Road Trip to Bell's Beach, Anglesea, Australia

So Rabbs (real name Adam) and I departed Friday, September 5 for Melbourne from Sydney. We decided to take his car to give mine a rest. It just so happened he had the same make, model, and year car as I did; a 91 Toyota Camry, just a jewel of a car. Rabbs had to be back in a week so we only had 7 days to get there and back. Melbourne is about 900 km’s (540 miles) south-southwest of Sydney. We decided to stay the first few nights at my friend John’s father Jim’s house in Tuross Head. And since it was Australian fathers day, John and his brother Davo were going to be there as well. It worked out great. Tuross Head is about a 5-hour drive south of Sydney. There is a quicker road to Melbourne that runs inland but we wanted to take the coast road. There are so many great surfing spots around this area; many of them never surfed because you need to hike down to them. The water is cold at this time of the year so hardly any of the surf spots have many people. There are lots of reefs, headlands, and point breaks.

Jim, John’s dad, was a great host cooking us food and letting us stay in his spare rooms. He was always happy to have company. I caught up with him and let him know how my travels were up the coast. I showed him some pictures and thanked him much for the car he pretty much gave me.

Saturday morning Rabbs, John, Davo and I went exploring to find surf. It is an adventure going down dirt roads in the area. These are spots I would have never checked as they were off the hidden track. Most of the spots didn’t look too good. After checking a few breaks Rabbs and I surfed Muroya (pronounced Maria) Rivermouth. A big swell had just hit the area. It was about 5 foot with somewhat sloppy conditions. The water was cold, about mid 50’s F so I wore booties and a hood. We caught a few waves but got cold quick.

Later that afternoon John and I surfed Mullimburra Point, which was a right hand point break that is somewhat of a hidden spot. It only breaks on a big swell and the winds and swell were working in the right direction for it to go. It was about 6 foot with about 10-12 foot faces. It pushes a lot of water through and has a slow face that makes it a cruizy wave once you’re on it. You jump off the reef to get in the wave, but if you’re scared you can always paddle from the beach. I took a few spills and only got one good wave. It was a solid heavy wave for me. There were only 3 other people there at first and no one by the end of the session.

That night John, Davo, and I went to Bateman’s Bay, which was about an hours drive north of Tuross. Bateman’s Bay was a nice town to check out. We stayed with John’s good mate and his wife in town.

The following day Rabbs and I surfed Mullimburra Point again. It was a bit cleaner and was about 6 foot again. Another massive day for me. There was nobody out when we got there. My friend Brogan drove past with his family. Brogan was home for Fathers Day and lives in Muroya, just north of Tuross. I stayed with Brogan my first week in Australia as he lives with Benny in Manly. Brogan’s brother Xavier was in town and had sliced his chin open with his board on one of his waves; he ended up getting a few stitches. You can get an idea of the magnitude of the wave. He was on his way out as we were headed in. It turns out John is best mates with Xavier. Brogan told us to come by to his place later after the surf. Rabbs and I ended up scoring some decent waves that day.

After the surf we took Brogan up for his offer to come by. I didn’t know what I was in for. He lived on an amazing 140-acre farm with cows, bulls, a sheep, and lots of kangaroos. He had a beautiful house and very friendly parents. They were getting ready to feed their cows and asked us to join. Rabbs and I jumped in their truck and headed to get hay in their barn. The cows had to be hand fed since the grass had died from the cold. It was a great experience feeding the cows and driving around this massive area of land. Brogan’s family breeds and sells the baby cows. So they don’t do any butchering and don’t have any cows that give milk. They keep two bulls to reproduce with all the female cows. The bulls were massive and are kept in a separate fenced in area.

The following day Monday Rabbs and I were ready to push on further south. Rabbs had lined up a place to stay just west of Bells Beach at Anglesea. His girlfriend’s Auntie had a place down there. We woke up early and drove through some coastal towns and checked surf at a few places. Since there was a heavy southerly wind Jim had told us to check Pambula Rivermouth. It was protected to the south by a headland. It was a bit closed out when we checked it but probably would have been our best bet for surf as we later found out.

The drive south was really nice, lots of rainforest with tall trees surrounding the highway. After this we drove into the northern end of Ben Boyd’s National Park. The waves were blown out from the winds. It was a nice national park with camping. Then we checked out Eden’s main beach, this was the next closest city to the south. It was small, windy, and cold. Since there weren’t many breaks any place close to the south we decided to get in anyway. It ended up being too windy and cold and the waves were blahhh. We got out pretty quick and warmed up to a nice hot pie at the local bakery.

We drove straight through Melbourne on our way down and planned to come back later in the week. The bridges we passed under by the highway were lit up with fluorescent lights and the city looked nice. The place we stayed at was about 100 km’s southwest of Melbourne. We stayed in Anglesea, which is a small town on the beach; it is just west of Bell’s Beach. Bell’s Beach is know from the famous surf scene in the movie Point Break, where the main character Body surfs the 50-year storm there. I have heard that the actual wave that they filmed though is from Waikiki in Hawaii. Bell’s Beach is also where Ripcurl hosts the World Championships for surfing. Another bigger town, Torquay, is east of Bell’s and the town is lined with the most massive surf and skate shops I have seen all in one place. The main shops were Ripcurl, Globe, and Quicksilver, but there were many more. There were more surf shops than anything else in town. There was a library and a nice skatepark next to the library. There was a cool halfpipe in our town, Anglesea. I checked a map of all the surrounding towns along the beach areas and each one had its own skatepark

The place we stayed in was amazing, it was a two level house with 3 bedrooms, a massive living room with a big screen tv, and fireplace. Rabbs and I had it to ourselves for the week too, it was great.

The following morning, Tuesday, we checked out a bunch of surf spots using my surf guide. The surf at Anglesea didn’t look to promising so we headed closer to Bell’s Beach. Bell’s and a spot adjacent to Bell’s called Wikipop were both looking good. Wikipop is a faster shallower wave and Bell’s was a slower nice powerful wave. I decided to do Bell’s as there was only 4 other people out when Wikipop had about 8. They both break right. The same carpark leads to both breaks. Rabbs had to do some internet things and needed a surf hood so I was going in alone. Now the weather and water temperature is the coldest down in these parts as we are on the southern end of Australia and it is the coldest time of the year for the water. We were in the Southern Ocean. I had a hood, booties, and a 3/2 wetsuit. The water temp was about 10-12C or 50-53F, I got in and felt freezing. You need at least a 4/3 suit in these parts.

After about 15 minutes in the water I was ready to leave but held out for an hour. I got some fun rides. My first wave blew my right contact out while I was riding it, the white water just whipped by my face with such force to blow it out. I have lost contacts in the surf before but never while I was up on the wave. So for the rest of the session I was surfing half blind and frozen. Regardless I had a fun time. After I got out there were over 10 people in the water. Everyone was very nice in the water, as a matter of fact everyone I have met out in the surf always gives you a gah day mate and usually starts a conversation with you. Typically in California you have to push a conversation on a stranger out in the water. But I have concluded that friendliness in the water goes hand and hand with how many people are in the water. The less amount of people in the water makes people happier I think and more likely to strike a conversation. Needless to say it took a while to warm up from that surf.

The following day I got up to surf in the AM again. Rabbs was working hard on his work plan for a job he is trying to get in Singapore so he didn’t make it out. The swell had dropped a foot or two and was about 3-4 foot at Bell’s Beach and Wikipop. Wikipop had over 15 people on it and looked good. Bell’s Beach had only about 10 and was more spread out so I decided to go there. I got some fun waves but it was a bit closed out. It was warmer outside, just over 60F so the water didn’t feel as painfully cold.

That afternoon Rabbs and I headed down the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road runs along the ocean at the edge of cliffs and forests. It is a beautiful drive that everyone should do if they are down this way. The town we were staying in, Anglesea, was actually right off the road. There are great surfing beaches, shipwrecks, and other scenic portions of the road. One of them is the 12 apostles; these include large rock masses out in the ocean. It takes about 3 hours one way to make it to the end where the apostles are. Since we didn’t leave till 2 and we wanted surf we never made it to the apostles.

Although we did get surf in at Johanna, a powerful surf break that is a swell magnet. If the area around Anglesea and Bells is small Johanna will have waves. It also has some serious rip currents, which I read in my surf guide. I also got to experience them first hand. Just getting back in was a mission, after paddling in after a wave I was getting nowhere; I had to do the full paddle parallel to the shore to eventually get in. The surf wasn’t very good either, a bit like a washing machine in places. Most of the waves closed out quickly as well. The wind had gotten on it strong by 4pm when we were there. By the time we got out we only had about 40 minutes of daylight so we decided to head back to our place and skip the rest of the drive.

This whole trip Rabbs has been working on a work plan for a finance job in Singapore. He hasn’t had much time to relax with that. During that time though we had to search for free wireless. We scored some free time at the library at Torquey, about 20 minutes east of Anglesea but you only get 30-60 minute blocks. We were able to find free wireless at the camper park in Anglesea and near the BP gas station in Lorne (west of Anglesea). Pretty much we just drove around till we picked up a signal.
So on Thursday we checked a few surf areas in the morning and since they didn’t look good we hit up Bell’s Beach again. It was 3-4 foot with offshore winds and pretty good conditions. This time Rabbs came out as well. There were about 10-12 people but there were plenty of waves. We each got some great rides; my first one was hollow to my surprise but smothered me at the end. A few times some big sets came in and washed everyone away. Bell’s is nice in that you can always paddle around the sets.

