Journey all around the world - level 3
A year after a tropical storm swamped her vessel, British adventurer Sarah Outen has overcome her personal demons to continue her man-powered expedition around the globe.
She returned to the water to cross the Pacific from Japan to Alaska, and after 150 days at sea, she finally completed the challenge.
“I was really exhausted when I got to land. The final few weeks were really difficult. We’re making… I was trying to row as much as I possibly could through some quite challenging conditions and just get in as quickly as possible within a weather window. And particularly the last few days, my whole body was like jelly."
The voyage was the latest stage of her 20,000-mile trek around the globe called “London2London” using only her body power. Since departing London on April 1, 2011, the 28-year-old has travelled 11,000 miles through Europe, Central Asia, China, Russia and Japan by kayak, bicycle and rowing her 21-foot boat. However, the expedition was almost washed away in 2012, when her first effort to cross the North Pacific was halted by Tropical Storm Mawar and forced her to return to London for nine months of training and regrouping.
“I came back pretty traumatized from what happened. Psychologically, it’s a quite massive thing to be in that sort of situation and particularly by yourself because there’s no one else there that you can relate to, talk to, process it with. I lost my boat, so I came home and it all felt very abstract and very huge. It took me a long while to get my head straight again."
Outen will now return to the UK to prepare and train for the next stage of her trip which will begin back on Adak Island. She’ll complete her journey back to London with a North Atlantic crossing in 2015.
Difficult words: swamp (cover with water), exhausted (very tired), row (make a boat move with long sticks), weather window (interval when the weather's good), jelly (the body is shaky from being so tired), voyage (journey by sea), halt (stop), traumatize (be upset), process (think about).
Read more: http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/journey-all-around-the-world-level-3/