a bicycle made for two: January 2014

We welcomed the Poates on the weekend before Christmas and spent the weekend in Perth with a windsurf session on the river and a bbq on our new (free, found on the side of a road) bbq.

On Christmas eve we met up with Nick, Bethan and their daughter Elin for a cruise round the swan river. We were told it was comedy swimwear fancy dress, we had a half hearted go at it but were the only ones.

Christmas day started at our place with bubbles and breakfast on the beach outside our house with the Lowes, Boultons and Poates. It would appear most of Perth were on the beach that morning too.

Round to the Lowes for lunch and Nick cooked a massive salmon in the bbq and we ate and drank until late into the evening.

On boxing day we went down to Rockingham, about 30 minutes South of our place and all chose different modes of transport to get across to Penguin Island. Becks and I windsurfed on our SUP boards, Tim swam and the others caught the ferry. Swimming was fastest followed by the ferry and then windsurfing. It didn't help that it was upwind and a little too strong not to be wearing a harness. Anyway we won the race home since it was dead down wind!

The following day we all went to Lancelin, about 1.5 hours North of Perth and had a couple of days windsurfing. The wind was a little up and down at times and unfortunately Tim managed to put a hole in the sail he borrowed when stuck in front of a big wave with no wind!

Back to Perth and then straight down to Margaret River with the Poates and to be joined by Dave and his (nearly) genuinely Australian girlfriend Jana (her mum is from Somerset). We stopped off at a few beaches on the way for swims and photos and eventually found an ice cream after looking for some time. We arrived at Prevelly, at the mouth of Margaret River and found the wind and waves were up. As me and Tim stepped out of the car and ex world champ windsurfer walked past. I'd told Tim about this previously but I'm not sure he believed me until that point. Dave was already on the water and Tim and I were a little apprehensive especially as people were coming off the water saying it was the toughest they'd ever seen it. We egged each other on and eventually both made it out, onto a few waves and safely back in with no damage.

We spent the next few days at the campsite in Prevelly and touring the area checking out local beaches, surfing, canoeing, windsurfing and drinking wine.

Next it was back to Perth for a good bye meal at the Lowe's for Tim and Cate and then Becks and I drove 450km North to Coronation Beach near Geraldton for a couple of days windsurfing. It should also be mentioned that Becks had the addition of a new windsurf board. Anyway two days of brilliant windsurfing in high winds and big waves and there should be some videos coming soon.

After all of that we headed back to Perth for a well earned rest before work on Monday! I think we covered 1,700km in total!