CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF IBERIAN PENINSULA BY KAYAK
- Start date: June 1988
- Finish date: August 1988
- Start / end point: Portbou-Hendaye
- Total kilometers: 3,565
- Expedition days: 108
- Challenges achieved: First kayak circumnavigation of the Iberian Peninsula
FIRST STAGES
In 1988, at 22, and after months of preparation in Madrid, Ramón Larramendi undertakes a great challenge: the First Kayak Circumnavigation of the Iberian Peninsula, a journey from the eastern border with France, next to the Mediterranean, to the western border, in the Bay of Biscay.
The first three days he sailed with Agustín Biedma, but afterwards he was alone. A complicated moment in his fragile boat, took place off the coast of Murcia, when a storm with two-meter waves was unleashed and he was about to sink. Later on, from Cabo de Gata, the west wind complicated the advance, which sometimes forced him to stop at one of the beaches on the coast.
THE WEST AND FINAL COAST
After 51 days of travel, he reached Tarifa, managing to overcome the Strait of Gibraltar without problems. He turned at Cabo de San Vicente, with waves of up to three meters, in the company of a friend, Gabriel Cárdenas, who joined him at that stage of the route, but soon left him alone again. The Portuguese coast, with a continuous north wind, was really hard, but he progressed with rowing stages of 60 kilometers.
The Galician coast received him with less wind, although an incident at Cabo del Ortegal could have ended the adventure. In this last section, Larramendi was accompanied by the also adventurous Manuel Olivera, with whom the journey ended on August 15, 1988 at Hendaye beach. Despite the headwinds and difficulties, they achieved an average speed of 5 km per hour.
