It seems to double up fairly well as a windsurf van and travelling salesman's car.
Monday, 28 January 2013
New Van
Just picked up our new van. Decided to go German and now have a shiney not quite new VW Transporter. In keeping with the Aussie way it came with Roo Bars and spotlights and of course it's automatic!
It seems to double up fairly well as a windsurf van and travelling salesman's car.
It seems to double up fairly well as a windsurf van and travelling salesman's car.
Birthday Weekend/Australia Day
We had Phil and Vas come over for the long weekend of my birthday and Australia Day. We started with a post work windsurf on Thursday at Dutchies in Cottesloe. Another great session and I'm now getting used to sailing back to front (on port tack).
Phil and Vas turned up at about midnight and we managed a few beers/most of a bottle of wine before we all collapsed into bed.
On Friday we headed off for Guildford to rent bikes and cycle round the Swan Valley. After a very lengthy overview of the best places to visit from our bike hire guide we were in the first winery by 12:30.
In total we managed about 4-5 vineyards, coffee tasting and cheese tasting. All finished off with drinks on the beach at sunset and a delicious dinner of peanut butter on toast.
Saturday started far too early with a train journey to Fremantle to catch the minibus to Rockingham for the kayak trip. Another beautiful WA day with a dead calm morning made the paddle to seal island pretty easy. We saw a few dolphins on the way and then there were a handful of sea lions basking in the sun on the island. Also clocked pelicans, a giant blue crab, little penguins, ospreys and lizzards (that kept trying to steal our food).
We then headed to the Little Creatures pub/brewery for a few beers and food in Fremantle before heading down to the beach in Fremantle for the Australia Day fireworks.
Yesterday we managed a lie in followed by a brilliant lazy day on the beach in true Aussie style with a cool box of beers. Oh and it was sunny too.
Great weekend and great to spend it with good friends.
Phil and Vas turned up at about midnight and we managed a few beers/most of a bottle of wine before we all collapsed into bed.
On Friday we headed off for Guildford to rent bikes and cycle round the Swan Valley. After a very lengthy overview of the best places to visit from our bike hire guide we were in the first winery by 12:30.
In total we managed about 4-5 vineyards, coffee tasting and cheese tasting. All finished off with drinks on the beach at sunset and a delicious dinner of peanut butter on toast.
Saturday started far too early with a train journey to Fremantle to catch the minibus to Rockingham for the kayak trip. Another beautiful WA day with a dead calm morning made the paddle to seal island pretty easy. We saw a few dolphins on the way and then there were a handful of sea lions basking in the sun on the island. Also clocked pelicans, a giant blue crab, little penguins, ospreys and lizzards (that kept trying to steal our food).
We then headed to the Little Creatures pub/brewery for a few beers and food in Fremantle before heading down to the beach in Fremantle for the Australia Day fireworks.
Yesterday we managed a lie in followed by a brilliant lazy day on the beach in true Aussie style with a cool box of beers. Oh and it was sunny too.
Great weekend and great to spend it with good friends.
Monday, 7 January 2013
Happy New Year!
Thought it was about time for an update. Apologies it's from me again - Phil will write a post soon...
It's back to work today which has come as a bit of a shock to the system. We've been on holiday since 22nd December so it was starting to feel like the whole working thing was more of a bad dream than reality, and we were very much getting used to the sun and sea lifestyle.
As the last post mentioned, the weather in Gero got hotter and hotter with no wind, so we decided to cut our losses and head back to Perth early. We then tried to make best use of the time available to us to go van hunting. This started off as a fairly exciting venture, as spending large amounts of money on toys often is, however we're still without van (having tried to play one vendor against another, and offering very low prices... to which they both said no) and are now contemplating reconsidering our hardball attitude!
The weather has been mostly pretty amazing. There was a bit of a heatwave after Christmas, and so we spent most of the mornings inside taking it easy with the air conditioning on full whack, and venturing outside for a couple of minutes at a time, before generally heading somewhere north of the CBD to go van browsing, followed by a dunk in the sea to cool off on the way back. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon...
