Sandy’s solo voyage nears the finish line
![Sandy Robson on the shores of Bakkhali, West Bengal, India.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/YA-209355/kayak_1ahpupj-1ahpupq.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Former Geraldton woman Sandy Robson is nearing the final stage of her solo sea kayak journey from Germany to Australia.
Four years ago she embarked on the mission to retrace the 1930s journey of German canoeist Oskar Speck, who paddled halfway across the world in a folding kayak to reach Australia’s shores shortly after the start of World War II.
Ms Robson is in South East Asia completing the fourth stage of her five-stage journey.
When she reaches the shore of Australia later this year, she will have travelled 22,000km across 20 countries.
She is the first woman to kayak the coast of Bangladesh and India and the first person to circumnavigate Sri Lanka by kayak.
Ms Robson is the recipient of the 2015 Nancy-Bird Walton Sponsorship, which supports the ongoing contribution of Australian women to adventure and exploration.
Living out of a kayak, Ms Robson has found there are many things in life she can do without.
“But dreams are not one of those things,” she said.
She said her biggest challenge had been getting permission from each country to pass through its waterways, and not being able to paddle the whole Myanmar coast was disappointing.
She is now faced with mangroves and shallow tidal areas in the race to reach Java before the south west monsoon sets in.
Her highlights include paddling the Sunderbans, the largest mangrove in the world, the Myeik Archipelago in Myanmar, and camping on beaches in Myanmar and Thailand.
When the journey is over, she plans to write a book about her experience.
Ms Robson attended Rangeway Primary School and completed her secondary schooling at John Willcock College before moving to Perth to complete a teaching degree at university.
She has also gained a postgraduate degree in outdoor education from a Victorian university.
Her dad and mum, Gordon and Margaret Robson, still live in Geraldton.
In her youth, she spent lots of time at Back Beach body surfing and relaxing with her family.
Her first sea kayak expedition was at Ningaloo Reef.
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