Lighthouse at the end of Santa Cruz Harbour

My paddle in Santa Cruz was going to be the maiden voyage of my new Folbot Cooper kayak. And had I not smashed about 300 shots of Cabo Wabo tequila the night before it probably would have been. But in the state I was, I decided assembling a kayak was out of the question and that I’d have to hire one, alongside friend @NoReinsGirl.

Now had I been smart I’d have hired the slow and stable version, but instead I hired a “sit on top” kevlar yak that was the tippiest boat I’d ever had the pleasure to paddle. This was of course a big mistake, since we made our way out to a pretty calm sea, only to find me scrabbling away trying to get back to the safety of Harbour without falling in. Fortunately @NoReinsGirl had no problems on her maiden voyage to sea – well done girl!

@NoReinsGirl out to sea for the first time

Watching the yachts at play, Santa Cruz California

Other than that piece of excitement, I just simply felt too sick and jetlagged to paddle much more, so we did a cruisy few kms before turning in. The only other real excitement was paddling past an old sickly-looking sea-lion on the Santa Cruz Harbour, a vision that frankly reminded me of how I must also have looked. Maybe next paddle I’ll feel a bit better!

Close encounter with an old sea-lion. Not sure who looked worse off...

Steve the cabby. Took me for a late night tour of Santa Cruz

It’s pretty weird to fly for 14 hours to the other side of the world, only to find it is the same as where you’ve come from. I mean there are eucalypt trees near the airport, the sun is shining, there’s a bushfire raging nearby, there are lakes and beaches and cliffs on the water.. the list goes on. It could have been NSW.

But on closer look I discovered what made California so different. Its people. You see, there seem to be two types of people in this part of the world. Mexicans, who are cooking the most unbelievably fantastic food, and old weird hippies, who wander around with leathery skin looking desperate for their next score.

Awesome Mexican food - fish tacos from the taqueria (Davenport)

Coming back to the food though.  Seriously, the mexican food is brilliant. I fell in love with fish tacos, demanding them again from the very same spot on my way back out of Santa Cruz. And the thing that goes with mexican food is of course tequila. In margaritas, in shots…. in pieces! I’d be happy if I never heard the two words “Cabo Wabo” again. Destructive stuff!

Anyway, on the way out we got a close-up of the firefighting efforts going on around us with choppers topping up their water reservoirs to dump on the raging forest fires. Amazing close up. And my last impression of California.

Chopper topping up water for the fires on the hill behind

A pretty BIG chopper that I'm sure I've seen in Australia too

Fat Paddler Tour USA 2009

Leaving the sunny shores of Sydney, the Fat Paddler is about to embark on a quick tour of the USA, taking in Santa Cruz (California) and Chicago (Illinois) before heading off to paddle the glacier-fields of south-east Alaska.

Keep an eye out for updates and photos either via this site, Twitter or Facebook. Should be some cracking photos of my paddles!

Fat Paddler's kayak tour of the USA