By James Varley
When planning trips abroad we tend to take for granted the speed and comfort of air travel. For instance, to cover a distance of over 2,931 km from Dublin to Istanbul it would take you a mere four-and-a-half-hours. Of course, if you’re a fan of a road trip you could make the 38-hour pilgrimage through mainland Europe by car. But what if someone came to you with the proposition of taking the journey through three different time zones by kayak? You’d probably think they’ve gone mad. That’s exactly the plan 24-year-old Johnny Coyne proposed to his friend Liam Cotter.
The two outdoor adventure enthusiasts are making the world’s first kayak voyage from Ireland to Asia to raise money for construction of a new Daisy Lodge in Cong, Co Mayo: a theraputic centre that provides support for children diagnosed with cancer and their families.
This isn’t the first big adventure Johnny has undertaken, having cycled from Canada to Costa Rica and from Ireland to Portugal. This time, Johnny wanted an adventure that would be a world first.
“On my past adventures, I’m always thinking of the next big thing, and I wanted to do something that no one’s done, and no one has kayaked from Ireland to Asia. But I ended up just naming the project Dublin to Istanbul, because it’s clearer. I have a love for adventure, and I just wanted to do something different and something that stands out, and for a good cause as well.”
Reflecting on the journey so far, the 24-year-old Johnny from Clonbur, Co Galway believes that milestones like crossing the Irish sea unaided make all the challenges and struggles worth it.
It’s been good, I love the adventure side of it, but there’s obviously hard times as well. But I suppose when you’re looking back on the hard times, they’re probably the ones that I benefited from the most. It’s a learning curve, you learn more about yourself and what you’re capable of. I think it’s very primitive, you’re kayaking all day then you eat and you’re getting your sleep, doing the same thing, you kind of get into a state of flow.”
“There are harder days where you find it harder to get into it, but then there’s days that you’re really enjoying it, and there’s like, you know, adventurous things might happen, you might meet a good person. Those little things make up for those hard times. I just really, really love it, to be honest.”
When Galway Pulse spoke with Johnny and Liam, they were closing in on Dover and preparing to make the trip across the busiest shipping lane in the world – The English Channel – with just themselves and their kayaks. Talking us through their plans, Johnny admitted that it’s not always going to go exactly how they plan.
“We’ve registered our boats as small vessels, so we’re technically registered boats and we have all the gear, everything we need. It’s a bit of a grey area, to be honest, maybe it’s not 100% allowed, everything is still so uncertain. There are 600 boats crossing every day, it’s the busiest shipping lane in the world. Liam is going to be looking out for boats. We’re not going to miss them anyway they’re literally going to be everywhere. Hopefully after dodging boats for six or seven hours we land in Calais.”
All the money made through the GoFundMe campaign will go towards construction of a new Daisy Lodge in Cong, a village local to Johnny, who knows how beneficial a service like this could be to the community.
“We decided on the daisy lodge because we work on the lake, and they’re building it on the lake. It’s basically for children with cancer and for their families to provide support for them. I just thought, why not do a good thing while on the adventure?”
Having first met while studying an outdoor education course in Kinsale, Liam and Johnny became good friends, with Liam coming up each summer to help run Johnny’s adventure company, Lough Corrib Adventures’.
It hasn’t always been plain sailing for the two kayakers, with Liam having both equipment and injury issues. Liam is grateful for all the support and help they are getting on their journey.
“The kayak broke while we were doing a big crossing. We were supposed to be in the water for only six hours and it turned into a 10-hour day. Neither of us said it, but we were thinking that maybe we’re going to have to call for rescue. But we didn’t, thank God, and we made it across. Fair play to the lads at Valkyrie, because they sent me a whole new boat, which was unreal.”
For those curious as to how the lads got on crossing the English Channel, they made it successfully through a grueling 12-hour journey and arrived in Calais. Their GoFundMe for Daisy Lodge has, as of 3 November, raised almost €5,000. The next part of their journey takes them onto a new frontier, through the canals and rivers of mainland Europe.
For daily updates on their journey, check out Johnny’s Instagram page here.
To donate to their freeze-dry food supply click here.
For more information on Daisy Lodge click here.