Not much wind for the most part, but we've made the effort to go to Peli point a couple of times, and ventured south to check out Safety Bay as well. The former proved pretty good for practicing lightwind moves, and I'm finally mastering tacking, although the sudden increase in water temperature has meant that the place is swarming with (non-stinging) jellyfish. Yuck. It creeps me out more than a little bit, even though I know that they're harmless! Safety Bay was a bit light when we went there - but more lightwind exercises for us both, and I can now tack my 88l board so I'm pretty pleased. You can tell it would be an amazing spot for freestyle if it was windier as a sand spit protects a semi-lagoon from waves/chop. It does also seem to be the hang out for local speed nuts. Took about an hour to get there though (vs 15 minutes to Peli Point in the city) so not sure how often we'll go there. Checked out Woodman's Point on the way back - it's a bit closer and looked like it could also be pretty fun and flat. Loads of kiters. At some point we may have to embrace the sport... not yet though.
We've also now moved into our flat! Such a good feeling to finally be able to unpack all the boxes and suitcases, and for the amount we're paying I think we've got a bargain considering the location. It certainly wasn't the cheapest on the market - but it is about a minute's walk to a really lovely beach, so it has meant that we can take a casual stroll in the evening whilst supper is cooking. Bliss. We have a spare room now too, so looking forward to welcoming guests. The first will be Phil (B) and Vas for Phil (C)'s birthday/Australia Day which we're really excited about! Can't wait to show them around, and Phil (C) has geeked out and produced an itinerary. Yes, that's right.
Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather (turns out the forecast was wrong - it was baking) and went for a jog to the local adult playground. Phil has told me I can't call it that or people will get the wrong idea - but basically it's an outdoor excercise zone with pull-up bars etc. Anyway, like the competitive beans that we are, we threw ourselves whole-heartedly into a routine in the midday heat... and like the idiot that I am I pushed it too far, failed to clear a 'pole-vault' (basically just jumping over a beam) and rolled my ankle. Ouch. After an embarassing and painful hobble home, I've now spent the past 20 hours with my swollen sprained ankle packed in ice, elevated, etc. I can sort of walk on it this morning, but am working from home (working hard as you can tell) allowing time to rest. What a plonker! Typically, the wind forecast has picked up this week and is looking amazing. Hopefully I'll at least be back on windsurfing form by the weekend Lancelin Ocean Classic.
Anyway, here's a pic of our local beach (North Cottesloe) - not sure we're technically allowed to windsurf here, but Phil is already making plans...
It's back to work today which has come as a bit of a shock to the system. We've been on holiday since 22nd December so it was starting to feel like the whole working thing was more of a bad dream than reality, and we were very much getting used to the sun and sea lifestyle.
As the last post mentioned, the weather in Gero got hotter and hotter with no wind, so we decided to cut our losses and head back to Perth early. We then tried to make best use of the time available to us to go van hunting. This started off as a fairly exciting venture, as spending large amounts of money on toys often is, however we're still without van (having tried to play one vendor against another, and offering very low prices... to which they both said no) and are now contemplating reconsidering our hardball attitude!
The weather has been mostly pretty amazing. There was a bit of a heatwave after Christmas, and so we spent most of the mornings inside taking it easy with the air conditioning on full whack, and venturing outside for a couple of minutes at a time, before generally heading somewhere north of the CBD to go van browsing, followed by a dunk in the sea to cool off on the way back. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon...
Not much wind for the most part, but we've made the effort to go to Peli point a couple of times, and ventured south to check out Safety Bay as well. The former proved pretty good for practicing lightwind moves, and I'm finally mastering tacking, although the sudden increase in water temperature has meant that the place is swarming with (non-stinging) jellyfish. Yuck. It creeps me out more than a little bit, even though I know that they're harmless! Safety Bay was a bit light when we went there - but more lightwind exercises for us both, and I can now tack my 88l board so I'm pretty pleased. You can tell it would be an amazing spot for freestyle if it was windier as a sand spit protects a semi-lagoon from waves/chop. It does also seem to be the hang out for local speed nuts. Took about an hour to get there though (vs 15 minutes to Peli Point in the city) so not sure how often we'll go there. Checked out Woodman's Point on the way back - it's a bit closer and looked like it could also be pretty fun and flat. Loads of kiters. At some point we may have to embrace the sport... not yet though.
