It's been a good week

The first autumn swell has hit and the waves have been massive this week. Good enough that 10X world champion surfer Kelly Slater was in the area earlier in the week. We managed to go bodysurfing 2 days after work and had some great rides both times. On top of that, Amy's parents arrived on Thursday and brought many gifts from America with them, including a new camera from Chris' mom and dad.

The above picture was taken with the new camera on Friday evening before going out for dinner and drinks as the sun was setting. The double rainbow was actually so big that I could not get it in a single frame. I took several photos and put them together with Photostitch.

We are off tomorrow for boating and fishing with the Legrands and then if the weather holds out, some hiking on Sunday.

Summer Camping: Seal Rocks

Summertime in Australia has been Bea-u-ti-ful and we have been taking advantage of the great outdoors this summer. Amy and I took a camping trip up to Seal Rocks, about 3 hours North of Sydney to try out the fishing there.


View Larger Map

We stayed at Treachery Beach, a great location and awesome campground. The beach itself is an incredible sight. From the campground, you hike over a 6 story sand dune and at the crest, the whole horizon is taken up by huge, perfect waves, broad, pristine beach, and massive cliffs.

Treachery Beach, deserted and beautiful.

It is a wild, ocean beach in every sense.


We hiked up and down it, watching incredible displays of surfing prowess and even saw for the first time in person, people tow-in surfing. This is a technique used to catch large waves using a boat or jet-ski to get the surfer up to speed and in the perfect spot for the wave.

Sweet wave

Tow-in!!!!

The next day, we ventured over to Seal Rocks to try fishing off of the cliffs. This was not meant to be. We had brought the rubber boat and motor and planned to troll around. The waves didnt look big from shore but once on the water it quickly became apparent that if we continued, we would capsize or simply sink the boat. Not far from shore, we got turned sideways and were thrown out of the boat. Sunglasses were lost, and someone got fishooked during the forced evacuation.

It was not one of our prouder moments and no, there are no pictures of it.

We settled for taking the boat to a lake in the area and napped/fished in more placid conditions.


View Larger Map
Bluey's Beach

On our last day, we stopped on the way home at Bluey's Beach. This was a locals beach in an area that is not very populated. We were once again treated to some impressive surfing and beautiful waves breaking off of the point nearest to us.

Ejected out of the barrel, so cruel

On the other hand, this guy is absolutely killing it. Win.

Treachery was a great place to spend some time and we look to go back there when we can have some calmer conditions to avenge ourselves.

Interested in camping or survival?  Come check out The Bug Out Bag Guide.

Wedding Gift: Deep Sea Fishing

We recently took a deep sea fishing trip to Brown's Mountain, a sea mount about 45 kilometers off of Sydney courtesy of our friends Ray and Jenn.

They gave us an awesome wedding present via Adrenaline, a company that offers experience from cooking classes to skydiving in Australia.

Thanks guys, you rock!!!

We managed to catch a shark, pictured above and saw a bunch of dolphins jumping around and infront of the boat. We were close enough to them that we could hear them squeaking to each other in the water.

The shark we marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and vodka and barbecued up for our friends. It was mmmmmmmm.


Sweet, thanks guys.