Birthday Camping at Cave Beach

Welcome to Cave Beach

To celebrate Amy's and My birthdays, we ventured down to Jervis Bay where we explored Cave Beach Campground and the surrounding beautiful, deserted beaches.

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Amy and I set out early Friday with the rest of our party arriving Friday evening with a fire going and a Tyrannosaurs birthday cake waiting to be devoured.  The cake had to be defended from the kangaroos and possums roaming the campground but once it was made extinct we laid back and enjoyed the fire.  Smores soon followed.

Dino cake RAWRRRRRR!!!

Panoramic view of Cave Beach, click to expand

The Cave of Cave Beach

Saturday we woke up to sunshine and juevos rancheros a la Amy.  We took the short walk to Cave beach to enjoy the sunshine and waves.  The sun played hide and seek with us till early afternoon when it turned on full sunburn-inducing overdrive.

A well deserved break after bodysurfing

Cave Beach again

James relaxing as hard as he can

The waves were halfway decent and our mate John spent the whole day in the water on his surfboard, taking breaks here and there to have a beer or sandwich with us on the beach.  At times, he was literally the only person surfing on the beach.  A far cry from the relatively busy breaks of Manly.  Amy also tried out her new bodyboard and she was smiles from ear to ear.

Ahhhh....summer

Amy in a wave

That evening we settled in for a barbecue by way of Jeroen and Ramonda as well as having Simone join us with food reinforcements.  Kangaroos were everywhere in the afternoon and some came right up to check us out.

A curious kangaroo

Chris performing a mind-meld

MMMM.....bbq

On Sunday, Chris and Delia took a walk with their 3 month old (baby's 1st camping trip) and discovered a brand new beach, totally deserted.  After some chocolate-chip banana pancakes, we ventured out to it to find it sparsely populated with people but densely packed with beautiful waves.  We proceeded to play in the water till exhaustion and sunburn set in and then packed up for the trip home.

Amy bushwacking to a new beach

Worth the walk

Momma Roo with a Joey in the pouch

All by ourselves

I call this side of the beach!

Ryan's Swamp, near the campground

 We are greatly looking forward to going back in a couple weeks as part of the whirlwind tour when Oakley and Amy come out to visit!

Summer Camping 2: Port Stephens

One Mile Beach. Beautiful.

Towards the end of summer, we decided to have another go at fishing up in the Port Stephens/Seal Rocks area after our last failed attempt. We ventured up on a Friday evening with James and Debs not far behind. The race was on.

We camped at the amazing One Mile Beach Holiday park:

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Like our last camp ground at Treachery, this had its own beach. Unlike the last camp ground, you could go into the water without worrying about being dragged out to sea.

We made the most of this, bodysurfing and swimming for hours both days. The waves were perfect, medium sized but powerful and cleanly breaking. I actually rode across the face of a wave for a short period in a barrel for the first time, this was sublime.

On saturday, after a breakfast of chocolate-bannana pancakes and bodysurfing, we ventured out on a fishing charter via Pacific Blue Charters out of Port Stevens.

Amy, fishing for all womankind

This was a large boat with a knowledgable crew of typical chauvanistic Aussie blokes running the operation. The general attitude was that we were lucky to have the opportunity for them to share their boat with us.

Once we got out to the fishing site, we got geared up. Apparently they couldn't tell Debs and Amy apart either, as they continually called both of them, "doll". Goodonya, mate.

Amy defied them by catching more fish than the other 8 people on the boat combined for a total of 6 teraglin, 1 rock cod, and 1 flathead. James, Debs, and I caught 3 other fish over the course of the day.

The teraglin was something new to us, we had never seen these fish before. They fought most similarly to jewfish, which we catch regularly in Sydney.

At one point, the crew shouted out to the rest of the boat, "whose girlfriend is that in the back corner, I bet you're not bringing her fishing again". The doll they were talking abiut was Amy.

Response, "Are you kidding, if she keeps catching fish, I am going to bring her every time!"

What victory looks like

Anyways, with more fish than we could possibly eat, we ended up giving most of it away to the hapless charter-ees that were significantly less successful than our troupe.

We ended up cooling some with dill and lemon and the rest in a curry sauce. Mmmmmmm good.

Overall, it was a great trip. The campsite was nice and had a great beach and the fishing was leagues more successful than our previous abortive attempt. We left happy and stopped for ice cream on the way home, the perfect conclusion to any trip.

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.

A Wet and English Xmas

We celebrated the recent Xmas holiday in style with our friends from around the world. Xmas day festivities were hosted by and English couple, Kat and Webs so we got to experience their traditions as an exciting novelty.

But first off, we started the day with driving up to the marina and taking our boat out for some Xmas morning skiing. Amy was akin to a kid waiting to open a present she has been asking for her whole life on the drive up, repeating over and over, "I can't believe we are going to ski on Christmas!!!!!!"

We got to the boat and the first thing we noticed was that we were the only people on the water. Apparently, everyone else in Australia decided to waste their time with family on this perfect opportunity to hit the water. We wasted no time.



