Seal Rocks

We continued down the coast and went to a place called Diamond Head, which was supposed to be good for surfing. There wasn't much going on and the surf was all messy and rubbish so we carried on. We went to Forster-Tuncurry, which is the two towns of Forster and Tuncurry joined together by a big fat concrete bridge. This was another of those places with wonderfully designed tourist magazines telling you it's the best place in the world, but it was just another town and we weren't persuaded to stay. Gosh, we're becoming place snobs. What if we're just impossible to please now? We were thinking maybe we should just go straight to Sydney. I told Zappa that at some point I had decided I wanted to go to Seal Rocks. I could no longer remember the reason, and there was no mention of it in our remaining tourist propaganda, but I just knew I wanted to go there. So off we went.

On the way we unexpectedly started skirting round the Great Lakes (we were previously wondering where they were!) and they were beautiful! So peaceful, and in the late afternoon light they just looked gorgeous. I didn't take any pictures as we were moving but in case you're desperate to see it, here's someone else's photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/petaurus/3641146840/sizes/m/in/photostream/

I was getting tired and the light was going, it was clear we had to stay somewhere as we probably didn't have enough time to get back to Sydney at a reasonable hour. We agreed we'd come back and stay in the Lakes if Seal Rocks was rubbish.

We found the road that led to Seal Rocks with my expert map-reading, which turned out to be a track with the biggest potholes we'd seen so far. We didn't hold out much hope for it being amazing, let alone have anywhere we could stay. I started to feel guilty about insisting we come all this way to this random place for no remembered reason. But when we got there, it was incredible.

Perfect, peeling waves - the best surf I've ever seen - in the most beautiful setting everrr. And then - look right - there's a campsite!

 The second bay

 Zappa got straight on a sunset surf, and absolutely stunned me with what he can do now. He always talks the surfing talk but when I come to watch he just stands there - until today. He was doing proper turns and everything! I was so proud of him!

 Pelicans provide patient company for the fishermen

I am SO in love with this place, it's already my favourite place in Australia so far. You know how sometimes you just know something is just right?

Search for Surf

Firstly, have a complimentary map.

The other day, Zappa decided he was going to go and surf Nambucca Heads, which the internet said was great. It was a grey day and had started drizzling when he asked if I wanted to come too. I thought, why the hell not, I can see new places and crochet in the van.

We found Nambucca's Shelley Beach, which the surf site had said was good and consistent, and was good for beginners.

It was rocky and scary and we thought we saw a shark. On with the search!

We went to Nambucca's Main Beach, where a load of old people were having fun with a bodyboard in the mush, but it wasn't really surfable, it was a blown out mess. We went into a surf shop and asked where else we could try. A lady told us to try Scott's Head, so off we went.

Scott's head seems to mainly be a big caravan park and old person houses, but as we wound our way through the cresents and closes we eventually came to the beach:

Woop woop!

Zap had great fun and got some rides. He also had some really funny wipeouts which were great fun to watch - although it was still raining so I mainly crocheted.

The next day we went to South Valla beach, which I am now totally in love with, it is gorgeous - and deserted!

Zappa watched some kite surfers play about for hours, and now wants to be a kite surfer really really badly, and has decided he is definitely buying all the kit when he gets back to the UK. This morning he has decided he is definitely buying a motorbike as soon as he gets home.

Yesterday we went to Digger's Beach again, where we met Matt (he wasn't there though), and there is absolutely no shade there so we bought me an Australia beach tent (it has an Australia flag on it - I am very proud of it). Zappa had a good surf, although it was super windy and getting the board to the water and back was a mission.

Autumn has definitely arrived, rather suddenly. Long pjs and a duvet and even .........socks in the mornings! It's still hot in the daytime though.

Happy Monday!

Hello and a Happy Monday to YOU. We are in the most lurrvely cafe called the Vintage Nest, which has loads of vintage STUFF everywhere, and has a vintage clothes shop through a door. It is tres cool. What has been happening in the last week, hmm...

