Visitor: Cousin Charlie

Welcome to Australia

We recently had the good fortune of having Cousin Charlie come for a short visit while on his way through to a research project down in Tasmania.  I picked him and his kayak up from the airport and we wasted no time.

By the way, you know you are in for an adventure when someone brings their own KAYAK with them.

Can this count as my carry on?

We came home and went straight our for a spear up at Long Reef.  Conditions were good with about 15 meters of visibility and after some fumbling with the gear we managed to spear a nice Morowong for the lunch table.  It was tasty.

Mmmmm....lunch

After lunch it was straight down to Freshwater Beach for a surf lesson.  We did some practice pop-ups on the sand and then jumped into the water which was a beautiful spring temperature.

Charlie proved a natural and managed to get up and ride several waves.  We took turns with the board and bodysurfing.  What a way to spend a day.

Ready to rock it 

Pro style

We finished off Charlie's first day in Australia with a beachside sunset followed by bonfire on the balcony and some BBQ lamb.  Jet lag cowered in fear in the shadows.

First day sunset panoramic

We woke up on Saturday to what seemed like a summer day with a light breeze blowing through.  We loaded up the boat in the car and drove down to Little Manly Beach to launch.  We also managed to see a poor guy trying to turn his trailer around and hitting everything in sight.  Charlie was greatly amused at the trailer fail.

Middle Harbour seclusion

We did a cruise up Middle Harbour to some secluded spots and pulled up on an unnamed deserted beach for lunch, watching the lizards scamper and the birds flit around.

We managed to catch lots of small fish, all of which were tossed back to grow into a suitable eating size.

That evening we took a stroll around Manly and ended up on a beachfront balcony enjoying a couple of Ciders and watching the waves and Saturday evening crowd pass by.

Charlie was due to fly out on Sunday but we were determined to squeeze in a little more.  We woke up and had a quick breakfast and then straight back to the beach for some more surfing.  This time, with Charlie knowing the ropes we brought down 2 boards and rode the waves together.  Amy accompanied us down and managed some photos.

Checking out the waves

It was great to see Charlie and we look forward to adventuring with him again down in Tasmania or back here is Sydney.  Safe travels, cousin!

Here we go

Birds! 

Negotiations have broken down

Team wave!!!! 

Emerging victorious

Good times

Freshie beach, calling to Charlie

John's B Day weekend in Seal Rocks

Just us and the waves out here

I recently spent a weekend up the coast a couple hours in Seal Rocks to celebrate a friend's birthday.  It was a lovely weekend with warm weather, beautiful scenery, and decent waves.

It being mid winter we opted to stay in a holiday home rather than camp out.  It had a wood stove AND a trampoline, both of which which we used liberally.

Hanging out by the fire

Carnage

A mixture of beer, wine, and bourbon which was cited as "not as bad as you think"

Also due to it being the off season the area was mostly deserted.  This lead to vacant beaches and lots of solitude.

We spotted dolphins and whales both days while down at the beaches.  One of the times the dolphins put on a surfing display in the exact location where we had bee ourselves surfing only minutes earlier.  They were certainly the superior wave riders.

Fisher,man's beach all by its lonesome

John got a sweet longboard for his b-day and put it to heavy use.  We went out surfing both days at at times were the only people visible both in the water and out.

Treachery Beach, sans people

Ian contemplating the madness of it all

The boys after a surf

I am having a terrible time here

Saturday evening rapidly devolved (or evolved perhaps?) into debauchery when someone - not me this time, i swear - had the idea to play beer pong.  Lacking ping pong balls we made due with some trivial pursuit dice scavenged from a games cabinet.

I am happy to say that I teamed up with my American brethren, Trent to dominate all comers.

It went in.  You know this.

The ecstasy of victory....

....And the agony of defeat

 Andy was also very excited to test out his relatively new 4WD, getting bogged to the point that he needed to be pulled out only once.  Luckily a kind strange in an equally huge vehicle came along right as the mosquitos started coming out and sun was setting.  Simon was smart enough to take some photos of the event before hitchhiking back to the house to form a rescue team.

Yeah.....looks pretty stuck

Never too early to start the discussion of "who should we eat first"

It was a great weekend and summer teased us by letting out some warm weather and water.  Can't wait for the real deal in a couple months.   