So our time on the southern ocean came to an end. Rabbs and I headed to Melbourne for the afternoon. Everyone has told me how great a city Melbourne is so I needed at least a drive through. We didn’t have much time because Rabbs wanted to head to his hometown afterwards and spend some time there. Melbourne is a trendy city with a good music scene. I saw the big crown casino in the heart of the city and a lot of nice architecture along the river that runs through the city. We drove through St. Kilda, a southern suburb along the bay to get some food. We got some $5 pizzas at a nice restaurant so I take it is an affordable place to go out. We spent about 2 hours trying to get back out of Melbourne; there was a load of traffic like most cities. Then we were off to Rabb’s house in Cowra. Cowra is a few hours drive west of Wollongong, an inland farming town.

We got to Rabb’s house late that night. The following day Rabbs and I spent the day backfilling an irrigation trench in his yard for his parents. It felt good to get some hard labor in and earn our keep. He lives on 10-acres of land. It was a very peaceful place away from neighbors and surrounded by dirt roads. Later that day Rabbs and I helped his father make deliveries of refrigerators, washing machines, and freezers. He owns an electronic shop and now mainly just does deliveries. I got to see pretty much most of Cowra from all the driving.

That night we went to Rabb’s sisters house which was about half an hour away. Her and her husband live on a big farm with a lot of sheep and cows. I got to help try and move the sheep into a barn to protect them from the rain as they were getting shaved the following day. I was in the middle of about a hundred sheep just letting out there high pitched bahahahhh sounds. And I was just clapping my hands and chasing these sheep around, I had no idea what I was doing. Another interesting experience for sure.

The following day we shipped back to Sydney. On the way we stopped in the Canola flower fields, really beautiful yellow flowers. After I got back to Sydney I headed over to Benny’s place for a classic Aussie BBQ.

The Last Leg to Sydney

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So Jamie and I departed our farm stay on Sunday and hit the road towards Sydney. Our first leg of the trip would take us to Arlie Beach. It took about 9 hours to reach the town and I was glad we left on Sunday. There was a lot of road construction on our way up to this area and since it was Sunday there wasn’t many people working. On one construction site I saw some workers. Everything shuts down in the small towns on Sundays and there aren’t many cars out. Even most of the supermarkets are closed on Sundays, although more are closed in the smaller towns. The drive was pleasant and had nice views of hills and farms.

I booked a tent site at Magnums this time around, which only cost $18/night for the two of us. Our tent site is setup right next to the bar and the main street so it was nice and easy to get to places and we had music till midnight. They only have 4 tent sites and about 6 caravan park sites. We stayed at the Magnums campsite for 2 nights.

On Tuesday we left for Seventeen Seventy. I hadn’t had much of chance to look around the area last time we were there and it was a good stopping point between Arlie Beach and Surfers Paradise. It took about 11 hours to get there. This included 2 hours of stopped traffic due to a crashed tractor-trailer carrying steal on the highway.

We had heard about a $5 camping spot in Angus Waters which is the town bordering Seventeen Seventy. Since we got to the area late we didn’t find the campground that night; we ended up camping on the side of the bay at Seventeen Seventy since we saw another tent up. We got woken up in the morning by the ranger telling us we couldn’t camp there. He was very nice and gave us directions to the $5 camping spot, which was called Workman’s and was in Agnus Waters. It was on a bluff surrounded by trees with a walking trail of about 3 minutes to the beach. It also had free gas barbecues, toilets, and drinking water. There was also a concrete skatepark right across the street.

Jamie and I ended up spending 3 nights at the campground. I spent my days at the beach fishing, surfing, skimboarding, and reading. You do not need a permit to fish in the state of Queensland but you do in the state of New South Whales. We are still in Queensland. I would get a skate in during the morning before it would get too hot. The skatepark was pretty new and worked well. There was never anyone else there either. Both towns, Seventeen Seventy and Agnus Waters were very quiet during our stay. There weren’t many people around anywhere, the beaches were pretty empty and the campground only had maybe 10 groups of people staying there. There are a few hostels, bars, and restaurants in Agnus Waters. Seventeen Seventy only had one nice restaurant near the water and a few tourist shops. The town runs along the bay and Agnus Waters runs along the ocean. Agnus Waters is having apartment complexes and homes being built there along the ocean but much of it remains undeveloped. Seventeen Seventy runs a lot of sailboats to the Great Barrier Reef.

One day we did a walking trail at the tip of Seventeen Seventy where there were amazing views. We also did a walk down to a beach near the south end of Agnus Waters. There is a long stretch of beaches that you need to hike to see there. I also heard there is a 2.5 hour walk further to the south around the point of Agnus Waters, we didn’t get a chance to do that one.
After 3 days at Workman’s Campground we decided it was time to make it further south again. If there was more swell in the ocean I could have stayed much longer. Workman’s has a right hand point break that was small when we were there. Apparently it gets big on the cyclones between November and June.

So we pushed back on the road early Saturday morning. Another secret we learned was if you leave before the rangers come in the morning (which was around 7am) you do not have to pay to stay. A lot of people would leave before the rangers got there. We drove through some major cities- Bundaberg, Maryborough, and Gympie and then headed towards Noosa Heads to take the coast road along the Sunshine Coast. It was a beautiful area that I didn’t have a chance to see on my way up. The road overlooked the ocean. Along the ocean were dunes with forests. The sand was real clean and white. We stopped at Coolum Beach, which was a great beach town. There was a nice skatepark on the beach. My surf guide had told me this was one of the good beach breaks. The waves were pretty blown out by the time I got there and since it was low tide the waves were breaking close to the beach. The water was warm and the weather was great. I wore a full wetsuit but felt very warm in it. There were a few nice shops and restaurants along the beach. There were some nice homes built along the hillsides. It had the feel of Main Street in Laguna Beach. There was a camping park along the beach downtown as well. It cost $27 for tent camping. I would have liked to stay there that night but I wanted to get to Surfers Paradise by the days end.

We spent the night in Surfers Paradise in the car to save money, as it’s expensive down this way. The following day we walked around the south part of the city Miami. There was a great Globe skateshop with a halfpipe in the back and a setup for skateboarding in the front. It was a very cool idea as the setup in the front was all concrete and steel and was right in the walkway to the shop. We also went to a cool music shop, they sold drums, many things to juggle, and other fun toys; and the shop guy offered everything to play with.

We then headed to Byron Bay. We stayed at the Byron Bay Tourist Park, a caravan park outside the town by about 2 km’s but offered a great campsite. There was plenty of grass area around a few lakes. It was quite and very nice. It was $10 each which is good for Byron. I got a few surfs at Wategos Beach. The first time I surfed there a bunch of people were on the beach as someone spotted a bull shark in the water, the guy who saw it said it was as big as his 9 foot surfboard. After watching from an above area a guy didn’t see the shark anymore and since I was with 3 others from the campground we pushed forward in the water. It was scary at first, I attempted to lie on my board and keep my legs out of the water. None of us saw the shark. The day before, at a spot around the headland called Tallows, a guy got knocked off his board and a shark bit off his leash and a fin. Jeeze, I still can’t get over this shark thing. Here’s the article on that, http://www.fearbeneath.com/2008/09/surfer-barely-avoids-shark-attack-at-byron-bay/

We stayed in Byron for 3 nights and enjoyed my time there. I did a snorkel one day at the main beach near the shipwreck. The water was murky but I did manage to see some fish that were about a foot long.
After our stay we headed south to Southwest Rocks. We got in around 9pm to the town and it was almost completely shut down. There was a nice campground right on the beach and there were no gates. Since reception was closed we just threw our tent up overlooking a great beach. That night there was big storm; it rained most of the night and winds blew our top cover off our tent. When I got up I had beach views and saw half my tent next to where I was sleeping. We left the following morning before the rangers came by. The beaches were very nice in this town although the weather was bad. The surf was blown out so I decided to head further for surf.

That morning we were on our last leg, finally I would make it back to Sydney where I started the road trip about 2 months ago. Just south of Southwest Rocks we found a great national park with camping. It had kangaroos hopping around all over; this was the first time I saw kangaroos at a national park campground and the first time I saw them next to the beach. It was so very cool. It was called Arakon State Conservation Area. There were plenty of campsites open and fire pits all over. The park had a lot of exposed granite cliffs suitable for rock climbing as well. There was a surfing beach to the north but on the southern end it looked like really strong rip currents.