We've also now moved into our flat! Such a good feeling to finally be able to unpack all the boxes and suitcases, and for the amount we're paying I think we've got a bargain considering the location. It certainly wasn't the cheapest on the market - but it is about a minute's walk to a really lovely beach, so it has meant that we can take a casual stroll in the evening whilst supper is cooking. Bliss. We have a spare room now too, so looking forward to welcoming guests. The first will be Phil (B) and Vas for Phil (C)'s birthday/Australia Day which we're really excited about! Can't wait to show them around, and Phil (C) has geeked out and produced an itinerary. Yes, that's right.
Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather (turns out the forecast was wrong - it was baking) and went for a jog to the local adult playground. Phil has told me I can't call it that or people will get the wrong idea - but basically it's an outdoor excercise zone with pull-up bars etc. Anyway, like the competitive beans that we are, we threw ourselves whole-heartedly into a routine in the midday heat... and like the idiot that I am I pushed it too far, failed to clear a 'pole-vault' (basically just jumping over a beam) and rolled my ankle. Ouch. After an embarassing and painful hobble home, I've now spent the past 20 hours with my swollen sprained ankle packed in ice, elevated, etc. I can sort of walk on it this morning, but am working from home (working hard as you can tell) allowing time to rest. What a plonker! Typically, the wind forecast has picked up this week and is looking amazing. Hopefully I'll at least be back on windsurfing form by the weekend Lancelin Ocean Classic.
Anyway, here's a pic of our local beach (North Cottesloe) - not sure we're technically allowed to windsurf here, but Phil is already making plans...
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Merry Christmas!
We're now in Geraldton, having made the 5ish hour journey up the Saturday after my work Christmas party (hosted at a yacht club, in glorious sunshine... nice, just shame I still don't really know enough people well enough to truly relax with all the free bubbly...!), and went straight to Coronation beach a few km north of Gero town centre.
We'd heard about Coro (yes everything has to be abbreviated) but on arriving you can see the appeal straight away - apart from the fact there was the most amount of windsurfers and kite surfers I've seen out on the water in ages (about 20ish at a guess) it is a lovely sandy bay with waves on the outside that are mostly gentle and playful, not kit-breakers. Ideal for me and still fun for Phil.
We've now been here 5 days and have had a couple of really good days, and some pretty light wind days where I've decided to punish myself by learning to tack. I'm terrible at it, and it turns me into a furious monster as it is the most frustrating sport in the world, I'm sure of it! Phil puts up with my tantrums pretty well as I guess he's lucky to have a wife that windsurfs... although maybe he's thinking now that's less of a good thing?! Either way, we've both realised quite how unfit we are windsurf-wise, and Phil also has a long term on-off bicep injury, so we've managed to get on the water for about 3-4hrs max each day but that totally wipes us out!
Christmas Day itself was certainly different from the norm. Woke up to a present in a stocking (a lovely necklace from Phil), then had a big fat bacon and egg breakfast... so far so normal except for the fact the bacon was BBQ'd. Then we went and lay by the campsite pool reading our books and sweltering in the sun, cooling off (i.e. rinsing the sweat off) in the pool, then back to baking ourselves. Phil has decided he doesn't like the sun... this could be an issue in WA! We headed to Coro for the afternoon and the wind was pretty light so it was just me on the water whilst Phil read (in the shade of course) - he's obsessed with Ian Rankin at the moment. He provided coaching tips from the shallows as well, which were mostly well received. I'm still no pro at tacking though and I feel that being able to turn around out back without falling in is a fairly essential skill in light of the whole shark issue... (Mum - only joking). Christmas dinner was, true to every cliche going, shrimp and steak on the BBQ, with olives, gooey cheese (we have no fridge) and sparkling wine (which we used the camping shop's fridge for), followed by plenty of chocolate and some more red wine to top it off. Totally delicious, but turns out a bit too much for my seawater-rinsed, overly sun baked self, and I was sick at 3am due to over consumption. Whoops. All in all though, a lovely day, but obviously missing some key components - family to share it with. Unfortunately we don't have wifi here either so had to stick with just a phone call which was a shame.
