Source: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

In May 2011, 47-year-old Sandy Robson set out to become the first female sea kayaker, to paddle 50,000 km from Germany to Australia. This epic journey was first undertaken by a 25-year-old German electrician, Oskar Speck, who was looking to escape the Great Depression in 1932. Now, 84 years later, the same journey brings Robson paddling to the Bay of Bengal.

Source: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

“This trip will take five years to complete, and this is probably the most famous kayak journey ever made and no one has retraced it, till now,” says Robson, who is an outdoor education teacher from Australia. “Oskar Speck paddled this journey from 1932 to 1939, and he made the trip because he was out of work in the 1930's because of the Depression,” Robson tells us. “He thought it would be a good time to explore the world. At first he thought he would just go by the kayak to Cyprus and look for some work there, but once he got there he had such a good time that he got a Kayak company to sponsor him, so he could take a kayak all the way to Australia.”

Robson has divided her trip into different stages, taking some time to return home in between. As the world has seen many changes since Speck's journey, Robson has encountered several issues while following his nautical trail. “Stage one was from Germany to Cyprus. I had some problems going to the Middle East because I couldn't go into Syria due to the war,” says Robson. “In Iraq there are mines in the river where he paddled, from Saddam Hussein's days. Iran would let me in as a tourist but didn't give me permission to kayak there. So in the end I just decided to start from the North West of India, and this was Stage 2,” she tells us. “Then Stage 3 was going around Sri-Lanka. Speck hadn't fully circumnavigated Sri Lanka, so no one had paddled around that island completely. I decided I would set the world record and be the first person to circumnavigate Sri-Lanka.”

Since then she has paddled up the East Coast of India. “When I got to the north of the Bay of Bengal in September 2014, the weather was pretty bad,  so I took a break there and went home to do some work for a little while, and came back recently to start from here,” says Robson. “This section I'm doing now, is the longest stage, it's 8000km from here in West Bengal all the way to the far east of Indonesia. I think it will take me about 12 or 13 months to complete this journey, at the moment I am waiting for Myanmar to give me the permission to cross the border.”

During her journey, Robson has made contact with local organisations to help with logistics and information. In Bangladesh, she has partnered with SAFE (Simple Action for the Environment). “They have helped me deliver the various travel documents I need, to the right organisations,” says Robson. “They have also provided land support, and have made arrangements for food and lodgings, which makes it a bit easier because I arrive late at night sometimes and don't know the language,” she elaborates.

“Countries that I really liked paddling through have been Serbia and Turkey, and India was definitely the hardest and craziest place I've travelled through,” says Robson. “Overall I've had a positive experience. People have been helpful. I'm expecting to reach Australia in 2016 and I'm hoping to write a book afterwards about my journey,” she says. “I also want to set up something so I can help people I've met along the way, to have access to training in water sports,” says Robson. “In India and Bangladesh I have met people interested in water sports but they don't have access to training courses and professionally run activities. I want to arrange for instructors from Australia to come and teach some courses here- not just kayaking but other sports like surfing etc too.”