After the ski, Amy and I sped home and grabbed the surf boards, determined to catch a wave before the Xmas festivities began. The beach was packed and the waves were pumping but we managed to catch a few in before rushing back home to finish cooking and change.


We brought our home made biscotti and store bought beer to Kat and Webs' and immediately began enjoying their delicious food. The Xmas meal started off with an English tradition of "Christmas Crackers" These are small, hand held firecrackers that you pull apart to make a bang and to get at the toys and party hats inside. The party hats were soon donned by all those in attendance and toys played with. Mine was a terrible fake mustache. It hurt to wear it.

Dumping snow on Amy, to make her feel, "at home"

In between courses we all opened our Secret Santa presents. Santa apparently does know how to get to Australia. We followed up dinner with our whole party heading down to the beach for a swim and bodysurf, completing our trifecta of watersports for the day. Amy broke out a can of fake snow that was subsequently made into snowballs and throw at eachother.

It was a great day, filled with lots of fun in the sun and fantastic food. A warm and wet Xmas is the way to go.

Next big thing: Beachball Jousting

Shred it, sister.

We lucked out again this past weekend with beautiful weather and made the most out of it with lots of fun stuff packed in.

We kicked things off with the Volcom Surfing Competition down the beach. It was a youth competition and the kids were running all over the place. The waves and weather weren't exactly cooperating on Friday but things picked up for the finals on Saturday.

To the victor go the spoils...

There was a bit of a carvival atmosphere (no carnies though) with lots of families and kids running all over the place. Volcom, the hosting sponsor had games set up and was giving away swag all day. The games were creative, to say the least. They included a pineapple chucking contest and some kind of extreme mini golf. All of this was going on while the contest was underway so if the competition got boring, the announces would stoke up the crowd with the games, etc. The best however was being played by a large group of kids and this actually had a more people cheering than the surfers did.

Gilligan's Island on the left was really jealous

Bombs away

The kids had gotten their hands on some large beach balls that were either part of the scenery or were given away and were taking turns sprinting at eachother and crashing, like the knightly jousters of yore. Words are inadequate to explain the hilarity that ensued:

On top of all this fun, we squeezed in some time for a surf of our own, followed by a body surf and then wrapped up with a barbecue which we hosted. Lamb, salmon, and many, many beers were enjoyed by all. This was topped off by a delicious homemade tiramisu, courtesy of Delia.

We also celebrated our mate Ian's birthday at the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel in Sydney, an event which was so much fun as to make the next day bright, loud, and painful for all those involved. Happy birthday, mate.

Sunday's sunset

Saturday: Best. Day. Ever.

Awesome sunset from our balcony to end an awesome day

Saturday has a special place in the hearts and minds of the working - or recently working *cough* stiffs of the world. After 5 days of toiling, finally you don't HAVE to get up early and trudge to work with all of the other worker bees (even though the queen is their slave).

Despite this widely accepted concept of sleeping in, Amy dragged me out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8AM for a morning surf. It turned out to be sublime. Nice waves, uncrowded surf and the sun peeking through the few clouds in the morning sky. This was followed by a quick breakfast and then a call from James saying that Ian and him were ready for a surf. I ventured out again for a few rides with the boys.

Exhausted from the exertion, I took a quick nap and upon waking saw that the tide was perfect for....spearfishing! Amy and I suited up and went out for a swim. The results will not be discussed here but it will suffice to say that a trip to the store would be required if we were going to eat fish that night.

The view from the water while spearing

After exiting the water, we noticed a good amount of people bodysurfing at our end of the beach. We decided to show them how it was done. We dropped off our gear and dove in, catching some nice, long waves in as the sun was setting.

We capped off this perfect day with some Thai food, that included seafood curry served in a coconut and bad movies on the TV in the restaurant and then met up with Dan and Mel at a pub to watch the rugby game over drinks.

So, in closing, we pack the following into Saturday:

1. Surfing
2. More surfing
3. Nap
4. Spearfishing
5. Bodysurfing
6. Great food
7. Drinks
   

Best. Day. Ever.

Weekend Trip to Nelson's Bay

This past weekend we had the good fortune to take a trip with some lovely people we have met down here by the names of Kathryn, Paul, Debbie, and James to the idyllic Nelson's Bay.

We camped 2 nights and spent 2 fantastic days playing in the gorgeous sunshine on the pristine beaches there.

Due to the generosity of Chris' Mom and Dad, we have a shiny new camera and waterproof case to document our adventures. This came in handy when trying to bodysurf (waves weren't right for normal surfing) as we could bring the viewer right into the water with us.

Pictures:
Chris catching a wave


View down the beach

Totally deserted beach, day 2



James and Paul catching a wave



videos:

Random clips of james, paul, amy, and chris bodysurfing/getting pounded


Chris attempts to capture the magic of bodysurfing while holding the camera in the waves


All in all it was a great trip. After recovering from the days at the beach, we would retire to the campground for a bbq feast and well earned beers. Good work team!