Speaker 1: Oh, Hello, Happy New Year. Thank you for joining us
Speaker 1: on the body and soul podcast called Healthy Ish. I
Speaker 1: am your host of Felicity Harley. To celebrate well all
Speaker 1: things New year summer, we are dropping our top Healthyish
Speaker 1: episodes from last year. Now, listeners, this is the last
Speaker 1: week we are doing this, so I hope you enjoy
Speaker 1: this chat. This one was with Bonnie Hancock. She's a
Speaker 1: former world champion iron woman who had a dream of
Speaker 1: becoming the youngest and fastest person to circumnavigate Australia on
Speaker 1: a ski paddle well two hundred and fifty four days,
Speaker 1: twelve seven hundred kilometers, sea sickness and many other things. Later,
Speaker 1: Bonnie joined us to share more stories of her adventures,
Speaker 1: listening to extra Healthyish as well, where she talks about
Speaker 1: the most terrifying ordeal of her adventure. You can search
Speaker 1: for Extra Healthy wherever you get your podcasts. Last time
Speaker 1: you were here, you were about to paddle, and now
Speaker 1: you've done it.
Speaker 2: Oh I was I remember speaking to you in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, a couple of months before I set off
Speaker 2: on my little ocean ski to paddle around Australia.
Speaker 3: I am back on dry land.
Speaker 2: I can move my fingers again, I can move my
Speaker 2: back the boulging.
Speaker 3: This sagone, so we're good.
Speaker 1: And can I just point out it wasn't a little paddle.
Speaker 1: He's just said little paddle. It was a mega paddle.
Speaker 1: Just give us a quick rundown of the amazing feat
Speaker 1: that you achieved.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: It certainly wasn't little, and it didn't feel like that
Speaker 2: by the end. But yeah, December twenty twenty one, I
Speaker 2: set off from basically my backyard on the Gold Coast
Speaker 2: at Mermaid Beach and I did a big clockwise loop
Speaker 2: around Australia. So it was twelve hundred seven twelve thousand,
Speaker 2: seven hundred kilometers I should say. I managed to break
Speaker 2: the world record by two and a half months, so
Speaker 2: I had to get back in less than ten and
Speaker 2: a half months to break that record. So I became
Speaker 2: the fastest person male or female to puddle around Australia
Speaker 2: and also the youngest, so was absolutely thrilled.
Speaker 1: Not just one your few? Was it three? I read
Speaker 1: three records? Or just two? What was the third one?
Speaker 2: Officially it was two, so definitely the fast youngest, which
Speaker 2: is an interesting little fact. Guinness World Records don't officially
Speaker 2: acknowledge the youngest anymore, because apparently there were so many
Speaker 2: children doing all sorts of crazy things to get records,
Speaker 2: they've now taken away the youngest to do so. But
Speaker 2: I also broke the record for the furthest distance puddled
Speaker 2: in twenty four hours five females, so I meant puddled
Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty five kilometers in twenty four painful hours.
Speaker 2: So yeah, picked up like one too well done.
Speaker 1: What was the highlight of the whole trip, I.
Speaker 2: Think sort of probably two aspecs is Mother Nature and
Speaker 2: experiencing the beauties and the I mean the terrifying beauty
Speaker 2: too of mother nature. Being one hundred kilometers out to
Speaker 2: sea and being told by your skipper that there's a
Speaker 2: storm coming and that you need to paddle as fast
Speaker 2: as you can so that you can get to safety.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: There's something terrifying about that, but also so empowering when
Speaker 2: you step up to that challenge and get it done,
Speaker 2: and you know you a couple of times I broke
Speaker 2: that twenty four hour record to basically get to safety,
Speaker 2: but also the beautiful Australian wildlife and being surrounded by
Speaker 2: dolphins in the middle of the ocean, having seals play
Speaker 2: beside me, you know, hump back wales back down the
Speaker 2: east coast of Queensland. I think Mother Nature and out
Speaker 2: our fascinating wildlife here in Australia, which is just like
Speaker 2: nowhere else in the world.
Speaker 1: Did you have a favorite spot around Australia that you
Speaker 1: paddled through or passed?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and lucky that one's quite an easy one. Something
Speaker 2: unexpected is Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, so right at
Speaker 2: the top of Western Australia, white sand, turquoise waters. I
Speaker 2: remember seeing twenty five turtles in one day of paddling,
Speaker 2: you know, and in that part of the country, I
Speaker 2: was quite close to shore, so I was actually making
Speaker 2: my way up the coast with a jet ski as opposed.
Speaker 3: To when I had a catamaran.
Speaker 2: In most of the sections of Australia, I was again
Speaker 2: up to five hundred kilometers out to see, mainly one
Speaker 2: hundred kilometers out. So to being close to shore and
Speaker 2: appreciate that beautiful part of the world was incredible.
Speaker 1: Now, aside from the bid, you obviously put yourself in
Speaker 1: some very close call life threatening situations, encountering sharks, swells,
Speaker 1: high as buildings, sharp rocks and cliff faces near runnings
Speaker 1: with my support boat. I'm ready this from your book,
Speaker 1: by the way, and sea sickness so severe it had
Speaker 1: left me double over for most of the day, unable
Speaker 1: to stop the vomiting. What was the worst of this? This,
Speaker 1: this all sounds awful.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I'm so excited to share all of.
Speaker 3: This in the book, which is out at the end
Speaker 3: of January.
Speaker 2: I you know, there are moments where I people often
Speaker 2: asked were their moments you wanted to quit almost every
Speaker 2: day for the last two months because I was pushing
Speaker 2: back into headwinds around twenty knots, so that's like a
Speaker 2: big fan being, you know, blown in front of your
Speaker 2: face and you're trying to force your body through that.
