I ARRIVED at Point Cartwright shortly before sunrise. After photographing the sunrise I went up to the lighthouse looking for a small boat near the end of an epic voyage.
Fedor Konyukhov, a 62 year old Russian Orthodox priest, set out from Chile on 22 December to cross the Pacific Ocean alone and unassisted in an estimated 180 to 220 days. I wondered what would be going through his mind, the willpower he would need to go through such an epic voyage. This was not his first though.
He was the first Russian mountaineer to have successfully completed the seven summits (the highest mountains on each continent) including Mount Everest twice - from both sides of the mountain. He has walked to both the North and South Poles, and rowed the Atlantic Ocean in a record 46 days.
Now just 162 days out from Chile, having covered 17,408 kilometres and showing obvious signs of exhaustion, he cleared the point where I was standing to land on Mooloolaba Beach to a cheering crowd.
After such an epic crossing living on dried food, he was hanging out for an Aussie steak.
Blog from today:
He rowed across the Pacific
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