The Final Chapter, Australia

Wow I have been busy since I have been back trying to find a job and doing van work ready for our Irish and Euro road trip! So we now have shiny blue van shelves and a swivel seat, a few more additions to come soon too, and a photo when its finished! I have also found myself a job for 3 weeks, in a food tasting place! I deliver lots of samples round so people can compare them, everything from ready meals to steak! I never realised you could get paid as a taster!

So Australia, what a trip!

After Esperance we made the long drive back to Geraldton for 3 days forecast. Unfortunately the waves weren't quite as good as expected, but I got 3 days sailing in before the end of the trip, and luckily two water shoots from Col Leonhardt! I have never done a proper water shoot so it was really fun to keep trying moves right next to Col with whatever wind and waves happened to be there. It was really tricky, especially the second day when I was underpowered, but fun with Ben and Justyna also being photographed. Here are the results, thanks Col!

After that, to top off our trip, Col arranged for us to have ANOTHER heli ride over Perth, we felt so privileged! It was amazing and such a great end to our trip, hopefully the photos do it some justice!

We came home last Wednesday after a lot of hassle with the flights. It turned out that Stef got banned from his own flight as Qatar found out about his injury through the travel insurance trying to upgrade him, and then he didn't have their approved 'fit to fly' documents. A long story short, we couldn't fly with the re-arranged Air Malaysia flight due to our kit, the travel insurance wouldn't pay for Emirates, so we ended up sneaking on to our original booked flight in economy, Stef being very sad to give up the offer of business due to our kit! He pulled off a very good walk! Ha ha!

A few facts about our trip:

We drove around 7000km, that's about 70 hours with an average of 100km/h. Here are the main places:

We spent about £650 on fuel for 6 weeks, not bad for the amount of driving! Good job fuel was cheap...

We stayed in 4 different campsites, for about 6-7 nights total. The rest we stayed in lay-bys, carparks, rest areas etc. We got to know the bush well!

I windsurfed at Lancelin, Sunsets (in Geraldton), Coronation and Margaret River and Boatramps. Unfortunately Gnarloo and Esperance didn't work while I was there.

Meals on our 1 hob cooker was pasta and sauce or eggs on bread, pretty budget and simple! I was looking forward to the aeroplane food on the way home!

I saw scorpions, massive ants, bees and wasps. Nothing else dangerous at all, no sharks or jelly fish!

I would love to return to Australia, if not just to see Esperance in the sun and sail there, and also score Gnaraloo. Coronation was probably one of the most fun places I have sailed when there are waves, it is an un-punishing playground of ramps upon ramps to launch off and ride and the best place I have ever sailed to improve my jumping. I was surprised how weak the waves were at Lancelin and Coronation, in that they were pretty crumbly, so I didn't get a whole lot of really good riding in Australia compared to Chile. (But I went to improve my jumping mainly anyway). Margaret River was better but the way the wave breaks wasn't my favorite kind of riding. I think Esperance and Gnaraloo would have been fun if they had worked, hence wanting to go back, especially when Stef can sail too! I was also amazed how spread out the windsurfing was and how much you would have to drive to find wave spots if you worked in Perth. A 10 hour round trip isn't uncommon for a weekend during working!

I have 3 weeks now to work as much as possible before Maui on the 18th March. Lots of 12 hour shifts...