We finished our drive in Sydney and I dropped Jamie off at his previous long-term hostel in Glebe, a western suburb of Sydney.
I then headed to meet my friend Rabbs that I went to Indonesia with. Rabbs lives with his girlfriend and her parents in the western suburb of Sydney called Balmain. He had quit his job a few weeks back and was keen to go to Melbourne. I decided it would be a great opportunity to go down there. We would just go for a week since he had to be back in Sydney. So that evening I stayed at his girlfriend Milli’s place. It was an amazing 3-level house overlooking Sydney Harbor. Milli’s parents cooked us a delicious dinner and she cooked a great desert. It was the first night in a while where I got a comfortable bed all to myself. Milli and her parents were exceptionally hospitable offering things for breakfast and making lunch the following day. Milli even made desert for breakfast. I packed up Rabb’s car and we were ready to mission it to Melbourne! Bell’s Beach here we come…

The Farm Stay

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So I headed to Wollongong on Tuesday to sort out the original car I bought in Australia that kept breaking down. My friend Steveo had worked on it while I was away. He had replaced the clutch master cylinder and got a new battery. After all this the car still wouldn’t work so I met him to work on it. We eventually got it going; after zip tying the solenoid together. At least now that it starts I should be able to sell it. Steveo wouldn’t take any money for the labor so I got him a few gifts from Bali. He was such a nice guy to help out.

After this I met up with John and his brother Davo for a surf. The waves were small and the water was cold, about 60F. Typically the water doesn’t get much colder than 65F in this part of Australia, so this is probably the coldest of the year. It was good to catch up with John and his brother. Davo decided to take a semester off of his college, New Castle, and try to get into Wollongong University. He is living with John for now. The following day Davo and I went for a search for waves around the Wollongong area. Everywhere seemed small and I decided we would go to Fairy Meadow break, as that was where my old dorms were when I went to Uni here. After that I headed on the train back to Sydney Airport.

I would have been perfectly content staying in Wollongong for a bit but I had to pick up my good car I left in Cairns. I had left with my car with my road trip friends, Andrea and Riki. It worked out leaving it with them, as I didn’t have to pay for the airport fees. Andrea flew out of Cairns on Wednesday for Darwin, Australia so it actually worked out perfect as I was getting in Wednesday. I didn’t really know what I was going to do when I got to Cairns. I was considering staying for a few days there, searching for a farm stay in the area, and doing some searching for other jobs. I had sent a few applications to the mining engineering companies but haven’t heard anything yet. Just when I thought I was getting a little overwhelmed I got a message from Andrea telling me where to stay in Cairns and who to contact. I contacted his friend Jamie, who is from England. Jamie, a Swedish guy Matti, and I stayed in the same room in Gilligan’s hostel and got along very well. Gilligans was right downtown Cairns and close to everything. Andrea and Jamie had stayed in a hostel for a while in Sydney together and had reconnected in Cairns. I had gotten into Cairns on Wednesday night at midnight and didn’t even have a room so it worked out great when I met these guys and got the last bed in there room.

The following day I did some exploring in the city. It was a bigger city than Arlie Beach. It was the hub to get to the Great Barrier Reef so there was a port nearby. There were many hostels, restaurants, and tourist shops. It is a major tourist area. They don’t have any nice beaches but they have a lagoon pool similar to Arlie Beach. It is along the bay which consisted of mud flats at the edge of the waters. They have a nice walkway along the bay that leads to a great skate park. I was told it was the 12th best park in the world and best in Australia. I skated there with a guy I met at my hostel. It was a great concrete park with 2 bowls, several sets of stairs, curbs with steel to grind, and fun banks to cruise.

I stayed in Cairns for 3 nights and was ready to move on. There’s not much to do besides go out at night, and go to the lagoon and skate park during the day. Cape Tribulation is about 2 hours to the north and is a very scenic area that everyone recommends to go to. It has several rivers and is within the rainforest. I didn’t want to head any further north and wanted to try and save some money so decided not to go.

During my time in Cairns I called several people that take WWOOFERS or Willing Workers on Organic Farms. I had signed up for the WWOOFING before I came and hoped to try it out. With this you work about 3-5 hours a day on a farm and the family/owners gives you a place to stay and feed you. I had called about 20 farms in two days before I found someone that wasn’t full. Either, farms didn’t have any work or had people already. The place I found had domestic kangaroos, a library of Australian books, and was on the edge of the outback about 2.5 hours southwest of Cairns. The owner, Daryl sounded nice and we headed out on Sunday to his place. He said it was fine for Jamie to come as well. Jamie was ready to leave Cairns and hoped on board with me. I planned to stay a week there.

Our farm stay was just outside of Herberton near a small town called Irvinebank. The area is within the dry forest, just on the edge of the rainforest. It is also on the border of the outback. This place in Australia, because of its climate, has the most dangerous reptiles in the world; I mean deadly snakes, poisonous spiders, and several other insects that aren’t fun to deal with. He had 6-foot ant farm mounds in the back! I mean I never saw anything like it. If this place doesn’t toughen you up, I don’t know what will. Our cell phones lost service probably an hour outside of the farm. Our only contact with the outside world was with the landline telephone.

The owner, Daryl, had 50 acres of land. His place was made of sheet metal and wood. His house (if you can call it that) had a bedroom, a living room with couches, a TV with satellite, a library of Australian books and a kitchen. He had an outside area that was covered and had a fire pit, chairs, a couch, and a cooking station. He had 3 cabins outside. I only consider one cabin as livable at the time I got there. Jamie and I checked out the other cabin the first night we got there and there was a bat flying around, we told Daryl we would work on that tomorrow and sleep inside the living room for the night.

Now the first day we arrived around 4pm. Daryl was 55 years old and was very friendly. He had the flu when we arrived so I figured he would want to rest and maybe get some sleep. He kept saying that he was going to go to bed. Daryl is a big talker, more than anyone I probably have met in my whole life. He talked from the moment we got there till about midnight. He talked through two movies until Jamie and I closed our eyes on the couches, he probably talked for about 30 minutes after we were asleep. He had interesting things to talk about, like Australian history, places he’d traveled, but it takes a lot to listen for hours. Jamie and I cooked dinner earlier that night because we wanted Daryl to rest up. We made some eggs and toast. Daryl offered anything in his cabinets and fridge to us, so that was very accommodating. Also, he had about a hundred channels of TV and the wide selection of books. He gradually talked less as the days progressed but still it was hard to read a page in a book or watch a movie without him coming out and talking to us. I think he has been having a lot of foreigners staying with him so he probably has not had anyone to talk to in a while. I think it could also have to do with the 4-liter box of wine he would drink every night. Yes, that’s right 4 liters of dry goon! Australians call boxed wine goon, I don’t know the origin of that one. As he drank more he would talk more, and was more likely to repeat stories.

So we got a good night sleep and got up around 10 am on Monday morning. It was nice that he was very casual on working. It was also somewhat comical to me. Most farm stays work from 6am in the morning, our work started whenever we got up. That first day we had some coffee and relaxed. Eventually Daryl got the energy to give us our first task. He had us do some forest fire prevention. There are a lot of brush fires in the area. He had us rake all the dry brush surrounding the outhouse. It was quite peaceful work; we just had to be aware of all the potential dangerous wildlife. After this we collected firewood and then started to clean the cabin with the bat. We pulled everything out and cleaned the bat guano out. There were holes in the cabin and that’s how the bat would get in, I think. Also there were lots of ants, just small ants here. All the bedding smelled a bit foul as well. Daryl didn’t seem too pushy of a boss, as he would just kick it in the living room watching TV. We decided to check out the 3rd cabin in the back. It was a bit further, past a pond. It looked better than the 2nd cabin so we decided to work on this one more. But when Jamie pulled up the plywood under the mattress he nearly freaked when he saw about a thousand large red ants underneath. I mean these looked like some mean ants. That was enough for the day.

Daryl was happy if we worked 4 hours, but to be honest I think he just wanted company around his ranch. Later that afternoon he took us around his property. He had all types of fruit, plants, and animals. He had a few chickens and said he had about 100 kangaroos that hung around. He had one tame kangaroo, Rosy, that would come inside and would let you pet her. He had mango, banana, mulberry, lemon, lime, avocado, cashew, and coffee trees just to name a few. Most of them seemed dry and weren’t regularly irrigated. He did manage to grab a few lemons.

That night we hung around the fire and read and watched some movies. Daryl cooked us a pork stir-fry that tasted very good. I decided to give the cabin a try this second night. I killed 3 small spiders above the bed before climbing in. I used my own blanket, sleeping bag, and pillows. Jamie stayed inside and decided that’s where he would stay the rest of the time. I figured I would get my tent out if anything inside the cabin bit me.

The following day we woke up to help fight a brush fire. Daryl had mentioned if it didn’t get contained the night before we would help out, as he volunteers with the local brigade. Jamie and I didn’t really didn’t know what we would be doing, so we just followed Daryl. He had a proper fire suit, but no mask or water in his truck. We stayed outside the main portion of the fire and put out small pieces of wood that were still flaming after it passed by. Daryl gave us rakes and we went to work. We did our best to through some sand on the smoky portions and break up some of the wood. We walked around mostly to check to see if the fire looked contained in the area. It was nice to hike up some good bush hills. The ground was mostly granite rock with a small layer of topsoil, small trees and brush that had already had been burnt. It was a great experience to be out there. The fire department gave us sandwiches when we returned and invited us to the firehouse for a debriefing. They weren’t too happy that Daryl didn’t have a radio. But they were appreciative that we were there to help. Daryl grabbed a new box of wine, and had me drive back. When we got back I decided to clean my cabin with disinfectant. While doing so I had to fight off hundreds of tiny ants coming through some small holes and a few more spiders.