It now looks like the forecast for the next few days is a not particularly comfortable combination of no wind, hot, with probable thunderstorms. We're now therefore working out what we can do nearby as we've already paid up for the campsite until 31st December.
Anyway, time to sign off, got some tourist activities to plan!
We'd heard about Coro (yes everything has to be abbreviated) but on arriving you can see the appeal straight away - apart from the fact there was the most amount of windsurfers and kite surfers I've seen out on the water in ages (about 20ish at a guess) it is a lovely sandy bay with waves on the outside that are mostly gentle and playful, not kit-breakers. Ideal for me and still fun for Phil.
We've now been here 5 days and have had a couple of really good days, and some pretty light wind days where I've decided to punish myself by learning to tack. I'm terrible at it, and it turns me into a furious monster as it is the most frustrating sport in the world, I'm sure of it! Phil puts up with my tantrums pretty well as I guess he's lucky to have a wife that windsurfs... although maybe he's thinking now that's less of a good thing?! Either way, we've both realised quite how unfit we are windsurf-wise, and Phil also has a long term on-off bicep injury, so we've managed to get on the water for about 3-4hrs max each day but that totally wipes us out!
Christmas Day itself was certainly different from the norm. Woke up to a present in a stocking (a lovely necklace from Phil), then had a big fat bacon and egg breakfast... so far so normal except for the fact the bacon was BBQ'd. Then we went and lay by the campsite pool reading our books and sweltering in the sun, cooling off (i.e. rinsing the sweat off) in the pool, then back to baking ourselves. Phil has decided he doesn't like the sun... this could be an issue in WA! We headed to Coro for the afternoon and the wind was pretty light so it was just me on the water whilst Phil read (in the shade of course) - he's obsessed with Ian Rankin at the moment. He provided coaching tips from the shallows as well, which were mostly well received. I'm still no pro at tacking though and I feel that being able to turn around out back without falling in is a fairly essential skill in light of the whole shark issue... (Mum - only joking). Christmas dinner was, true to every cliche going, shrimp and steak on the BBQ, with olives, gooey cheese (we have no fridge) and sparkling wine (which we used the camping shop's fridge for), followed by plenty of chocolate and some more red wine to top it off. Totally delicious, but turns out a bit too much for my seawater-rinsed, overly sun baked self, and I was sick at 3am due to over consumption. Whoops. All in all though, a lovely day, but obviously missing some key components - family to share it with. Unfortunately we don't have wifi here either so had to stick with just a phone call which was a shame.
It now looks like the forecast for the next few days is a not particularly comfortable combination of no wind, hot, with probable thunderstorms. We're now therefore working out what we can do nearby as we've already paid up for the campsite until 31st December.
Anyway, time to sign off, got some tourist activities to plan!
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Life so far
So, been a while! But we have been pretty busy so the weeks have flown by.
In summary, since we got back from lano, we have done the following:
1. Started work - me with peedubs (don't want this blog to pop up on anyone's radar at work!), Phil as a travelling salesman... without car or business card. I've been totally thrown in at the deep end - eg ended up working a 16 hour day yesterday... so trying to decide whether this is a good thing (ie get to prove myself) or not (er... I have no life). People seem lovely though and had a Christmas social already, with another tomorrow afternoon. Phil is finding it a bit slow at the moment but says "it's ok" (I just asked). The act of working hard has certainly helped us to feel like we've settled in though. Just need to work on the whole social life/friends bit...
2. I've bought a racing bike. It's very pretty. It even has clip on pedals, so expect some photos of scraped knees etc.
3. We've found a flat!! It took long enough, and hour after hour every evening trawling websites but we've finally found somewhere in cottesloe so are being royally ripped off I'm sure but we are only one road back from the beach. Excellent. Phil already hates the estate agent though.
