The kayakers attempting to paddle the length of the Aleutian Chain have made it to Nikolski. Eleven days after leaving Unalaska, the duo from the Isle of Man were enjoying the luxuries of civilization on Monday afternoon.

“In Nikolski, they love the whiskey down here," says George Shaw. “We literally got off the water yesterday and we were looking for this guy, and we found him straight-away on the beach and within two minutes had a whiskey in our hand having a drink a with him and then the next minute we were in his house, eating reindeer. So quite a good experience in Nikolski.”

Shaw and his paddling partner, Keirron Tastagh, traveled nearly two hundred miles along Unalaska and Umnak Islands on the way to Nikolski. The first few days weren’t very encouraging, weather-wise.

“In my head I was just thinking, ‘well, this is what we’ve got for the next few months,'" say Tastagh. "And then when it wasn’t always like that, I was like ‘well this is even better.'”

All the same, the paddling hasn't been easy. Shaw says the two faced steady twenty-knot headwinds most of the way and some fiercier, more intense gusts on occasion.

“Our boats are quite weighed down, we’re probably up to nearly 200 kilos in weight when they’re fully loaded, including ourselves and they’re just moving around like a twig, so you’ve just got to move around and try and get out of it.”

But there have been some fun moments as well.

“The otters are quite funny the way they just look like little old men poking their head out of the water with their little mustache on and check you out and then swim on," Shaw says. "Some of them were quite funny. We saw three or four of them doing a little boxing match between them all. So it kind of brings a little smile to your face when you see all the wildlife around.”

The two are headed for the Islands of the Four Mountains next, followed by several large, open-water crossing on the way to Atka.

You can follow their journey and check out photos of the trip so far at horrendousexperiences.blogspot.com