Paddling around Tas



It was an adventure fraught with danger, Mr Cochin came face to face with sharks on two occasions and almost died one night when he was tipped from the kayak near Musselroe Bay.
"It was very windy so I just paddled in the morning and sat on the sandy beach waiting for the wind to calm down. It didn't.
"There was a catamaran coming along the coast. It dropped the anchor in front of me. I was looking at them, they were looking at me, they waved at me so I put the kayak in the water to go and see them," Mr Cochin said.
"They were on their way to the village and invited me to have dinner with them.
"They said you can come in the boat with us or paddle."
Mr Cochin chose to paddle his kayak and not long into the journey was tipped out by the rough swell.
"The boat didn't see me because of the waves," Mr Cochin said.
Mr Cochin did not know how to roll back into the kayak and struggled to paddle the kayak back to shore, laying on the back of it.
"I tried to swim, I'm a bad swimmer and it was exhausting, the waves kept rolling the kayak over when I tried to climb back aboard," he said.
Mr Cochin eventually managed to get the kayak to shore, but then struggled to pull the kayak up the very steep beach.
Completely exhausted from the ordeal Mr Cochin made camp for the night.
"I just got straight into my sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't stop shivering."
When the sun came up and warmed the tent an exhausted Mr Cochin finally got some rest, before setting off in search of the catamaran, giving up after a couple hours of searching.
The South of the state proved difficult for Mr Cochin - he waited for three days at Fortescue Bay for the wind to die down and without a paddle float, navigated the treacherous waters near Cape Pillar and the Tasman Peninsula.
"It was a scary time," he said.
It was only the second time Mr Cochin had completed a long trip on the kayak.
Mr Cochin said the first time was when he was in Alaska and he travelled 1000km over the course of 40 days.
He said he had not been on a kayak since then and when he came to Tasmania, he just bought a kayak to embark on his next adventure.
Mr Cochin saw two Tasmanian devils on the West Coast, dolphins on the East Coast and seals on the rocks along the way.
Hailing from Vendee on the west coast of France, he was not much of an adventurer growing up.
He learnt survival skills from reading books by other adventurers and says he will not return to his homeland, but would prefer to live life one adventure after another.
Mr Cochin wants to trek the North Pole, the old fashioned way without aerial support, just ski and dog sled.
"I want to film it and write books," he said.
As for another Tasmanian kayak adventure Mr Cochin says been there done that.