1. I searched for a suitable Easter egg for myself and was frustrated - here Easter seems to be run purely by Cadbury's, which is mystifying as Cadbury's chocolate is terrible here. 

Have I told you why yet? Ruth sorted this out on a trip to the Tasmanian Cadbury's factory. Now. I was told before I came here that Australian chocolate is rubbish, because they have to put something in it to stop it from melting at room temperature. Firstly most Australian chocolate is really yummy, bizarrely Nestle chocolate is much better than its European counterpart. The only one that is rubbish is Cadburys. And that is not because they add something weird, as Ruth found out, it is because they use evaporated milk from Australian cows for transportation reasons, then restore it with water when it gets to the factory, and this for some reason makes it taste different.

If I have told you that before I'm sorry, but it is important so it's best I say it twice than not at all.

What else.

2. We had barbequed roast chicken outside.

3. Whilst shopping for more yarn I came across mad knitting books and have decided to learn to knit.

This is my favourite, so buying it when I get home:

check out the Mr. T mohecan hat!!!!

And the Godzilla feet. Amazing!

4. I have got so far with my blanket:

And finally admitted that it is a bit long. So this morning I woke up and cut a foot off it. I wasn't sure if you're allowed to do this in crocheting so I didn't research it and although reconstructing the edge was a brain teaser, I am happy to report it is now done and very smart, and will save me lots of money and time. It's still long enough to cover a bed completely.

5. Zappa went surfing in 9 foot waves (from trough to peak) and got absolutely owned! Haha. It took him about an hour and a half to get out the back, and a guy went 'Mate! How on earth did you get out here on THAT?! Respect!' Everyone else was on tiny boards and could duck dive the waves.

Zap did amazingly well, although he started threatening to buy another smaller board, prompting an Excel budgeting spreadsheet.

6. I met a crab.

So we went camping! It was good. We forgot our ready-cooked spag bol so had bacon and eggs for supper instead. The mozzie net worked and we found a campsite right by the beach, with big trees for shade.

Trouble was, the surf was small and completely blown out, so the next day instead of surfing we carried on down to Bellingen, stopping at all the surf beaches en route (seven) to check them out for future reference. Unfortunately, as the East Coast is just an east coast, the surf was the same the whole way. We eventually came to Diggers Beach at Coff’s Harbour, supposed to be the premium break, which was slightly less blown out, so Zappa went and had a go and I stayed to crochet on the beach.

This man called Matt started talking to me, he’d been surfing for decades like Ray, and we talked about surfing and stuff. Eventually I asked if he knew of any places people climbed in the area. He said he usually went to a secret little cove round the corner to collect shells to make artworks with them, and there’s a bit of a downclimb, but since he got caught climbing back up when a storm broke he’s had a bit of a fear factor about it, which was a shame because he loved going there. He said it just brought it home how if he fell, no one know. I said he should take a phone with him, and he agreed, but he wasn’t sure if he’d even go there anymore now. I said ‘Why don’t we go there now? It’ll be fine with two of us.’ He came round to the idea and off we went, after telling Zappa where we were going.

It was such a cute little cove, it reminded me of a mini version of that bit of Bosigran on the left as you do the walk-in. Climbers might know what I mean.

The wall on the left looks FUN - we might come back and climb it soon. Looks like a v.diff or a severe.

And there were shells everywhere! We collected loads and chatted away. He said it was really nice to share his hobby with someone else. I really enjoyed it too – there’s something so basic about the desire to collect shells you don’t really have an explanation for it.

Matt climbing back up. He said he'd be a lot happier doing it now he'd gone and done it. And he promised to take his phone.

I got sunburnt for the first time in the 5 months we’ve been here! So annoyed with myself. Pretty good going though I suppose.

