s what I mean by connecting with my mind – making conscious the unconscious. Coming to understand my motivations for this trip, thinking about what I want from life, what actually matters, and untangling the knots that make it hard to answer these questions. Why? I just have a hunger for it, I enjoy the process, the sense of release I get from freeing my mind of such tangles. I think so I can stop thinking. I’m not that interested in myself, but I feel understanding myself is the place to start, it will free me to create realities convincing enough to commit my life to.

Travel puts my mind in a place where I feel like I’m learning, I’m not sure why. The learning curve is invariably steepest the first time around, so it was always going to be difficult for part two to quench my thirst.

Indeed, the hardest parts of the trip were when the things I set out to find felt nowhere in sight. Interminable sandy beaches felt like purely physical demands, but coming to accept the monotony was the true challenge. Those times were tough, but they were valuable too. They made me question what I’m doing, helped me see things the way they are.

The Brexit 180 rule forced me to show my hand, and it really brought out my indecisiveness, but in the end I’m happy with the decision I made. The paddle became more of a physical challenge, the sun beating down on a hot sea day in day out, and this climaxed with my crossing of the Gulf of Taranto.

Memory of any hardship has now faded, or rather that hardship is now a great memory, and I’m left with the romantic vision of adventure – it’s why I’m already longing to get back out there. The comfort of home melts any ambition from me, as long as I stay here. To learn and grow I have to put myself in uncomfortable situations, and that’s another reason to travel.

I haven’t even mentioned Rome, Naples and the amount of pasta I ate. A lot happened in the last two months, and it’s locked away in my memory.

Next up is the Insulin360 challenge. I’ll certainly write a blog at the end of the challenge, and expect a couple more articles before then.

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Some thank yous

Mum, Dad and Isobel for putting up with my last minute panic packing and somewhat risky endeavours and still being ever supportive. Lots of love x

Thank you also to Jim and Annabel at Epic Kayaks UK who got me started in a kayak back in 2015 and have supported me ever since. They provided me with my Epic V8 GT, built by Kirton Kayaks in Devon, a surfski that can take you anywhere. Plus Epic paddles, the most efficient paddles out there, and Vaikobi kit, comfortable kit that kept me sunburn and blister-free. You can read about my equipment choices on my gear page.

I hope everyone enjoyed following my progress on my tracker, it was certainly useful for paddlers meeting me on the water and I wouldn’t have attempted crossing the Gulf of Taranto without it. So thank you to Ben at Geotracks for keeping me safe and on the map!

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And finally some statistics from the trip:

• Dates: Cherbourg 23/08/21 – Genoa 20/10/21, Genoa 08/06/22 – Bari 30/07/22
• Total days paddled: 97 (53 to Genoa, 44 to Bari)
• Total rest days: 13 (5 to Genoa, 8 to Bari)
• Total distance: 4080 km (2111km to Genoa, 1969km to Bari)
• Average distance: 42km (39.8km to Genoa, 44.75km to Bari)
• Longest paddle: 107km (Gulf of Calabria)
• Longest week: 356km
• Total nights staying with people vs nights slept on the beach: 22 vs 75

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