This experience is definitely one that I will remember. I wouldn’t be doing these things anywhere else.
The next day, Wednesday, Jamie and I did some more brush clean up around the home. We also adventured into the bush and checked out some of the old structures, old trucks, and the big ant farms. The anthills were taller than us, I mean over 6 feet tall. We also took a look in the pond to see if we could see any of the fish or turtles Daryl said he had. We didn’t see much as the water was muddy. There were large creeks that ran through his property, but they were dry at the time.
I took a drive into the closest town, Herberton, to get on the internet. The town is small and has all the essentials; it has two bars, a restaurant, a library, hardware store, post office, and some food shops. Everyone probably looked at me twice since most people drove 4-wheel drive trucks and nobody else had surfboards on their roof, as the nearest surf is about a 20 hour drive to the south.

The following day, Thursday, we headed to these hot springs about an hour and a half away. There are natural springs but the ones we went to were in a campground in several different concrete pools. I expected more of a natural setting but it was man made pools. The water actually is hot from the water in faults that warms up from the magna deep below ground. The water in the natural springs I heard was too hot for comfort. After that we went to see a few scenic spots. Each landmark we went to had a famous fig tree. The first one was named a cathedral fig tree for it’s enormous width. I had seen a few figs in Costa Rica and in Balboa Park, San Diego but this one was the biggest I had ever seen. You could actually climb your way up it too. The next site we looked at had a curtain fig tree. It grew around another tree, caused that tree to fall into another tree so it was at an angle and then grew down to the ground causing it’s drape or curtain shape.

On Friday Daryl took us to a couple more scenic areas. We went to two lakes that were formed from water explosions from craters in the earth. They were called Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine. We saw sawback turtles in Lake Eacham. We then drove to the closest big town, Atherton, which was about 40 kilometers away. There they had faster Internet and cell phone service. Jamie and I were keen on looking for some farm work for a week or two and met with the work agency there. I here from a lot of people that farm work is big up here but the agency and another harvest company I talked to said it has been to cold to harvest at the time we got there. So we are going to have to pass on that experience for now. I thought it would be good opportunity to try something new and make some extra cash.

On Saturday we took a ride to the closest town, Irvinebank. It is a historic mining town with only about 100 people living there now. They used to mine tin but there are several other things they have mined out here, like copper and iron ore. I am pretty sure they stopped mining in the early 1980’s. The town is very nice, it included a lake with a dam, museum, post office, pub, and local store. They have a free campground across from the pub. That was the first free campground I have seen advertised. Although I have heard there is a book on free camping around Australia.

Indonesia Surf Log

So Benny, Brogan, Pabbs, Rabbs, and Christian headed to Bali on Wednesday August 30, 2008.

afternoon.

We flew into Denpasar, Bali and got a transfer to the Swiss Belhotel – Bayview in the southern part of Bali. It was a beautiful hotel with two pools, one on the roof and one on the ground floor. We stayed there that night and left at 6am for a flight to Bima, Sumbawa.

We took a 2-hour shuttle to our hotel, which was the Amin Gati (www.amangati.com) on the southeast portion of Sumbawa. During our ride we went past rice fields and salt fields. There were several small villages. Main transport was with motorbikes, horse drawn carriages, and some cars. It wasn’t developed much around the villages, mostly large farm areas and open space. Our hotel was probably the biggest one in the area but still wasn’t too big. There were a few hotels along the strip of beaches nearby. Most of the roads were paved but had large potholes. There was one lane in each direction but no shoulders.

There are two breaks out front of our hotel, Lakey’s Peak and Lakey’s Pipe, they were both huge when we arrived. It was a bit intimidating watching it; it was about 6-8 foot, almost double overhead waves. We decided to walk down the beach to the right (east) a bit to Nunga’s the first day. Nunga’s is a left break that is a foot or two smaller than Lakey’s and an easier takeoff; it also breaks over coral reef. Every break we are going to surf is over sharp coral reef. It was about 1230pm and low tide was at 5pm. You want to surf out here at a higher tide due to the shallow reefs. Everyone wore booties except me. The

coral to the water was somewhat spongy but there is a drop off the reef about a foot or two once you hit the water and that’s where the spiky sea urchins are. There like porky pines scattered on the reef. It wasn’t two bad since my feet have toughened up since being in Australia.

It was about 5-6 foot at Nunga’s and it was a fairly easy drop. But the waves were big and a bit scary at first. I kind of just sessed out the waves 

and watched others. I got a few good long rides; it ended up being a very fun session. There were only about 5 other guys besides the 6 of us.

The restaurant at the hotel had some

 great food. Full meals only cost about $3-$4. There was also a nice pool out front that had fantastic views of the breaks. We played some ping-pong and pool aft

er dinner. The hotel has a big banquet room with a TV, pool table and ping-pong table and nobody was there except us. Not many people are in our hotel, maybe about 15-20 including us. We all went to bed early that night to wake up to a 600 am su

rf session. Every night we stayed here we woke up between 5-6am

 to get out for the early

 windless surf sessions.

The following day, Friday, we got up at 530am to surf out front of the hotel at Lakey Point. It is a left and right-hander but the left goes for about 3 times as long. There were maybe 15 people out including us 6. It was about 6 foot and clean. I got a bunch of rights and then tried the lefts. The lefts were much longer. Brogan took his digital water camera and we all took turns capturing photos. We had a local film us with his video camera from the tower in front of the hotel. We had this guy film us pretty much everyday. The two level tower was built right on the reef, it doesn’t look sturdy but wasn’t bad when you go up in it. We surfed for about 2 hours.
In the early afternoon, 12ish we headed to Cobblestones. It is about a 40-minute walk south along the beach. I jogged it and the others hired motorbikes to give them a ride. I wanted to check out the in between breaks so I hoofed it along the beach. I saw 2 other spots that looked like you could surf them but the locals said it was too shallow. Cobblestones wasn’t working well with the tide and the swell so I jumped on a motor bike with the others and we headed to Nungas. The motorbikes were great in that they were very cheap and fun to travel on, and the drivers seemed careful. They charge about 400,000 rupia ($4) to go from the hotel to Cobblestones.

You get about 80,000 to 90,000 rupia for the dollar, I just estimate it is as being equivalent for 1 dollar to 10,000 rupia or ten dollars is 100,000 rupia. It makes you seem rich when you get a withdrawal from the atm. Now I haven’t really figured out what the best way to get money out for Indo. The local bank in Australia gave 83,000 rupia for the dollar but charge a $10 fee; the transfer place at the Sydney airport gave 75,000 rupia for the dollar with a fee; the transfer place at the Bali airport gave 85,000 rupia for the dollar without the transaction fee; and atms probably give the best rate with about a $7 fee after my bank fee, although you can only withdrowel 1.2 million rupia at a time (about $137 American). I know that from my checking my online bank statement. So I either recommend you get your money converted at the Bali airport or withdrawal from the atm’s. I did a little bit of both. It really helps to have American money, you need $25 US to get a visa when you arrive. Also the US dollar is still stronger than the Australian dollar so you can get better deals with the US dollar, especially when you bargain with the locals in Bali.

So anyway it only costs about $4 roundtrip for a motorbike ride to a spot that would take you 40 minutes to walk to each way. And the motorbike guys hang out and film us while we surf. They also care for our stuff we leave on the beach. We ended up paying them about $5 a day to ride us around.

Back to the motorbike ride to surfing; we ended up at Nungas. It was the standard 15- to 20-minute paddle to the break. We all got some fun lefts, and Benny got a good pic of me grabbing the rail on a solid wave. The waves were a bit smaller than Lakey Peak, averaging about 4-5 foot.

Later that night Benny, Brogan, and Pabbs surfed a sunset session out front at Lakey Peak. The sun sets about 6pm and stays light to 630pm. They said they got some fun waves. It was low tide and the wave looked fast. I opted to rest for the following days to come. That night we relaxed and got a small dinner and went to bed early. I got on the Internet for a little bit. They have about 5 computers with a very slow connection and no wireless. I was a bit surprised they had Internet.

The following day, Saturday, we woke at 530am to get out to Lakey Peak again. It was about 5-6 foot and breaking clean. There was more of a crowd, about 20 including us. All of the surfers are way better than me too; maybe a few are equal in skill but not many. Most of the surfers were killing the waves with turns and big airs. I struggled to get a left but had to give way a bunch. I ended up surfing the right after a while of getting frustrated at the left. The right was fun but not too long. I watched Benny take off on a few big lefts and was immediately slotted in the barrel. It looked awesome.

We took a quick breakfast and headed on the motorbikes back to Cobblestones. Cobblestones breaks to the right. You can surf another portion at the south end of Cobblestones, this one breaks to the left fast into shallow waters. We surfed at the right. There looked to be somewhat of a left that was working. Butch and I both tried it and it wasn’t really makeable, I had a solid fast left but touched on the reef after it closed out. I got a bit of reef or sea urchin stuck in my foot and paddled to the rest of the crew on the main peak. There was a strong current pulling north so you had to constantly paddle against it to stay at the good takeoff spot. I took off a bit outside a bunch and couldn’t make the wave section, I would drop in and the wave would close out ahead of me. I watched our crew get a bunch of good rides. You had to catch the wave more inside of the main peak but the currents made it hard to get there.

