A few weeks into the winter of 1997 I started getting itchy feet. I'd been getting up early for a vine pruning job at one of the many local vineyards & was missing a backpacker chick I was having a great time with over spring, but had moved on to explore other parts of our great country. I'd lived in Margs for a few years & I guess her letters telling me about the great time she was having over East was pretty much what triggered the thoughts of hitting the road. I asked a mate I was working with if he was interested & we left 4 days later which was easy coz we were both just renting caravans. I took some pics & kept a bit of a diary & so I switch over to excerpts of it
Well finally got round to writing something. Its been about 3/12 weeks since we left Margs, so I'll just backtrack a bit.
Said goodbye to our friends in Margs & then headed to Perth to do the same with family & friends up there. Gave the car a tune up, grabbed some stuff & it was off to Kattanning to cash up. I lived in Kattanning for a few years earlier after I farked my knee. I got sick of hearing how great the surf had been that day. So I took up the guitar, heavy drinking & worked at an abattoir there until I felt like I might be able to surf again without my leg buckling. Well away from anyone who might get waves that day & feel like telling me about it...But anyway, it was a good place to return to cash up quickly & we needed cash.
We were in Kattanning for a week & it was a long one. Within a couple of days I had my car broken into & my wallet stolen. Not much cash in there but it left me in a pissed off mood for the rest of our time there. "Kattanning" is aboriginal for "devils playground" & its fitting enough.
Went on a nice drive with Shaylee to Cheyne's beach. Cable made a handline with some line he found, but didn't get nothing...went & watched, Men in Black which was pretty cool...drank a ton of beer with Cables old man & pretty much ready for the big drive now, did the goodbyes & bailed.
Drove until about 7pm to Norseman at a cost of about $90...about 70 km before we got there we were trying to pass a couple of cars. This landy was pulling forward alongside a new Commodore sedan & then pulling back in behind, really fricken annoying. After about 3 times they pulled up alongside, hands come out of both cars & a guy in the landy is trying to pass a beer to the lady driving the Commodore. Suddenly they hit a bump or something & the landy smashed into the side of the Commodore. Luckily the arms whipped in pretty fast & weren't lost. But the Commodore had a perfect impression of the rollcage from the landy indented into the side. car didn't look good & neither did the lady driving when we finally got a chance to overtake.
The next day we drove from Norseman to 110 km past Bordertown & camped on the Great Australian Bight which was awesome. The trip took about 9hrs at a cost of about $140. The next day we woke up just before light. The morning was really foggy, you couldn't see more than about 20 m in front of you. We came up a slight hill which put the dawn sun in my eyes & the damn windscreen seemed to simultaneously fog up instantly & I couldn't see anything while I was driving ***per hour. had to stick my head out the side of the window to see while I slowed down & then told myself I was an idiot coz I only had to put the wipers on
But anyway, after about 3 hrs driving we were at our destination, grabbed some supplies & headed down the track to what turned out to be 3 weeks of surfing & partying with people from all over Oz & a few from over seas.
OK blah-blah-blah...I see I got a red thumb there & I can't really be farked typing all this out lol...from here on we basically took about 11 weeks to get to Apollo Bay in Victoria & surfed a lot of places SE of Adelaide & West of Apollo Bay
Unfortunately this was only a few years before everyone was getting digital cameras, so I've only got about 30 printed photo's of the whole trip & only one of the many barrels I had was captured.
If you recognise any of the places, please don't mention them by name...they aren't secret spots, but people get stroppy about it...cheers
you could probably call this a blog always fascinating to read someone else's surf trip if you are sick of typing you should be able to scan it and just post it as an image or convert it to text nice work!
Cheers guys, glad you enjoyed it...works exhausted my typing energy for time being...& currently investing my creative energy into editing video from Bali & Japan...I'll share on facebook if your interested
MickPC said... Cheers guys, glad you enjoyed it...works exhausted my typing energy for time being...& currently investing my creative energy into editing video from Bali & Japan...I'll share on facebook if your interested
were you working today Mick???? we got some surprise goooood waves pity about the holiday "crowds" lobbing up
Wasn't working...went crabbing with the missus & didn't realize there were waves until we had lunch down the beach later. But I got a few uncrowded waves in the arvo & this morning
pity about the holiday "crowds" lobbing up 