4. Moved home again - this time we're in Fremantle courtesy of some very generous friends who are letting us house sit whilst they're in the uk.
5. Drunk lots of wine (work has turned us into alcoholics).
6. Finally put some photos up http://picasaweb.google.com/phil.cutter hopefully works!
7. Bought a new boiler for the Bristol house (poor tenants are apparently filthy and cold).
8. Looked at lots of 4x4s (pictures) and Phil has become very excited about getting a land cruiser now that he has a work car allowance. I suspect we shall be getting a bogan-mobile though (ford falcon) as they're the Aussie equivalent to a big sensible Volvo estate but with a bigger boot!
9. Failed to windsurf after work apart from yesterday when Phil went out but there wasn't much wind. The weather seems to be improving though so we've got our fingers crossed for Geraldton for Christmas (although we've been told we're crazy for wanting to camp in that weather! Ah well, mad dogs and Englishmen and all that...).
10. Enjoy the sunshine. Despite all of the hours of work and general life 'admin' we're still enjoying it here and it is just beautiful, and when the sun is shining it is an incredible place. Even when the sun isn't shining (we've had weird weather patterns for the last couple of weeks) you know it's not far away. Even the commute to work is relatively pleasant as I always get a seat and there are lovely views of the ocean for part of it.
Anyway just one more day of work left before we break for Christmas and although we've only been working 3 weeks it definitely feels like we deserve some time off! Moving countries etc takes it's toll!
Merry Christmas to anyone reading this, and keep in touch xxx
In summary, since we got back from lano, we have done the following:
1. Started work - me with peedubs (don't want this blog to pop up on anyone's radar at work!), Phil as a travelling salesman... without car or business card. I've been totally thrown in at the deep end - eg ended up working a 16 hour day yesterday... so trying to decide whether this is a good thing (ie get to prove myself) or not (er... I have no life). People seem lovely though and had a Christmas social already, with another tomorrow afternoon. Phil is finding it a bit slow at the moment but says "it's ok" (I just asked). The act of working hard has certainly helped us to feel like we've settled in though. Just need to work on the whole social life/friends bit...
2. I've bought a racing bike. It's very pretty. It even has clip on pedals, so expect some photos of scraped knees etc.
3. We've found a flat!! It took long enough, and hour after hour every evening trawling websites but we've finally found somewhere in cottesloe so are being royally ripped off I'm sure but we are only one road back from the beach. Excellent. Phil already hates the estate agent though.
4. Moved home again - this time we're in Fremantle courtesy of some very generous friends who are letting us house sit whilst they're in the uk.
5. Drunk lots of wine (work has turned us into alcoholics).
6. Finally put some photos up http://picasaweb.google.com/phil.cutter hopefully works!
7. Bought a new boiler for the Bristol house (poor tenants are apparently filthy and cold).
8. Looked at lots of 4x4s (pictures) and Phil has become very excited about getting a land cruiser now that he has a work car allowance. I suspect we shall be getting a bogan-mobile though (ford falcon) as they're the Aussie equivalent to a big sensible Volvo estate but with a bigger boot!
9. Failed to windsurf after work apart from yesterday when Phil went out but there wasn't much wind. The weather seems to be improving though so we've got our fingers crossed for Geraldton for Christmas (although we've been told we're crazy for wanting to camp in that weather! Ah well, mad dogs and Englishmen and all that...).
10. Enjoy the sunshine. Despite all of the hours of work and general life 'admin' we're still enjoying it here and it is just beautiful, and when the sun is shining it is an incredible place. Even when the sun isn't shining (we've had weird weather patterns for the last couple of weeks) you know it's not far away. Even the commute to work is relatively pleasant as I always get a seat and there are lovely views of the ocean for part of it.
Anyway just one more day of work left before we break for Christmas and although we've only been working 3 weeks it definitely feels like we deserve some time off! Moving countries etc takes it's toll!