Bits of shell

We’ve come back to Bello to find mould covering everything, the sofa seems to have come off worst. Sharron (who lives above us) said that she had to demould everything with all the damp floody weather and it would come back after a week. Blergh. But that’s easy to deal with – we turned over the sofa cushions to assess the damage and these bugs started crawling out of it – I think they look like bedbugs (after watching a program on pest control people – as you do), except they look a lot paler. Anyway that is NASTY and we set off a pest control nasty chemical fumes bomb in there, so we are currently sitting in the front garden with all our belongings sat around everywhere, including the massive supermarket shop we just did. Luckily we have a 3 way fridge so it is happily cooling away on gas beside me.

 Zappa is asleep! Bless him. We’ve waited an hour and a half and we’ve only got another half an hour before we’re allowed to go in and open all the windows, then after another half an hour we can move back in. We don’t know if it’ll kill the bedbugs but we needed to bomb the place for cockroaches anyway.

Good news: we’ve been asked to housesit again for Quigley and Jean, and this time we get the dog in with the deal! Score. They have some more work for Zappa to do so hopefully two birds with one stone, although Sharron’s just said a big storm is forecast for the next week. Not again…….

I’m writing this on Microsoft Word but will hopefully make a stop in at the library tomorrow to post it. Ahhhhhhh it feels so good to be back in Bello, even if it contains mould and bedbugs. This feels like it has been quite a boring post but it’s been something to keep me entertained while we’re waiting. I suppose being led to a secluded beach by a random man I just met was exciting. It’s ok Mum! I didn’t get abducted so that’s fine right?

Emma Catches the Smallest Wave of the Day

The waves were even smaller today! We were glad to have our massive board. I did raather well stamina-wise today and had two turns with the board, and managed to get Zappa to be photographer.

Popping up

Jolly surfer

Just popped up and so happy!

I was swimming about with the camera while Zappa had the board (he didn't have much luck today, we swapped roles from yesterday, hence lack of decent pics), and a surfer nearby told me there was a school of fish headed this way in case I wanted to digitally capture them. I said 'Really?' and then looked at the next wave coming towards us and it was FULL of fish! A glass wall of fish travelling forward! I didn't get a picture of that sadly but I did have time to stick the camera underwater as they went by:

'You just have to hope there isn't something bigger following them,' said the blokie.
There was many a boring lull between the sets of little waves, and some people had to get inventive to amuse themselves:

And finally, the title shot - the smallest wave of the day:

My last wave was awwwesome, I kept stepping forward because the wave seemed to be overtaking me, and I was going and going and I looked down and realised I only had a foot of board left - of course I then had to go for the hang five which overdid it and made us tumble over, but I was about to reach the sand anyway, and you have to try these things when you're that close!!

Zappa Catches the Biggest Wave of the Day

Yes. That is the biggest wave we saw all day.

I caught some smaller ones but they didn't have any power so I couldn't do anything exciting with them. Zappa and I took it in turns with the board for a while, one swimming, one surfing. I was swimming around and I felt something sting my arm, it wasn't that painful so I wasn't bothered about it. I got stung again. I got bored of being stung and tired of swimming so I stole the board and rode it into the beach, and looked at my arm, and it had parallel red tentacle marks down it! It was coooool, but they went away before I could take pictures of them, which I was pretty bummed out about.

Goanna

Today I saw my first goanna!

It was MAHssive - easily as long as my picnic table!

And look how funnily it walked:

Saw it after a hot sunny surfing session at the Pass. I exhausted myself by paddling all over the place but not to where any good waves where breaking. I eventually got a good little wave by letting Zappa set me up for it. Zap got some nice ones, despite the water being people soup today.

First ride of the new board

Today we had a nice lazy start and I made pancakes, and we went to the Pass to surf. I went down in jeans and walking boots and it made the sun come out! I felt clever. The waves were 2-3 foot, no wind, gorgeous. I was totally energyless and wasn't going to go in (anyone seeing a pattern?) but Zappa once again persuaded me to have a little go, and I was itching to see what sort of thing our savings had got us. I was pretty scared that it was badly shaped or something, because why else would someone sell their McCoy?! Plus Zappa was saying things like he had to pull the front of it up before he popped up everytime, so I was like oooh nooo....

