Painful but necessary, Justine Curgenven and Barry Shaw have pulled the plug on Tierra Del Fuego.

Arriving in Punta Arenas, Chile, January 3rd Justine and Barry's trip did not get underway until January 12th. Delayed by shipping of their equipment, countless interviews and kit inspections with the Chilean Armada, and one false start, the pair got off to a good start in the first few days.

Their kayaks finally arrived on the 11th allowing them to pack up and shove off on the 12th. A little apprehensive about the weather at first, they planned to only do a little paddling just to get the trip rolling. By day three evidence of tendonitis in Barry's wrist began to appear and the pair decided it would be best to take a rest day, during which Barry's boat was stolen by some local protesters to the recent rise in gas prices.

After a fortunate turn of events Barry's kayak was returned to him and the pair were underway once again. Not for long, however, as Barry's wrist flared up, plaguing the successful completion of the journey.

They made a few more attempts at resting Barry's wrist for extended periods, but restarting proved to be pointless. The pair finally decided to make the call to back down from their TDF circ attempt this year.

Justine's idea of continuing on the journey solo was rejected by authorities. Adventure Kayak magazine publisher Scott MacGregor's son Dougie (from Cackle TV's 2010 award winning film, Dougie Down the Pet) emailed Curgenven this morning offering to blow off school so he and his dad could join her and finish the trip. Dougie's mom got wind and put a stop to those plans leaving Curgenven no choice but to pull the plug on the expedition.

Here is Curgenven's latest blog post from www.cackletv.com. 

On our paddle from Rio Grande to Punta Maria yesterday, Barry´s wrist started to hurt again so he has made the painful decision not to continue kayaking around Tierra Del Fuego. Although he can still paddle, it is the only sensible choice. It would be irresponsible of us to kayak into a remote and inaccessible area without 100% fitness, and Barry wants to make sure he has many more years of happy kayaking ahead of him.

Both of us are very disapointed, for ourselves and for each other. We tried to be sensible about Barry´s injury and rested it for 3 weeks but it wasn´t enough.

In our 6 weeks in Tierra del Fuego, we have kayaked  for 8 days, crossed from Chile to Argentina and covered about 215 nautical miles. We have camped in some lovely spots & seen lots of wildlife including dolphins, penguins, sea lions and thousands of birds. We´ve experienced the famous Patagonian winds and some unusually calm days. We´ve met some wonderful people and learnt a lot about the way of life down here. We´ve spent more time that we would have chosen in offices, both to get our kayaks and to get permission to paddle, but you never know how an “adventure” will unfold.

I considered continuing solo, at least to Ushuaia but the Argentinian Prefectura will not allow anyone to paddle alone on the SE coast, so I can´t do that.

I personally have had my interest in Tierra del Fuego fed by being here and I would like to return next Southern Summer to continue to Ushuaia. I am fascinated to see what the isolated SE coast looks like and to experience paddling in notorious La Maire Strait ( on the East coast).  I´d also love to kayak in the beautiful Chilean fjords – although right now completing a ¨clockwise circumnavigation of Isla Grande¨ doesn´t feel like a priority. I would consider kayaking from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia with the winds behind us, or some other journey in the fjords with the focus on experiencing the beauty of the place.

Thanks to our sponsors who provided us with great kit for the trip. Kit which we will continue to use. Thanks toValley for the nordkapps which are the quickest kayaks we have paddled on a trip. Thanks to Hilleberg for the fantastic Tarra tent, the tarp and the windbreaker. Thanks to Kokatat for my drysuit and other paddling gear, and thanks to Reed for Barrys paddling clothing, our spraydecks and some emergency replacementhatch covers. Icebreaker provided us with great warm and relatively unsmelly merino wool thermals.Berghaus gave me a lightweight waterproof jacket and a goretex hat. Natural Balance Foods gave us lots of delicious Nakd and Trek bars to eat on the water. They contain 100% natural ingredients and they were fantastic snacks, really tasty & healthy & packed with energy. Mitchell blades provided us with 2 paddles each, which we both really like. We can adjust the feather and length via a simple joint in the middle.Casio gave us 2 new waterproof, solar powered watches. They make a great series of watches with an inbuilt barometer, which gives you a graph showing how the pressure has changed over the last 24 hours. This feature is great for weather forecasting when on a trip, and I have seen the pressure go up and down so rapidly as it does here. Lyon Equipment in the UK gave us lots of fantastic ortlieb drybags which are the best drybags I have ever used. They also gave me an Exped down sleeping mat, petzl torches & Julbo floating sunglasses. Aleks Gusev from Avantura lent us a SPOT device so you could follow us live as we kayaked and Track leaders created the great map on my blog. Oregon Scientific provided me with 2 ACT 9K waterproof action cameras to film the adventure. Karel Visel sent us really valuable daily weather forecasts. Our local kayak shop, Surflines provided us with some last minute bits of kit, and Kari-tek gave us some paddle bags.

Thanks to everyone who followed along with us, we enjoyed reading all the comments that were left. I hope the trip will be continued at some point in the future.