Merry Christmas to anyone reading this, and keep in touch xxx
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Up north in 'Lano'
We're now in Lancelin and have survived a storm that tore away at least 6-10ft of the coastline, and somehow our new tent is still in tact.
After our last post, we explored more of Denmark and discovered that the place is totally beautiful (in particular Lights beach), that roos hang out everywhere, and that you should never walk the bibbulman track (about 1000km of walking trail from near Perth to Albany) in spring/summer as the flies get up your nose, in your mouth, and generally make you want to throw yourself off a cliff into the sea! We had tried to walk to greens pool but after sampling wine and beer at the local brewery (nice beer garden in the vineyard, but we found midday drinking in the heat made us feel pretty rough) we discovered you could drive to the pool so we did just that before leaving Denmark and had a very pleasant swim in the sheltered lagoon, where Phil realised he was pretty unfit at swimming and couldn't keep up with my old lady-style breaststroke!
Following Richard's excellent itinerary, we moved onto Albany, and straight away drove down the flinders peninsula and visited the natural bridge, "the gap", and some blowholes. Apparently they've found proof that the rock on the coastline there matches that of those in Antarctica, as the two were once joined however many millions of years ago! The gap was pretty spectacular with he ocean rushing in and out but unfortunately not enough swell to make the blowholes perform. After all this hard touristy travelling we chilled out on frenchman's bay, an isolated relaxed place where we swam and sunbathed, bliss.
The next day was a bit grey so ideal for visiting the whaling museum (after testing some more local cafes of course!) which surprised us by being totally fascinating. We must have spent about 3 hours there, and whaling was only banned in 1978 so it all felt so very real and recent.
As we had to return our camper by midday that meant a very early wake up (4.30am) for the 400+km back to Perth but it was pretty stress free (I wasn't driving!) as the roads are so empty. We had a fight with the rental place as to the cleanliness of the van but eventually made our way back to Richard our ever generous host, and then out for our first sign of a social life since we got here - Liss and Dom invited us over for supper!
L&D live in a nice flat in Maylands and we spent all night drinking Dom's homebrew and picking their brains about living in WA (they've been here for nearly 3 years). The advice was much appreciated, and we chatted until the early hours so stayed the night... Unfortunately the homebrew didn't agree with Phil though so it came back up again the morning after...
We walked off phil's hangover at the local street 'festival' (complete with local school recorder group) before heading to Anaconda (like Millets) where we spent enough to keep them in profit for the next 3 years - so thanks Mum and Dad (Hazel and Cutter) for helping us kit ourselves out with some decent camping gear! We decided a 4x4 plus camping gear would best for our weekends away rather than a van (Phil just wants to justify a 4x4). Then we finally managed to go windsurfing!! Liss and Dom very kindly lent us some kit and we went off from Pelican Point in the city - it was pretty amazing windsurfing with the city skyscrapers in the background. I got a bit creeped out by being bitten by something on my toe (I'm telling myself it was a crab) but other than that it was so good to get out on the water.
We've now been windsurfing again this time in Lancelin ("Lano") as it was too windy to use the surfboards we'd hired, so we got a cheap deal from Werner who has a van of kit for hire on the beach. Also randomly bumped into someone Phil went to uni with (Nick) and his girlfriend Sarah who invited us over to dinner which was lovely. We have some friends in Perth!
Now on our way to Yanchep national park as the storm still hasn't subsided so wasn't looking great for windsurfing, apparently they have koalas...!
After our last post, we explored more of Denmark and discovered that the place is totally beautiful (in particular Lights beach), that roos hang out everywhere, and that you should never walk the bibbulman track (about 1000km of walking trail from near Perth to Albany) in spring/summer as the flies get up your nose, in your mouth, and generally make you want to throw yourself off a cliff into the sea! We had tried to walk to greens pool but after sampling wine and beer at the local brewery (nice beer garden in the vineyard, but we found midday drinking in the heat made us feel pretty rough) we discovered you could drive to the pool so we did just that before leaving Denmark and had a very pleasant swim in the sheltered lagoon, where Phil realised he was pretty unfit at swimming and couldn't keep up with my old lady-style breaststroke!