I asked Zap to push me into a little already-broken wave, cos that's all I was up for. I popped up...and stayed up! Woo! It was loads of fun. Then I realised I was headed straight for a guy standing in the water - and turned round him! Score! It handles nicely. I rode right up to the beach and daintily sat back down on the board instead of falling off. I felt better already. Zappa didn't need to ask me if I wanted another one.

The second one, as Ray said, the universe handed to me. It was the best wave I've ever ever had. It was still green, and the guy already riding it fell off just in time for me to have it. I paddle-paddle-paddled, and it looked like it could get away, but I wasn't letting it. I pushed down so the board was tilting down the wave and popped up whilst still going down it - before when I've caught green waves I've stayed laid down until I go whoosh down the face and bump onto the bottom of the wave, and I'm trying not to be bucked off, and fight to stand up - but this time I just glided down, turned right, and it's still green and glassy, and I'm like wow, ok, I'll turn left, and I glided round to the left, WOW, and then I thought, I'll try that thing people do of stepping back, bringing the nose round to the right, yeeeah look at me go, it works! I passed an old skinny guy with a beard on a board, and he whooped at me, and I realised I'd been whooping, and then I thought hmm I'm slowing down, so I stepped forward on the board, and it sped up, and the wave broke, and I rode it right into the beach. It felt amazing! And I know it's probably very boring that I've broken the entire ride down, but I'm just so amazed that those things that are sposed to happen when you move a certain way on the board, actually happened when I did them. And it felt soo good! Green waves work. And the Pass is such a good place to ride them because they're often nice and small, and gentle. Perfect longboarding waves. Longboarding is not hectic.

We didn't take any pictures today but here is a video of a gorgeous girl on her longboard, part of a DVD about Byron Bay that we watched recently. She's very much inspired me, she makes surfing into a sort of dance, which very much appeals to me, but sadly I won't ever have Argentinian legs like hers, no matter how much surfing I do.

Emma's birthday - by Zappa

My first blog. How exciting for you all.

Today has been Emma's birthday so I took the day off work (helping Ray our byron bay friend and host building a shed) and told Em we could do anything she wanted. We were deciding between snorkelling at Julian rocks – a short kayak ride from the pass in Byron, or going for a surf. After much deliberation we decided we’d go surfing on big yellow – rays 9’8” Malibu (which I have nicknamed big bird).We packed the boards and ballon animals and away we went.

The conditions were beautiful – the water was clear, the sun was shining it was amazing. Look see:

Em got some great rides – one of which she took this video of:

Check her out – groovy surf chick she is.I had some good rides on big bird so decided to get my 7’6 board out and have a little ride as I’ve been riding Ray’s custom Geoff Macoy’s (two beautiful and amazing to ride boards) and been making some good progress. Getting on my board made me realise it’s a bit too small and hard work for my abilities. It got me thinking – I should really trade this in for something a bit more sensible.... I probably shouldn’t tell Emma as she’s the sensible one when it comes to money.Anyway, after a great little session we went to buy Emma her favourite (gluten free) burger from in town. As she was so excited she obviously had to take a picture:It was sooo good and feeling very satisfied we decided to go home – but we thought we should go see Mad Dogs surfboard shop on the way home – Ray said the rafters contain an awesome surfboard museum. It was amazing, the history of surfing was all just there on display - old plywood boards and older surf skis.
Emma passed this and had to take a picture as its so pretty.

Then i spotted it. 9'6". Macoy. Immaculate. Dangerous. I was convinced Em wouldn't let me as it was $750 (prob over double that new). But she was as enthused as I was. I spoke to Mad Dog and left the shop to go seek out Ray for his advice - he successfully convinced me about a week before not to buy a beaten up old longboard so i was convinced he'd try and slow me down. Ray being a Macoy rider himself and loving his board was just amazed we'd found one so cheap and was as excited as we were. So anyway 10 mins later we were back selecting board bags and leg ropes to go with our new board and left my little board behind to find a new owner. It took us a good hour of sitting at home staring at it and pinching ourselves to be convinced it had all just happened.