Later that day the motorcycle guys picked up Brogan, Butch, and I to take us to their town and to a soccer game. My motorcycle driver, Dino, was playing in the game. They even let Brogan play in it. It was a major game between two of the local villages. It ended up being tied 1-1 so they had a shoot out at the end. They let everyone come close to the net and around the outside of the kickers. They tied in the shootout and decided the winner with a coin toss! Dino’s village team won the toss.

On Sunday we got up early to surf Nungas to the north. We were all feeling a bit beat up by this point. Everybody’s arms felt sore but kept surfing. The wave was clean and fast, a solid 5-6 foot. I got a few rides but took some heavy beatings. It was a little work to make it back out to the wave after taking one, you would have to paddle all the way around the wave. Waves were breaking at different areas of Nungas, there were about 8 people on the inside section by the end. All our guys were at the main point. By the end of the session I was feeling pretty exhausted.

The winds have been picking up around 10 am each day causing choppy conditions after that. So you have to get in the surf early to beat off the winds.  Monday morning we arranged a boat trip to Maggie Boy. I am not exact on the naming but it’s what I understood from the locals, it could well as been Magic Boy. It was about an hours boat ride away. They hooked up fishing rods to the side of the boat to try and catch some marlin. We saw one large marlin jumping out of the water chasing fish; it must have been 3-4 feet long. We chased it for a bit.

Maggie Boy was a right hand point break over coral. Nobody was there as it is mainly accessible by boat. I didn’t see any signs of villages nearby. It was more of a fat wave that was easier and slower to get on. It was a solid 4-5 foot. I got a few long rights but the wave was somewhat choppy once you were on it. On the way back to the hotel it was a wavy, bumpy, and wet ride. We all hung on to the boat hard so we wouldn’t get thrown off.

The hotel we are staying at (Amin Gati) is very mellow and catered to surfers. Within the restaurant they have a projection screen that plays DVD’s. They have stacks of surf videos and you can just throw one in. There’s always surf flicks playing while you eat. The entertainment in each room is also cool in that they have TV’s and you call reception and ask them to put on movies and they play them on the first 3 channels. Channel 6 is live streaming video of the webcam facing Lakey Point out front of the hotel. We can see the break from our balcony and the restaurant but it was nice to lie down and watch too after surfing for hours.

Tuesday we went to Nunga Doras surf spot, which is south of Cobblestones. It is a left break over coral reef but has the occasional right. The waves were about 4-5 foot and easy to ride. It is a bit of a fast takeoff and then the wave fattens out. While I was in the water I noticed my fin on my board was loose and my plugs for the fin were coming out. I had the motorist take me to a surfboard repair guy next to our hotel (Johny at Pumas); I had heard they were really cheap. He charged me $250,000 rupia for the plug fix, a fix on the top of the board, sand down two of my other fixes I roughly did, and for a surfboard rental for the day. So that’s just over $25 for something that would have cost close to $100 anywhere else. The repairs were finished the next day and came out well.

Buy this point my surfboard and myself are pretty worn out. I came here with a cut on my finger that was small but started ulcerating which usually happens when you constantly get a cut wet, it starts to eat away at the surrounding skin. The best way to heal it is with liquid band-aid but I had dropped my container and broke it a few weeks back. And in Australia they just took it off the market. The only other thing that works is super glue, and I did not think I would be able to find that. I went on the search for the super glue and actually found it at a shop next to my hotel for $0.70. I have 2 cuts on my left foot big toe, a few little holes on the bottom of my right foot, and another cut on another finger; these are all from barley touching down on the reef and sea urchins. I also twisted my left ankle and tweaked my left knee twice while turning and dropping in on waves. The rest of our crew is all scratched up as well; Rabbs has scrapped his back and shin on the reef pretty bad (Check the photo). Benny had to take 2 days off because his neck was so tight and sore. My neck, back, and arms are really feeling it by this point. Pabbs ended up taking a big fall on the last day and cutting up his back pretty pad, his rash guard was all ripped and bloody.

Later that morning we borrowed our motorist’s motorcycles. They were happy to loan out there bikes, I was a little nervous as my guy, Dino had a brand new nice scooter. We were looking for these Japanese caves so we rode up a dirt/cobble path to this shack. Apparently we were supposed to take a path right but we took it left, as that was a bigger path. It brought us to these huge boulders after about 20 minutes up the path. We decided to climb the boulders as we thought the caves were on top of the mountain. We climbed for about 30 minutes up these treacherous boulders and then gave up. We later found out the path to the right is 5 minutes to the caves. We then took the bikes to the north to a spot called Periscopes, which is a fast wave that breaks best in high tide. It was all blown out and not working so we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning we headed back to Nunga Dores and surfed there. Again nobody was there as it is off the hotel areas. It was about 4-5 foot again and had some decent rights and lefts. Later that day we checked out several other spots as out front at Lakey Peak was somewhat crowded (about 8 guys). Cobblestones had a great left on the south part of it but there were 8 guys out. The south part is shallow, hollow, fast, and pulls left. Nunga Dores and Nungas were not looking good so we headed back to where we started, Lakey Peak. It was about 4-5 foot and breaking long on the lefts and rights. It was one of my better sessions as I got some great rides and didn’t get worked to bad. Only Pabbs, Butch, and I went out on this mission.

The next day, Thursday, we all got in the water by 545am and were the first ones in the lineup. I could imagine other surfer’s faces when they saw 6 people out in the water before sunrise. Usually anything over 6 people is a crowd around here. The waves had dropped again to about 4 foot. It was low tide so the wave is a bit harder to ride as it sucks into a fast wave when there is too little water. I was getting thrown over the top of the wave a bunch as the wave sucked me and closed out quick. I still managed to get a few rides. By about 7am there were about 11 of us so it got a bit more crowded. My neck was really sore at this point so I had to give it a rest by 8am. Most of the other guys were heading to Nungas for a night surf session but I tried to resist because I was so sore but ended up going due to the peer pressure. It was about 4-5 foot and there were some real clean waves coming through; I’m glad I made it out.

The following day, Friday, was our last day. We went out at Nungas again in the early morning. It was about 5-foot with some 6-foot waves pumping through. The conditions were pretty clean and the crowd factor was just the six of us. Nungas breaks in different sections too so you can sit at about four areas on the wave and they haven’t been connecting so your not dropping in on anybody.

It was payday for our food and motorbike rides. We ended up paying our guys about $50 each for about 8 days of driving us around and letting us use there scooters, they were more than happy with that as the daily wages in Indonesia is about $3 a day. 8 days of eating 2-3 meals a day with at least one desert a day, and drinking Bintangs (the Indonesian beer) came to about $120. One 24 once Bintang was almost as expensive as a meal, about $2.50. I came to find out Sumbawa was a lot cheaper than the main popular island of Indonesia, Bali.

We got our shuttle to the airport in Sumbawa in the late morning. Benny put his bag in another shuttle bus as he thought everyone else did. I had all my things in my surfbag, which was on our shuttle, and everyone else had there’s with them. This guy eventually showed up with Benny’s bag more than an hour later; I told him to check his bag before he checked it as there’s problems with people stashing drugs in your bags and this was the classic opportunity. When the guy got to the airport he through it through the x-ray right away and Benny never had a chance to check it! But it ended up being fine. There method of security in Sumbawa was pretty funny, they have an x-ray machine right as you open the main doors for you to put your bags through and you walk through a metal detector. When the metal detector went off for Pabbs the guy just smiled and told him it was fine, and waved him through. Then you check in and walk outside and get on the plane. The plane was very small and didn’t look to stable; the wheels were bald and didn’t look very well maintained. But we made it to Bali fine. The Bali airport is a lot safer with security checks. You go through about two x-ray checks and two bag checks before you get on. That is because of the Bali bombings in the recent years that have taken the lives of several Australians. I actually met one of the survivors while I was staying at my friend John’s place in Wollongong. John’s roommate, Brendan, is friends with him and was friends with two others that passed away in the same bombing that took place in a bar.

Well, we got into Bali and headed to our hotel, Rocky Point, which was in Uluwatu (Ulu’s). It overlooked one of the best surf breaks in all of Indonesia. The Ripcurl Professional Surf Championships just had taken place here last week. Everybody was amazed at the place we got, a little to fancy for my taste but it was the last two nights and the rest of the group wanted to stay here. Ulu’s is about an hour and a half from the main tourist city Kuta. That’s where all the main shops, restaurants, bars, and cheaper hotels are. It is very crowded and somewhat dirty.

The following day, Saturday, we woke up to see nice clean waves with not too many people out. But by the time we paddled out at around noon there was about 50 people in the water lined up and down the break. Ulu’s breaks left for hundreds of meters but is a very fast wave that is difficult to make sections sometimes. It barrels up and down the wave and the reef is shallow. You have to walk down a steep cliff to get there but they have built steps most of the way. There are surf shops and restaurants built on the way down the cliff. We had to rent boards the first day because the airline couldn’t fit anybody’s surfboard on the tiny plane we took. There are also wooden decks that you can stand on if you dare to watch the surf. Once you get to the bottom you have to duck and climb through caves to get to the beach. I can’t imagine how people used to get down here to surf before they made the stairs. There’s a small area to lie at the beach.

