06-01-2016 15:00

British adventurer John Beeden has become the first person to row solo nonstop from North America to the Australian mainland. After rowing for 209 days, Beeden was helped with his first step onto dry land by one of his teenage daughters before being immediately greeted by Australian custom officials who wanted to check the rower’s passport details. The fifty-three-year-old had rowed for up to 15 hours a day to make the journey possible.

“14,500 kilometres… That’s a long way! Only ever do it once in your life!”

He had hoped to arrive by November, but weather conditions pushed him off course by more than a month.

“I didn’t think I could go on and had to dig deep… and getting pushed back hundreds of miles that you’ve already rowed and you have to row it all again.”

John’s wife Sheryl had made the journey from Canada to Cairns with their two daughters, having not been with him since he left on his six-metre boat Socks II on June 1st this year.

“I kind of think it’s like childbirth cause he says he’s not going to get in another boat for a while, but I am sure in a couple of weeks he’ll be having some other adventure, and I’ll have to restrain him a little bit.”

Difficult words: solo (one person), custom official (a person who checks where a person is coming from and what he or she is bringing into a country), restrain (to hold back).