In 2022, professional IronWoman and surf lifesaver Bonnie Hancock became the fastest and youngest – and the first woman - to paddle around Australia solo (in an ocean ski). During the 12,700km journey, she was treated for dehydration, fatigue, sea sickness, and hypothermia; she paddled alongside sharks and crocodiles. During those 254 days, Hancock achieved a new world record for the longest 24-hour paddle, covering 235kms, and raised $AU65,000 for the mental health charity Gotcha.
But these aren’t the achievements she’s proudest of. Instead, it’s the fact that she pushed her mental and physical abilities to the limit and lived to tell the tale. Which she’s now done in The Girl Who Touched the Stars.
Here, Hancock shares three things readers will learn from her book.
How much training goes into athletic achievements that the world doesn’t generally see when preparing for a feat such as circumnavigating Australia solo.
The first big challenge of this expedition was actually gaining a significant amount [of weight] prior. In the six months leading into the paddle, I deliberately put on 15kgs of body weight as I knew I would lose weight throughout and didn’t want to be underweight heading into the freezing waters of the Great Australian Bight. I was burning around 6000 calories per day as a minimum and was also incredibly seasick. As a result I lost the 15kgs throughout the expedition (8 in 12 days across the Bight as I was so seasick!!). This was the first test as I had to put vanity aside and eat a huge amount of croissants and donuts to put the weight on!
Aside from gaining weight, I trained in the gym to build my core strength and completed sessions of around 20km most days. I didn’t want to go into the paddle with niggling injuries so tended to undertrain. I knew my body would condition to the huge paddling load over the first few months and I did-though for the first two months it was agony paddling 100km plus each day.
The highs and lows of paddling around Australia, and a favourite memory.
Often the most exhilarating highs went hand-in-hand with the lows. For instance, the best memory I have is touching down on Dawe Island, the first point of land contact after our treacherous crossing of the Great Australian Bight. Dawe Island turned on an incredible sunset and later, the big silvery moon rose and lit up the island. There were seals playing on shore, and we trekked to the top of the island as a group. Once we reached the top, I looked out over the expanse of ocean that we had conquered.
I was the first person to cross directly across the Bight by paddle, a crossing that saw me paddle 500kms offshore. In waters known for killer whales and great white sharks, I somehow scrapped and clawed my way through 1200kms in 12 days, with no land in sight for that time. The beautiful afternoon on Dawe Island was a reward after everything we’d been through and after successfully completing the crossing, my crew and I were a long way ahead of the world record and I knew nothing would stop us getting home.
How to find the courage, determination and energy to keep going in the face of adversity.
At the beginning of the expedition, I would take out a map of Australia and look at where we were, and how far I had to paddle until I was home. Eventually I realised this wasn’t helping me, as the sheer enormity of the Australian coastline is overwhelming. I learnt to break each paddling day into sections. At first breaking the huge paddles into 10km sections, eventually I could only look to each kilometre as I was in so much agony. This gave me motivation to keep going, as I didn’t need to think past the next kilometre.
I also learnt to lean on my crew, and vulnerability became a superpower. As I lowered myself into crocodile and shark infested waters, I told my crew to talk to me - childhood stories, jokes, riddles -the open dialogue allowed us to use humour in the face of adversity as we talked and joked and laughed our way through the most dangerous waters in the world.
What I learned from writing my book about my World-record breaking journey.
After “touching the stars” and gaining a new world record, I learnt that the record wasn’t the most valuable thing I took from the paddle - far from it. The growth within myself in terms of stepping up as a leader, leaning on my crew and the connections I made along the way were the true prizes.
The ocean was my happy place as a child, but I’d lost that perspective along the way as I saw the ocean as a place to get faster and better as a professional Ironwoman.
After 12,700km, I had reformed that pure connection with the sea once more, and now have such a greater appreciation for the power and beauty of mother nature and am grateful for the lessons she taught me in resilience and perseverance.
The Girl Who Touched the Stars by Bonnie Hancock (HarperCollins, $37.99) is out now.
