North

Nick's birthday turned out to be a great day! We had a surf in the morning at back beach, the waves were small by Nick's standards but perfect for me, I got some of the longest and best waverides of my life! I even turned down the line a bit on one wave. Then we went to the Camel Bar for a chilled out afternoon playing poolwith Matt. In the late afternoon a guy started playing live music on his accoustic guitar, he started with Neil Young so he immediately caught our attention and we went to support him. He was really good and went on to play pretty much all our favourite tunes. Bob Dylan, Credence, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, pretty much anything we requested. After that a couple who had also been supporting him invited us back to their place for a few more drinks. They knew the musician too, so we ended up having a drink with them in their garden. Strangely it poured down with rain for a while and one of their patio lights exploded. They had a talking parrot too. As we left they invited us to come to their house on Christmas Day for a big party, which was very nice of them, but our plans were to be in Perth.

The following week went something like this: We headed North on Monday, checked out Kalbarri, which was a pleasant little town with an impressive coastline on its doorstep. We went to the National Park and saw 'Natures Window', a famous rock formation in the shape of a window which frames the river below and is quite impressive. Then we headed on up North to Hamelin's Pool, just off the highway towards Monkey Mia. We camped there for the night and as we were sitting outside our tent in the dark we saw quite a few kangaroos venture out into the campsite from the bush. It was quite incredible to watch them hopping about and also relaxing and eating grass. Usually when you see them they are hopping away in the opposite direction.

The next morning we checked out these Stromalotites, weird living rocks that live in the sea. They're millions of years old and have been almost wiped out by competition from more complex lifeforms. But millions of years ago they caused the oxygen levels on Earth to rise by about 20%, making oxygen breathing life possible, so without them its likely we wouldn't exist. They weren't particularly pretty or amazing to look at, but still, they're rare and have a huge history. After that we drove up the peninsular to Monkey Mia, where you can get very close to dolphins at certain feeding times. We were too late to see them and were quite unimpressed with Monkey Mia, it seemed like a real tourist trap without much going for it except the dolphins. We decided to drive into Francois Peron National Park, on the tip of the peninsular out into Shark Bay. We had to drive along some pretty hardcore 4x4 tracks which was great fun and when we got to the lookout right on the point we saw rays, turtles and some big fish that might possibly have been small reef sharks. The view was incredible, but unfortunately we didn't see any tiger sharks, which is what w had been hoping for. We were still really glad we made the effort to go up there, it was much better than Monkey Mia.

We headed back down the peninsular to the highway, then pressed on Northwards. We made it all the way past Carnarvon and turned down the unsealed roads towards Gnaraloo. We camped at the Quobba homestead overnight then went to see the Quobba blowholes the next morning. The swell and tide wasn't perfect for them, but they were still working and were very impressive. Then we drove along the rough 4x4 track all the way to Gnaraloo. We checked into the campsite there, our pitch was great, fairly secluded with its own little driveway and fire pit. At last we would get to have a campfire! So many places have banned them! We went to Tombstones, the surfbreak there and watched some guys windsurfing out in the waves. We decided to save our energy for the next day. We lit our campfire and ate some Stag chilli and pasta. It was great sitting next to the campfire all evening. We turned in early ready for some hardcore windsurfing the next day!

The swell wasn't particularly big but the wind was very strong, so the break at Gnaraloo wasn't quite what we expected. The waves were relatively small and it was quite choppy between them. It was also very gusty. I was overpowered on a 5.2 so it was difficult to go for any down the line rides too. I concentrated on jumping and aerial gybes. It was quite fun and its nice to be able to say I've sailed Tombstones at Gnaraloo. I managed to put a small ding in the nose of my board doing an upwind 360 by the beach. Theres reef everywhere and I just caught the nose as I was coming out of the manouvre. We decided, as it would be a bad idea to use the board again without getting a proper repair, to head back south the next day. That night we had another campfire and toasted marshmallows!

The next day we drove all the way back to Geraldton, stayed in the campsite there again, and then after getting a few things sorted in the morning and trying to surf at back beach again (it was blown out unfortunately) we headed South again to Cervantes, where we checked into a campsite and went to see the Pinnacles, a field of standing rocks which is a big tourist attraction and is very impressive to see. I saw them last time I was in Australia and it was great to see them again. The next day we drove the rest of the way to Perth, checked back into the OBH backpackers and then went to the Christmas Sunday Session!

Now its Christmas Eve, in the morning, and I'm trying to feel Christmassy. But its over 30 degrees and the sky is blue, so its hard to get into the spirit of it!