The waves were about 4-5 foot and breaking nice. I stayed on the inside away from most of the surfers. Everyone closer to the main peak was at an expert level. Mick Fanning, one of the best surfers in the world, was there at the peak. It was pretty intimidating but I mostly watched people surfing. My second wave I almost hit some big guy paddling out, he wasn’t too stoked. The whole vibe in the water wasn’t too good; it was very aggressive and unfriendly. Neither of the other guys I was with got too many waves. Benny and I decided to go out again later that night. When we paddled out at 530 it was a bit crowded so we stayed on the inside. The waves died off a foot or two but were still clean and hollow. My first wave I took was about 1-2 foot and I pushed for the barrel and ended up nicking the reef with my arm, it didn’t hurt too much but I had a good scrape. At about 6pm the crowd nearly disappeared and at 630pm it was just Benny, I and maybe a few others. I ended up pulling into a nice barrel at one wave during the takeoff and pulled out, and did the same on another where I got covered again during the ride. It was sweet; the waves were only 2-3 foot too.

We surfed to pure blackness, which was about 7pm. We were the last two out. When we couldn’t see each other anymore and when the bats started flying overhead Benny and I new it was time to get out. By this point it was low tide and we had to climb the reef to get out, and then find our way through the cave in the dark. It was a good adventure.
That night we went out to dinner near the Intercontinental hotel. They have seafood places right on the beach. The seating is literally 20 feet from the bay water. They set up the tables and chairs on the beach sand. You could choose from several fresh fish, it was great. I scored the Red Snapper.

We then ventured to Kuta to check out the nightlife. We went to a hookah bar first, then a few other club/bars. It was a good time. The next day we went to Kuta to do some shopping and then we would get on the airplane, which was in Kuta. Bali sells CD’s and DVD’s for about $.75; they are burned copies but most seem to work. We all got some movies and seasons of TV series. So it cost about $10 for every season of family guy! Yeah.

Our flight worked out ok and we made it to Sydney fine. Now I am back to the expensive lifestyle in Australia. I stayed in Manly for the night on Monday at Benny’s and the following day, Tuesday; I hopped the ferry to the train to Wollongong to see John.

Week 3 on Roadie - Sailing Trip

So, I had last left off in Seventy Seventy in my writtings. We had about an 8 hour trip to Arlie Beach. It rained the whole way there, but the rain later stopped that night. We stayed at Magnums Hostel on Thursday July 24, 2008. It was probably the biggest one with cabins, tent sites, and camper sites. It was situated downtown and had lots of nice palm trees and manmade fountains around the rooms. They had a big outdoor bar and restaurant in the front. Arlie Beach is a very nice little town. It has one main strip with all the hostels, bars, touring agencies, and restaurants. It also had the first wireless café I have found since I have been in Australia. So I was able to get online with a drink purchase (which is about $3 a coffee). Also it was closed all weekend so I got free Internet when I sat out front. Arlie Beach has a really nice manmade lagoon along the bay; it’s basically a big pool with beach sand and grass surrounding it. It was very similar to Brisbane’s artificial beach. It was right across the street from our hostel. Also there was a real beach that wrapped around the bay. Arlie Beach is the hub to get out to the Whitsunday’s, which are a series of islands off the coast of Australia that are just west of the Great Barrier Reef.

The following day, Friday, we met at our sailboat in the afternoon at the harbor area of Arlie Beach. We were scheduled for a 3-day, 2 night trip in the Clipper sailboat. It had about 48 people and about 6 staff. It was a very big sailboat with 3 decks, lower one for sleeping, middle for eating, and top for hanging out in the sun. The first day we went to the north end of Haymen Island. We got out there for sunset and dinner. The food was all included and was very delicious. We ate salmon one night and pasta another. Lunch was salad and sandwiches and breakfast was cereal and toast. You were able to bring on your own alcohol. I only had to pay for scuba diving, which was $45-$50 per dive.

That night we saw lots of fish in our spotlight off the side of the boat. We also had dolphins playing for hours in the light. All the fish are attracted to the light and attract lots of water life. I went scuba diving Friday morning at Blue Pearl Bay on the north end of Haymen Island. I hadn’t been for a dive since I took my certification class at UMASS and we dove in the middle of winter in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts I didn’t see any fish and it was very cold. The difference of scuba diving in Mass and Aussie was night and day. The area we were in was classified as the outer reef; the Great Barrier Reef was more east. I here it is very similar. We saw lots of colorful fish and reef. We also went through underwater caves. We saw the Little Nemo fish (Clown Anemone Fish). Also we saw two of the Humphead Maori Wrasse fish which are gigantic friendly fish, they get up to 7.5 feet long and have wide bodies. That day we relaxed on the top of the boat and took in some sun. There were a few humpback whales along our ride. I got a good snapshoot of the tale of one.

In the afternoon we went to Whitehaven Beach. We hiked up to a beautiful lookout of the surrounding silica beaches. The tectonic plates along a volcano shift and have created these peaks and valleys which formed these islands of pure white silica beaches with crystal clear waters. The views were just amazing. While walking along the shallow waters I saw what looked like small sharks swimming around. Andrea was trying to get a good pose on the Whitsunday Beach sign but took a good spill off it, pretty funny picture. We hung out on the beaches for a while. Some of the islands have resorts that start at $400 a night. A lot of actors/actresses or probably people on there honeymoons stay in these areas. For the most part the islands are national park areas and stay undeveloped. There is an island called Long Island and has a Long Island Sound. I heard there are some great hikes along it. They seem like good places for honeymooners.

That night we celebrated Riki’s birthday, I made him a necklace and everybody signed a card for him. We met some cool people on the boat. The Irish took up about 70% of the population and kind of hung together. I met two Brazilian guys who were very nice. We had to wake up at 7am everyday so we would go to bed at reasonable times, which was good.

The following day, Sunday, we scuba dived at Langford Reef. We saw a lot more reef, some sea cucumbers and a ton of colorful tropical reef fish. It was nice diving because it was just 4 of us, including the dive instructor. If you weren’t certified you had to take the beginner dives, and they weren’t allowed to go the second day because of the strong currents in the area. If you didn’t want to dive you could snorkel for free. That morning we headed back to Arlie Beach. We hung out at the lagoon and relaxed most of the afternoon. We met up for dinner that night with people we met on the boat and celebrated Riki’s birthday again. The weather in Arlie Beach was very nice, between 70-80 F during the day. It would cool down at night probably to between 55-60 F.

On Monday we had a day of no traveling. We caught up on the Internet and went swimming in the lagoon. On Tuesday we had a 7-hour drive to Cairns. Cairns is a major hub to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. I fly out of Cairns on Wednesday morning back to Sydney because I am flying to Indonesia(Indo) for 10 days on Thursday with Benny, Morgan, and 3 of their friends. I originally was going to drive back to Sydney but ran out of time. Bali (Indo) is a big destination spot for Australians to vacation to since it is one of the closer places on the map. Once we go to Bali we are on a flight to Sumbawa, whichare two islands east of Bali. Indonesia has the best surf beaches in the world. They are mostly coral breaks and are clean, hollow, and warm. They’re suited for intermediate to advanced surfers because the reef is shallow and when you fall you can be heaved into the sharpness below. There are some sand bottomed beaches on the west coast of Bali but very crowded in the lineup. Bali’s surf beaches are become overly crowded so that’s why we plan to hop over to Sumbawa. Everything is incredibly cheap in Indo and I have heard the natives are very friendly.

On our way to Cairns we saw lots of sugar cane fields, some nice mountains that were very green from all the vegetation and trees. We have usually been driving at night so it was nice to see the country by day. I must have seen 10 dead kangaroos in my 3-hour shift of driving. There was a lot of road construction on the way, especially around Townsville. There were also a bunch of brush fires on the sides of the main road.

We got to Cairns at nighttime but I had to fly out to Sydney the next morning at 6am. Riki and Andrea both woke up to drive me to the airport; it was a very nice gesture of them. I will miss those guys but I am sure I will see them again. I left Andrea with one of my California shirts.
I will be back in Cairns when I get back from Indonesia to pick up my car. I got to Sydney and did the train to ferry to Manly. It is a very easy commute. Then I walked to Benny’s place and started prepping for the trip to Indo. I was to leave the next day.Flying within Australia is very easy and comfortable. When checking in all you have to give is your surname and they give you a boarding pass. You don’t have to show id at any point. You can bring water through security checkpoints. Security is very laid back. The lady behind me had a pocketknife in her purse and they security guy saw it go through the x-ray. He had her fill out a form for somebody to pick it up in Cairns for her.

In the afternoon we went to Whitehaven Beach. We hiked up to a beautiful lookout of the surrounding silica beaches. The tectonic plates along a volcano shift and have created these peaks and valleys which formed these islands of pure white silica beaches with crystal clear waters. The views were just amazing. While walking along the shallow waters I saw what looked like small sharks swimming around. Andrea was trying to get a good pose on the Whitsunday Beach sign but took a good spill off it, pretty funny picture. We hung out on the beaches for a while. Some of the islands have resorts that start at $400 a night. A lot of actors/actresses or probably people on there honeymoons stay in these areas. For the most part the islands are national park areas and stay undeveloped. There is an island called Long Island and has a Long Island Sound. I heard there are some great hikes along it. They seem like good places for honeymooners. That night we celebrated Riki’s birthday, I made him a necklace and everybody signed a card for him. We met some cool people on the boat. The Irish took up about 70% of the population and kind of hung together. I met two Brazilian guys who were very nice. We had to wake up at 7am everyday so we would go to bed at reasonable times, which was good.