So naturally - back to the beach:And then off out for some amazing sushi.I certainly enjoyed Em's birthday - particularly the present we bought ourselves. She should have birthdays more often.

Emma says: 'I had the best day EVER!!! I love EVERYTHING!'

Sunday at Byron Bay

On Sunday Jenny and Ray took us, Big Yellow (9'8" and Big Blue (8'4") to The Pass for some beach time. I wasn't feeling too good so I was just going to sit on the beach and make me some vitamin D.

The view from the viewpoint. Nice conditions but crowded - I said to Ray I felt like we were in Disneyland or something.



The boys went surfing, I got some videos, but they're pretty slow to load so here's some stills:

Ray on Big Blue

Zappa on Big Yellow

Zappa popping up

Zappa riding Big Blue.

Big Blue is Ray's most treasured possession. He got it custom made.

I was chatting to Jenny when Zappa came out and said 'You gonna have a go then?' and I was like 'Yeah.' Why not ey? The deal was, Zappa would get Big Yellow out through the waves for me, I'd just get on it, and he'd push me out. Not very strenuous. As it was, I was so feeble he ended up towing me and the board out. Heehee. What would I do without my handy Zappa?

My wave came along and I caught it, popped up, which was stupidly easy because the board is so big and wide and steady, but not only that, lo and behold, it TURNS. Like, EASILY. I love foamies because they're like catching a train, but you can't go left and right much on trains. I fell off and came up laughing and asked for another go. Zappa was very obliging and I caught an even better one, and I turned LEFT and brought it back, and felt like a real surfer! It felt WONDERFUL. I'll tell you something, I was all like 'Yeah I've decided to finally admit to myself that surfing is not for me. I am terrified by waves and it's too cold and too mean.' But when the waves break in chest-height water and don't hurt you and don't turn your hands and feet white then blue then purple then red and excruciating - to sum it up, when you don't mind falling in, WOW is surfing the business. And on top of that, this board is the shiz!

Next I caught a greeny (unbroken wave) for the first time in my LIFE! Woooo! Again did a nice little left turn, brought it back, turned right. Wave was running out. Go for the hang 5!!! Sprint up board! Board goes nose down and flips! Everyone's wet! Had to be done. Yes I know you have to be going more than 1mph to hang 5, but like I say, it has to be done, because it's a massive board and you love it.

High five from Zappa and one of us, with Ray's surfing magazines from the 60s that we had a read through in the back of our minds, suggested attempting tandem riding. Me at the front. Him at the back. First attempt nearly worked but I didn't stand up. Second attempt while I was popping up I bashed Zappa off the board with my bum. Hilarious. Tandem attempt to be rescheduled.

And do you know what, after the surfing I felt better than I had done in days.

?!

Oo guess what. Tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY!!!! I am excited. Once upon a time there used to be animal-shaped balloons in Tescos. I believe I gave one to Sammy T (or was it Scott) when one of them had a birthday house party. They were wonderful (imagine, you're blowing up a ballooon and when you're finished you look at it and it's a mouse face with balloon ears!), and when I discovered they'd been discontinued I mourned for years. Then lo and behold, I found them in IGA, the local supermarket! IN the shopping basket you go. I have a birthday coming up. I have got my gluten-free mud cake packet mix, and extra chocolate to go on top and in the mixture, and purple shiny candles (this is to recreate a Cadbury's effect. If I had some gold foil to put on the base it would be complete. Cadbury's don't do that gold foil around their dairy milk etc anymore do they? FOOLS. Throwing away a big part of Cadbury heritage there). I nearly bought Happy Birthday candles because they were rainbow coloured but somehow it seemed really sad making yourself a cake that says Happy Birthday on it. Anyone know what I mean? Ehh.