Following Richard's excellent itinerary, we moved onto Albany, and straight away drove down the flinders peninsula and visited the natural bridge, "the gap", and some blowholes. Apparently they've found proof that the rock on the coastline there matches that of those in Antarctica, as the two were once joined however many millions of years ago! The gap was pretty spectacular with he ocean rushing in and out but unfortunately not enough swell to make the blowholes perform. After all this hard touristy travelling we chilled out on frenchman's bay, an isolated relaxed place where we swam and sunbathed, bliss.
The next day was a bit grey so ideal for visiting the whaling museum (after testing some more local cafes of course!) which surprised us by being totally fascinating. We must have spent about 3 hours there, and whaling was only banned in 1978 so it all felt so very real and recent.
As we had to return our camper by midday that meant a very early wake up (4.30am) for the 400+km back to Perth but it was pretty stress free (I wasn't driving!) as the roads are so empty. We had a fight with the rental place as to the cleanliness of the van but eventually made our way back to Richard our ever generous host, and then out for our first sign of a social life since we got here - Liss and Dom invited us over for supper!
L&D live in a nice flat in Maylands and we spent all night drinking Dom's homebrew and picking their brains about living in WA (they've been here for nearly 3 years). The advice was much appreciated, and we chatted until the early hours so stayed the night... Unfortunately the homebrew didn't agree with Phil though so it came back up again the morning after...
We walked off phil's hangover at the local street 'festival' (complete with local school recorder group) before heading to Anaconda (like Millets) where we spent enough to keep them in profit for the next 3 years - so thanks Mum and Dad (Hazel and Cutter) for helping us kit ourselves out with some decent camping gear! We decided a 4x4 plus camping gear would best for our weekends away rather than a van (Phil just wants to justify a 4x4). Then we finally managed to go windsurfing!! Liss and Dom very kindly lent us some kit and we went off from Pelican Point in the city - it was pretty amazing windsurfing with the city skyscrapers in the background. I got a bit creeped out by being bitten by something on my toe (I'm telling myself it was a crab) but other than that it was so good to get out on the water.
We've now been windsurfing again this time in Lancelin ("Lano") as it was too windy to use the surfboards we'd hired, so we got a cheap deal from Werner who has a van of kit for hire on the beach. Also randomly bumped into someone Phil went to uni with (Nick) and his girlfriend Sarah who invited us over to dinner which was lovely. We have some friends in Perth!
Now on our way to Yanchep national park as the storm still hasn't subsided so wasn't looking great for windsurfing, apparently they have koalas...!
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Margaret River to Denmark
After sampling the wine we went down to the windsurfing beaches in Margaret river and sat on the cliff top to watch. It started off with mostly surfers then as the wind picked up kiters went out and once it was too much for them the windsurfers took over. There were some pretty good guys out including Scott McKercher (world champ a few years ago). The launching spot looks interesting, about 2m wide gap in the reef to launch and recover from!
Also managed to hire surfboards near yallingup and get a surf lesson. It turns out we're not half as good as we thought we were! They had us on foam boards relearning to pop up.
From yallingup we traveled further south through some forests that went on for ever and stayed in some very remote towns.
We're now in a place called Denmark, where we saw our first live kangaroos as a family of three hopped across the road in front of us. Becks was then primed with the camera and we saw some more again in a field but still not quite close enough. We then turned up at the campsite to find the place swarming with them. Plenty of pictures to follow no doubt.
Other things we've also done in no particular order are:
Go to the most south west tip of Australia where the Indian and southern oceans meet. Lots of flies there.
Climb the 75m Dave Evans tree, nice views.
See plenty of parrots. So tame they will sit on your shoulder, not ours unfortunately but some kids that were feeding them.
Find plenty of deserted beautiful beaches.
See dolphins.
Going to a honey farm where I located the queen bee amongst all the workers. A great personal achievement.
Now enjoying some honey mead and contemplating our plans for the next two weeks. Becks is due to start work on 3rd December, I'm still waiting to hear about my job and most crucially our windsurf kit is still on a ship somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
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