The following day, Sunday, we scuba dived at Langford Reef. We saw a lot more reef, some sea cucumbers and a ton of colorful tropical reef fish. It was nice diving because it was just 4 of us, including the dive instructor. If you weren’t certified you had to take the beginner dives, and they weren’t allowed to go the second day because of the strong currents in the area. If you didn’t want to dive you could snorkel for free. That morning we headed back to Arlie Beach. We hung out at the lagoon and relaxed most of the afternoon. We met up for dinner that night with people we met on the boat and celebrated Riki’s birthday again. The weather in Arlie Beach was very nice, between 70-80 F during the day. It would cool down at night probably to between 55-60 F.

On Monday we had a day of no traveling. We caught up on the Internet and went swimming in the lagoon. On Tuesday we had a 7-hour drive to Cairns. Cairns is a major hub to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. I fly out of Cairns on Wednesday morning back to Sydney because I am flying to Indonesia(Indo) for 10 days on Thursday with Benny, Morgan, and 3 of their friends. I originally was going to drive back to Sydney but ran out of time. Bali (Indo) is a big destination spot for Australians to vacation to since it is one of the closer places on the map. Once we go to Bali we are on a flight to Sumbawa, whichare two islands east of Bali. Indonesia has the best surf beaches in the world. They are mostly coral breaks and are clean, hollow, and warm. They’re suited for intermediate to advanced surfers because the reef is shallow and when you fall you can be heaved into the sharpness below. There are some sand bottomed beaches on the west coast of Bali but very crowded in the lineup. Bali’s surf beaches are become overly crowded so that’s why we plan to hop over to Sumbawa. Everything is incredibly cheap in Indo and I have heard the natives are very friendly.

On our way to Cairns we saw lots of sugar cane fields, some nice mountains that were very green from all the vegetation and trees. We have usually been driving at night so it was nice to see the country by day. I must have seen 10 dead kangaroos in my 3-hour shift of driving. There was a lot of road construction on the way, especially around Townsville. There were also a bunch of brush fires on the sides of the main road.

We got to Cairns at nighttime but I had to fly out to Sydney the next morning at 6am. Riki and Andrea both woke up to drive me to the airport; it was a very nice gesture of them. I will miss those guys but I am sure I will see them again. I left Andrea with one of my California shirts.
I will be back in Cairns when I get back from Indonesia to pick up my car. I got to Sydney and did the train to ferry to Manly. It is a very easy commute. Then I walked to Benny’s place and started prepping for the trip to Indo. I was to leave the next day. Flying within Australia is very easy and comfortable. When checking in all you have to give is your surname and they give you a boarding pass. You don’t have to show id at any point. You can bring water through security checkpoints. Security is very laid back. The lady behind me had a pocketknife in her purse and they security guy saw it go through the x-ray. He had her fill out a form for somebody to pick it up in Cairns for her.

Road Trip from Sydney to Cairns - Week 2

So, I last left off in Byron Bay. We headed north towards Surfers Paradise. We stopped in Coolongata to check out one of the most famous waves in the world, Kirra or "Superbanks". It is a wave that gets hollow over and over again but is the most crowded wave as well. It was located right in the downtown area and breaks off a jetty wall. There are some more beaches south of Kirra, I posted up a map of the area and you can see Kirra on the north end of the map. The have an intense dredging operation going on the area.

It was small, windy, and not working when we got there so we took some pics and headed north. We ended up surfing at Burleigh Heads, it was a long right hand wave with a rocky bottom. Again the swell wasn't all there, but Riki and I got a few good long rights. Burleigh Heads was a nice city though, not as big as Coolongotta but looked more affordable for living.


We made it up to Surfers Paradise. I feel it is a close version of the Australian Vegas, lots of tall high-rise development, lots of lights and glimmer, adventure parks including a place like Disney World and a big water park. We didn’t go to any of these because they were $70 for the day. Surfers Paradise has the largest residential building in the world along the downtown area. The resort tower is called the Q1. It cost about $20 to go to the top, again we didn’t want to spend the money to do that, in addition it was overcast that day. Everything in Australia costs money, with the exception of the traditional hiking, surfing, skateboarding, walking, etc. The downtown area is not really a “surfer’s” paradise as the beaches are all beach breaks and they don’t offer any good surf spots in the downtown area. I would imagine that the development wiped out any previously good surf spots, which tends to happen these days in California and Mexico. Development along coastal areas often changes the way the sand is deposited naturally in the ocean, dredging alters the beach waves, and changing natural lagoons and rivers also affects the ocean bottom. However, if you head south of Surfers for about 20-30 minutes there are some of the best surf spots in Australia.

Our hostel was walking distance to the main strip with shops and restaurants. Our hostel was nice; it had 4 beds in the room and had a living room area with a kitchen for just our flat. Our one flat mate, Orce, was from Switzerland. He was really nice and we hung out with him the whole time we were there. That night I checked out the bar called Vegas, it had slot machines and a bar, nothing too special. We also went to a place called Melbas because the hostel offered us free drinks there. The next day we woke up and went for a walk in the town. The beach was right at the end of the shops but the waves were fickle. There was a walkway with shops on each side similar to the other cities. There are lots of tourist shops, real estate agents, restaurants, and bars.

That day Ricky and I took a drive south about 20 minutes to a place called Currumbin. It had a river mouth connecting to the ocean and a jetty to the north and one to the south.
The swells were small but the wave broke to the right for 100-200 yards. I got some of the longest waves I had gotten in a while. When we first got out it was Ricky and I and maybe 5 other people so everyone was getting long rides. We were taking off near the jetty to the north but you could catch the wave anywhere on the inside, but you needed to get speed to make the inside section. After a little bit school must have let out as all the punk kids started showing up and hogging the waves, that’s when we paddled south a bit and ended up getting shorter rights that were just as fun with nobody dropping in on us. But eventually people started coming where we were, but overall it was a great relaxing surf session. Then we headed back to Surfers Paradise to pick up Andrea, who was checking out the Hard Rock Café and working on his blog. He is real interested in the Hard Rock Café’s all over the world.
We headed to Brisbane at 5 pm; it’s only about 80 km’s from Surfers. I dropped Ricky off at his Cuz’s (cousin’s) place in Brisbane. Andrea and I stayed at the Base hostel (also known as the Palace Backpackers); we had a 6-bed room. The hostel was a lot bigger but had smaller rooms. Brisbane is a big city, similar to Sydney. It is about 45 minutes to the nearest surf spot though. Sydney has a few surf beaches, Bondi and Manly for instance. We hung out at our hostel that night and checked out the bar and restaurant downstairs.

The following day I wrote my blog for week 1 of my road trip and then ventured into the city. Writing the blog is hard to do on such a fast paced trip but doable if you keep up on it. I do most of the writing in the car. Finding a wireless connection to post all the photos and the actual blog is hard. Australia doesn’t have many wireless café’s, sometimes the internet café’s have wireless from anywhere from $1-$3 per 20 minutes. I haven’t been able to pick up any free unsecured wireless signals except for a few days I was staying in Wollongong. Andrea is about 7 months behind on his blog and all he does is talk about how he has to do his blog, it’s pretty funny.

Everyone took off for the day in Brisbane to get some alone time to explore the city at there own pace. I took a walk through the main part of the city in Brisbane; there was a walkway through all the shops, kind of like an outdoor mall. I stopped at a surf shop called Beach City Surf because I enjoyed the one near Manly Beach. It had four levels of clothing, surfboards, and skateboards. They had a 5-foot half pipe at the top level that was free to ride and had a video game station on the third floor with Xbox 360 to play.

I heard south bank was a nice place to check out in Brisbane so I headed there, you have to cross a bridge from the main city but it was within walking distance. There were several museums and cinemas but were all things you had to pay for. I was interested in seeing the artificial beach they constructed along the harbor.
It was beautiful; they had built several sand pools with sand around them, which were built for swimming and sun bathing. They also had grass lawns to relax on. The beach was built along the harbor but there was no swimming in the harbor, as it looked polluted. I met Andrea and Riki there and we relaxed in the sun and talked about our future adventures.

Our next stop was Noosa Heads, our hostel was in the town just south of Noosa at Sunshine Beach. Our hostel was called Dolphin Beach House. It was a quite little hostel and the town at Sunshine Beach was very small, just maybe 10 shops that close before 9pm. We watched a movie with the other hostel flatmates and got some good sleep. The next day we checked out Sunshine Beach and saw a good surf spot along the north end of the sunshine beach just south of the Noosa Heads. We only had about 2 hours before we had to leave and Andrea wanted to hike around at the headland at Noosa Heads so I decided to surf over there. We drove around to the north portion of the headland and I grabbed my board. Riki went to town and Andrea went for a hike. I saw two koalas in the trees, one was sleeping in the tree at the parking lot and one was along the trail in a tree just hanging out watching people. Typically koalas are hard to spot in the wild but in this area they are common to spot, it is a protected national park area that gets lots of tourists. I surfed at one of the points along the headland but it was windy and the waves were small. It also was the first time I was at a spot all to myself, every shadow scared me a bit, but I finally came to the conclusion that the shadows were only rocks. When someone else came out I felt more comfortable. I just got one good ride, the rest were crumbly closed out waves. It was good to keep up the arm strength and soak in some sun.
Our next destination spot would be Rainbow Beach, which is an amazing area as shown by all the photos at the travel agencies. We had to get there by 2pm that day for a meeting for our trip to Frasier Island and we would leave the next day for the island, therefore we didn’t have much time to spend in Noosa Heads and Sunshine Beach.