Speaker 2: I had a great white shark encounter in Western Australia.
Speaker 2: I had three crocodiles come near me and the kimberle
Speaker 2: at the top of the country, and that was nighttime
Speaker 2: when my support crew spotted them with torches out to
Speaker 2: the side of the boat. So there was terrifying, terrifying encounters.
Speaker 2: And you know when the Great Australian Bye, I chose
Speaker 2: to cut straight across as opposed to hugging the coastline.
Speaker 2: I saved a thousand kilometers by doing that. But those
Speaker 2: swells were five to six meters out there.
Speaker 3: They were huge.
Speaker 2: My catamaran will drop out of sight and when you're
Speaker 2: out there, you can't see land. You're you know, you're
Speaker 2: way offshore, so that catamaran is a lifeline.
Speaker 3: It was terrifying in parts.
Speaker 1: How did you get through that? What's the mindset when
Speaker 1: you look down and say, see crocodiles or a shark,
Speaker 1: or you're looking up and seeing these ridiculously high waves,
Speaker 1: tall waves totally.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: The funny thing was the story when with the Great
Speaker 2: White Shark. I actually had Taylor Swift playing in my headphone,
Speaker 2: so I had no idea. Came up and my support
Speaker 2: crew saw the big fin and it dive underneath, and
Speaker 2: I'm bopping away to Taylor's Swift and they're calling me
Speaker 2: into the boat, and eventually I came into the boat
Speaker 2: and they said get on board right now. That I
Speaker 2: was explaining to someone the other day that the music
Speaker 2: in your ears is so important because you choose that
Speaker 2: backdrop to your suffering, so you know whether you've got
Speaker 2: to get in the water with crocodiles and you turn
Speaker 2: on the rap music to get you going. It's sort
Speaker 2: of the same thing like when we take on a
Speaker 2: hard session here, except you're in life threatening situations. And
Speaker 2: we did so much research with marine biologists and meteorologists
Speaker 2: about the lines to take. We stayed a long way
Speaker 2: offshore in the Northern Territory to try and avoid the
Speaker 2: populated areas with crocodiles, so there was eighteen months of
Speaker 2: research involved. I was paddling as fast as I possibly
Speaker 2: could to keep my speed up and try and avoid
Speaker 2: the crocodiles.
Speaker 3: So there was a lot of research.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, it's still a
Speaker 2: calculated risk and I would rely on my team and
Speaker 2: often I would tell them, don't talk about paddling when
Speaker 2: I come on board. Let's do childhood stories, jokes and riddles,
Speaker 2: and let's just keep it lighthearted because it was so
Speaker 2: intense in the water. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Good advice. Now for anyone listening who's thinking I want
Speaker 1: to attempt something big, Okay, not a paddle around Australia.
Speaker 1: I'm talking like an ocean swim or a five k
Speaker 1: run or I mean you've got this, you know in
Speaker 1: your book there's a line that says, I wonder if
Speaker 1: I could do that. I mean, you thought that to
Speaker 1: yourself way before you actually pad around Australia. What's your
Speaker 1: advice for anyone wanting to attempt their own amazing feat?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: And I love speaking to audiences and in writing this book,
Speaker 2: it's targeted at everyone. It's targeted at people who haven't
Speaker 2: necessarily been in the ocean their whole life or even
Speaker 2: ever seen this key. Let alone picked one up. Start small.
Speaker 2: You don't have to. Let's take the twenty four hour record.
Speaker 2: I did two hundred and thirty five kilometers. You don't
Speaker 2: look at that whole day and go, I'm going to
Speaker 2: paddle two hundred and thirty five.
Speaker 3: You work through each kilometer at the time. And it's
Speaker 3: the same with a goal.
Speaker 2: If someone wants to run five columns as they go,
Speaker 2: you don't set out and run that five kilometers straight up.
Speaker 2: You might do one kilometer of running, one kilometer of walking,
Speaker 2: and slowly build up to that five kilometers. When I
Speaker 2: started this paddle, I don't think I was equip to
Speaker 2: take on the Great Australian Bye and cut five hundred
Speaker 2: kilometers out. But two months in of building resilience physically
Speaker 2: and mentally. I was able to do that which no
Speaker 2: one's done before, and I think that's it. We place
Speaker 2: limitations on ourselves. We think that they're there, and we
Speaker 2: think they exist, and once we break them, it's just
Speaker 2: sort of like, why did I ever think I couldn't
Speaker 2: do that?
Speaker 3: And I know with this.
Speaker 2: Paddle, my biggest fear was the regret of not having
Speaker 2: done it. And I thought, even if I set out
Speaker 2: and fail and don't make it, I'd have known where.
Speaker 3: I've gotten to. I'd rather do that than not try.
Speaker 2: So don't be afraid of failure because we often think
Speaker 2: people are judging us, but people are too distracted with
Speaker 2: what's going on there life often.
Speaker 1: Oh Bonnie, you're an inspiration. Thank you for coming back
Speaker 1: on Healthy Ish. Thanks for listening to this interview as
Speaker 1: part of our summer series. Also, just a heads up
Speaker 1: if you do listen to our sister podcast Extra healthy Ish.
Speaker 1: As of next week, we will only be publishing this
Speaker 1: podcast healthy Ish, but in a longer format and on
Speaker 1: Mondays and Wednesdays only. If you have any feedback, we'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can DM me at Felicity
Speaker 1: Harley of course, Body and Soul is across social media
Speaker 1: as well. Catch us at bodyansoul dot com dot au
Speaker 1: and until tomorrow, enjoy the summer and stay healthy ish