Former ironwoman Bonnie Hancock made a quick visit to Noosa last week before heading off on the final 250km leg of her record-breaking 16,000km paddle around mainland Australia to finish last Sunday on the Gold Coast, where she began on 19 December 2021.
“It’s been more amazing than I could ever have expected. It’s been harder than I imagined,“ she said of her journey, after paddling into Noosa Main Beach, escorted to shore by Noosa lifesavers.
Bonnie has now become the first Australian woman to circumnavigate Australia by paddle, and while yet to be ratified, that will be one of four Guinness World Records she will break including fastest person to circumnavigate Australia by paddle, beating German woman Freya Hoffmeister by 78 days.
Other expected records include longest distance paddled in 24 hours by a woman — 213 kilometres off Cape York in July — and the youngest person to complete the journey at 32 years of age.
She has also raised more than half of her goal of $100,000 for mental health charity Gotcha 4 Life.
Bonnie said highlights of her journey included seeing the beautiful reefs and water around Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia.
To make the distance in record time Bonnie paddled her surf ski for 10-12 hours a day and often at night, working with the tides.
Along the way she met “heaps of whales“ some coming “really close“ to the ski. She spotted a great white shark swimming under her ski one day and in the Kimberleys paddled past crocodiles in the dark.
“That was crazy scary,“ she said.
“I tried not to think about it.“
The most difficult stretch was passing the Great Australian Bight where conditions including high winds and storms forced her to paddle 500km from the shore.
After battling more than two weeks of strong swells and freezing conditions she was suffering near hypothermia, seasickness, dehydration and fatigue, lost 8kg, and was hospitalised at Esperance.
At other times the trip involved sleeping sometimes on her boat, others in a swag on the beach and eating mostly dehydrated meals.
Along the way Bonnie had four different support boats and a team of onshore supporters including her husband Matt Palmer, but much of her 254 day journey was spent on her own.
She said she’d been able to rely on mental strength and learnt the importance to her of having good people around you.
Matt praised his wife, saying she deserved all his support in her journey which he described as a logistic challenge but a fantastic opportunity.
His best memories were of the people they met along the way and the beautiful, remote areas of Australia they visited.
Matt said the Gotcha 4 Life charity was their chosen fundraising charity because of the prevalence of mental health illness in society which had touched family and friends.
Bonnie said after celebrating the achievement with family and friends her next steps were to achieve her fundraising goal, produce a documentary and write a book on the journey.