We ended up following Andrea’s GPS unit to Sunshine Beach and it took us on a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere. A sign had said it was an impossible road for standard vehicles if it had rained, so you could imagine what kind of road it could be. There were plenty of potholes and soft spots and we had to ride the pile most of the way, which meant we had to ride on the center of the dirt road so we wouldn’t bottom out on the engine. I was just hoping it would bring us to our hostel so we wouldn’t miss out on our trip. We only saw one car on the hour-long trip on this road. It eventually brought us to an asphalt road that took us to Rainbow Beach. It is a really undeveloped area and the headland was about 10-15 km’s south of where the town was. That area was undeveloped national park only accessible by 4-wheel drive along the beach or hiking it down the beach. The surf breaks off the north and south end of the point and breaks for minutes on the right size/direction of swell. I was going to try to get down there but the surf went flat. So we got to our hostel named Dingos and made it to our meeting. They split us into groups of 10 to 11 people and that’s who we would be splitting the 4-wheel drive Toyota truck with on our adventure to Frasier Island. Our group ended up working out fine, we had two Dutch, two Irish, two Swedish, one French, and the three of us. Let me just take the time to say there are so many Irish people in Australia, just about everyone in Ireland comes to Australia. The majority of them take 1 year to travel the world after college and come to Australia for a few months. Some just take breaks for months from there jobs. There can’t be many Irish people left in Ireland.

So the next day we got together in the morning to pack our truck. The company we booked through, Dingos, would supply us with all the food we would need; as well as tents, sleeping bags, maps, itineraries of what to do and what to eat for our meals. Dingos is ran by a guy named Merv who was very helpful and friendly. We took a 15 minute ferry over to Frasier Island and we were off on our adventure. You can also stay at Harvey Bay but it is about a 45 minute to 1-hour ferry ride to Frasier.
Frasier Island is the largest sand island in the world, the east end of the beach stretches for over 75 miles. The rainforest grows out of the sand dunes, there are many lakes, creeks, and the ocean is beautiful as well, it’s just amazing. There are lots of Dingos and Death Adders (deadly snakes that live in the sand). Dingos attack kids and killed a kid a few years back so the government has been setting up controversial fences to keep Dingos out of the campgrounds. The rangers often have to shoot and kill Dingos if they become too friendly around camps, because they often become aggressive once they get closer to humans. The fences and shootings have raised an issue because the Dingos eat the snakes. Apparently there are 150,000 deaths due to snakes a year. I found an article though that said only 38 depths have occurred in Australia in the last 23 years. I read that this one lady Frasier Island turned over in her tent and got bit between the eyes by death Adler, YIKES. I’m glad I read that after I got back.

Unfortunately once we got on the beach in Frasier Island our accelerator cable snapped so we were broken down for 2 hours. There were 8 other groups that we wanted to stay with but this put us off schedule. A mechanic came out from Merv’s mechanic shop and helped us for free, so that was nice. The road you drive on is the beach and there weren’t many laws. The speed limit was 80 km per hour (kmph) (50 miles per hour (mph)) which was very fast for a beach road because there were a lot of wash outs which are little streams leading to the ocean from the forest which often erode the sand several feet. So if you hit one going 80 kmph your going to flip. Merve set his speed limit to 60 kmph (37 mph) which still felt fast. He also said not to drive at night. I can just tell you know we probably broke every rule mentioned in the video we watched and what Merve told us; not intentionally though. The main one is not to feed the Dingos, but I will get to that one later. So our first stop was Lake McKenzie, a crystal clear lake that has pure white silica sand surrounding it.

I don’t believe there are many fish or other life in the lake due to the ph levels and lack of nutrients. I swam across the lake, which was nice and refreshing; the temperature was a bit cool, probably about 65 F. We got to the lake at about 3pm which was the time Merv had told us to leave from there. We left about 430/5ish so it was already getting dark.

We drove around looking for the campground he told us to find but eventually just found a spot somewhere because we had been driving for about 2 hours in the dark. We setup camp, had our steaks, and relaxed. The next day we had rigged up a towrope with a piece of wood and skimboarded behind the truck on the beach and into the water. It was really fun and most of the crew tried it out. Then we went and checked out a shipwreck that was right on the beach. It was a great site to look at. The ship was the S.S. Maheno and was used during World War 1 but was declared unseaworthy and was being sold to Japan for scrap metal. It was destroyed by a cyclone in 1935.
We then headed for Indian Head, which was a great lookout point on the northeastern portion of the island. We saw some big fish that looked like they could have been small sharks. The spot also gave beautiful views of the island. Then we went to the Champagne Pools which were little coves that filled up with ocean water from the waves hitting the rocks surrounding them, creating small tidal pools.


There were some fish in each pool and it was nice to look at the coral and rock. We then headed back south on the island to Eli Creek. You can wade down Eli Creek like a lazy river but it was 5pm and the water and air was cold.

I just walked down it, as it was shallower than knee high. The water was crystal clear and the surroundings were fantastic. We wanted to camp out with the other groups, which were going to be near Lake Wabby, but we couldn’t find them and again we were driving for about 2 hours in the dark (as we were told not to). We found one other group that was lost too so they camped with us. We made a chicken stir-fry and hung out around the candles I brought. You’re not allowed to make campfires on Frasier Island. I’m glad we didn’t break that rule as it is a $1,000 fine. We got to know some of the other group and played some camping games. We found some other campers as well from another touring agency and they had music, so we hung with them for a while. All our trucks came with an ipod connection so we all brought our music. I came to find out is very hard to find music everyone likes when people are from other countries. Everyone got over Andrea’s obsession with Bruce Springsteen but he would sneak it on at every chance.

The next morning we woke up to park rangers yelling at us to get out of our tents. Apparently we didn’t pack our food up properly and a pack of Dingos destroyed our camp. Riki said he saw 10 dingos and lots of crows going through our eski’s, crates of food, and rubbish bags.

The rangers weren’t too happy. They fined our group and the other one a total of $300 and made us clean up everything. We lost a lot of food but had enough scraps to throw together some breakfast and lunch. Dingos might come back to the same campsite when kids are around and look for food and if they can’t find it they might attack the kids, then the rangers have to shoot the Dingos.

That last day (Monday) in the morning we cooked up the rest of the eggs and bread that were left. Every time we ate there would be plenty of sand in the food. There were no showers, bathrooms, or faucets at most campgrounds. There were maybe a handful of small shops on the island with bathrooms, sinks, water, and the shops sold ice and some food. But we only stopped once at one of those places. By the end we probably ate a ¼ pound of sand. We cleaned dishes with the ocean water and sand.

During the morning we hiked up to Lake Wabby, which was a 2km (1.2 mi) hike through the rainforest and through big sand dunes. It felt like we were in the desert. Sand was whipping at us from the wind blowing in our walking direction. There was a great big sand dune that dropped at a steep angle towards Lake Wabby. We skimmed down the dune into the lake and enjoyed the cool water. Everyone was wiped out from the walk and from all the camping. It was nice to relax. Then we headed back to the ferry to catch the 2:30 departure ride.

Overall we all had a great time together. We taught the others how to setup tents, use the stoves, and how to work the 4-wheel drive. I did a little swimming but didn’t go to far out because the island was shark infested and there are lots of jellyfish, and worst of all is the strong rip currents. We saw jellyfish washed up on the beach that were about 1.5-2 feet in diameter. Riki did some fishing and caught a bunch of fish, he only kept one to eat. It tasted pretty good. No one encountered any snakes or spiders which was good. Everyone got along well. Sand got in everything we had; only Andrea’s camera got busted from the sand.

We got back to Rainbow Beach that afternoon and relaxed that night. We got together and pooled our photos, so now I have 10x as many photos as I probably need. We went to bed early that night but the Irish people we were staying with were loud all night. The Irish could be very obnoxious at times; they really take drinking to another level.

The following day, Tuesday, we hung out in the morning and headed to Agnes Water, the town just bordering seventeen seventy. It was about a 6-hour drive. We got up there around 7pm and we were all pretty worn out still from the trip to Frasier. The town was small and had just a few shops. Andrea and I just relaxed and got a good night sleep. Riki went out to a bar for a Ping Pong tournament. There is always something going on around the hostels but I needed sleep. We had some nice Irish people in our room that night that were quite and respectful; finally a great nights sleep.

We had a 10 hour drive ahead of us on Wednesday (July 23, 2008) to get to Arlie Beach so we had to leave first thing in the morning. But both Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy have great beaches and things to do during the day, we just didn’t have the time. It was raining all night before and that day so we didn’t feel to bad about leaving.

In Arlie Beach we are going out on a sailboat to go through the Whitsunday's, along the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. This is one of the most amazing places in the world. I'm glad to say Andrea, Riki, and I are getting along great and everyone is amazed about our story of how we met. Well stay tuned for some amazing photos of the Whitsundays!