Pebbly Beach 2013

Over the long weekend for the Queen's Birthday (have to love that we get a long weeked to celebrate the Queen's birthday that isn't even on the Queen's actual birthday - long live the Queen!) we took advantage of the extra day off to get out of town.  After hearing from a lot of people that Pebbly Beach was amazing, we thought this was a good opportunity to check it out.

View from Sublime point over Wollongong

Pebbly Beach is about four hours south of Sydney and is a pretty beautiful drive down the coast. 

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A few of us drove down on Friday to start the weekend early and were treated to a cabin up on a small cliff right above the ocean.  There's no better way to sleep than to the sounds of the waves crashing right outside.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny with a high around 18C (mid-60's F), not too bad for the first weekend in winter, and Chris and Gerrie went down to the beach to get started on their weekend- long assualt on the local fish.

Lesley and I wandered down an hour or so later with breakfast to keep them going and were treated to an empty beach with only Chris and Gerrie down there. 

After a few hours of regular fishing, with at least one flathead in the bag for dinner the boys decided that they weren't getting up close and personal enough with the fish and decided to trade the fishing rods for spear guns.

This happened to be Gerrie's first spearfishing attempt, and if you can't tell from the picture above, he was quite pleased to be wielding a spear gun.

I'm happy to report that after over 3 years of attempts, a new spear gun and specialist wetsuit purchase, and lots of hard work, there was success! 

While they were out spearing the rest of the group arrived to join us relaxing on the beach and we were treated to an amazing show - two dolphins were actually surfing the waves!  I only got them on camera from far away, but they are towards the left edge of that back wave.  This was something that I'd only seen on TV prior to this and I was very excited to see them. 

 

 

You might think that after spending almost all of the daylight hours fishing, and with a fishing charter on the books for Sunday morning they might be tired of fishing, but the adventure continued as the sun went down.

 



The streak of sucess continued with additional fish being pulled in and we all started looking forward to a dinner of fresh caught fish.

We were treated to a great sunset on the beach and then packed up to spend some time around the campfire.

Sunday morning the boys dragged themselves out of bed waaaay before daylight to jump on a fishing charter while the girls wisely slept in and had a relaxing morning.   

One of the most amazing things about Pebbly Beach is just how much wildlife is around.  There were King Parrots and cockatoos flying around everywhere and more kangaroos than you could count.

The kangaroos in particular were quite happy to get up close and personal (some bread or other food might also have helped). 

Sunday was passed in relaxation on the beach, followed by the boys returning with their catch of the day.  We started up our bonfire to bbq the fish and enjoyed the evening by the campfire.  As always, s'mores were enjoyed, and also supplemented by some amazing chocolate stuffed bananas on the fire which will definitely need to be made again.

After a perfect weekend of weather, Monday turned out to be overcast and rainy, great weather to be ready to pack up and head home. 



Parental Visitors: Felix and Fran

Chris with Mom and Dad at the Swans game

We were recently lucky enough to have some visitors from home come and stay for a couple weeks.  Felix and Fran braved the lengthy flight and landed in good spirits in Sydney.  We granted them a grace period of a half a day to rest and then it was off to the races, cramming in as much fun and sightseeing as possible for the rest of the trip.

We ventured up to the Hunter Valley for some wine tasting first where we stayed at a vineyard overnight and sampled many wines and ate delicious food.  We went next to Port Stevens where we took in the bay and stayed at a bed and breakfast in the Soldiers Point area:

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In Port Stevens we saw a beautiful sunset at the aptly named Sunset Beach as well as spotted our first koala in a tree there.

We had Easter Weekend in Sydney where we drove up to Pittwater and took a walk around Long Reef to view the coast.

Keeping up with Mom and Dad is tiring

Felix and I also took the opportunity to go out on a fishing charter targeting kingfish.  Victory and dinner were had.

Felix with his first king!

The following week we ventured down to Jervis Bay to hang out with the kangaroos and hike around the beautiful Booderee National Park:


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We saw lots of birds and roo's and took in the spectacular view of the coast:

That camera looks tasty

Or maybe I'll eat this guy, surround him while he is distracted

Looking North up the coast

On walkabout

It was a great trip for everyone and we got to share the big news about the baby on the way to the new grandparents!  Plans for spoiling the child are well underway.  We look forward to a return visit to continue our adventures!