The Gibb and Beyond.

Why Hello there.

We are in Darwin, and its bloody hot!

Yep so we survived the Kimberlies, the Hilux survived the Gibb and we have survived our first few nights with Uncle Pete. Just. (lets just say it has been a wee bit hazy).
The Kimberlies were absolutely incredible; we spent every day in beautiful Gorges, swimming and exploring. Ill let the photos do the talking, they really don’t do justice to how amazing the place is but they do a better job than me.

Darwin is a nice city, if you can call it a city. We will be here for another week or so and then roll on down and across to Qld.
Don’t hold you breath for another blog, after Darwin there isn’t a whole lot of interesting places so I guess you will here from me when you hear from me.

Take care.

Finally more blog.

Howdy! Well this is what I wrote while I was in Broome but it never made it onto le internet. Enjoy!

Gday people.
I’m in Broome! Been here for about a week now and it is seriously a great place. Only a short blog as we are about to venture into the Kimberly’s via the Gibb River Road.
So where were we? Gnaraloo? Yeah heaven on earth, from there I ventured to Exmouth to pick Isaac up. Last time I saw him he was clean-shaven, inkless with gingerish hair, it was a funny sight to see a dreadlocked, blonde and tattooed dude complete with a red beard waltz off the little Quanta’s jet. And so began another chapter in my trip, we headed down to Coral Bay to enjoy the scenery, do a bit of snorkelling and settle Isaac in.

From there we headed to a station just south of the Bay, we spent a week there spearfishing, swimming and relaxing. The surf there was pumping basically the whole week but the long paddle to the reefs was a bit too adventurous for some and the sharks we watched cruising the channel looked a bit on the large side.

After a week of spearfishing and filling the fridge with parrot and emps the call was made to head to Gnaraloo to ease the surf cravings. When we rolled into to tombies car park it was absolutely firing, a bit on the big side especially for Isaacs first crack at the hollow left reef break so we settled for beers and spectating. 

We had a few good surfs at a few places around Gnaraloo, a very memorable one at a right hander called turtles where we both had our fair share of empty 4 footers as well and whaling’s on the urchin packed coral reef. We thought we had some work lined up at the station but that fell through so we had to head north before our funds disappeared.

That lead us through Dampier, Karratha, Port Hedland, 80 mile beach and finally to Broome.

Broome has treated us well, our time here has included watching the famous staircase to the moon, ‘surfing’ the surfless cable beach, swimming in crocodile inhabited waters, catching a few mangrove jack and having a bit of a raging session at ‘The Divers’ which I wont say much other then brandy, goon, Champaign, beer and cigars do not mix well and can lead to memory loss and a killer headache.
And that’s a wrap!
You will hear from me again when I’m in Darwin in about 3 weeks.
Hope the world is well.

Catchya Cats

Heaven

By the beard of Zeus I have found an oasis in the desert.

Moon setting and the bombie starting to throw

Gday gang, no I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, I have been residing in Gnaraloo, fishing, diving, snorkling and of course surfing my days away.

This place is absolutely insane, completely hostile baron land that meets a turquoise ocean teaming with life from fish and sharks to stunning reef and tasty crayfish. Peeling waves suck over dry reef either giving you the best tube of your life or scars to remind you of the ones you didn’t make.

This has to be my favourite place I have been to on my trip so far. My description and photos do not do this place justice, the only thing I can say is get over here if you are remotely interested in catching big fish and world class waves.

So anyway, I got stuck in Carnarvon, for around a week… fuel primer pump broke on the mighty lux, had to wait for a new one to get sent from Perth. Once it arrived and I installed it I was warned about a very large storm engulfing Exmouth south to Denham. I bunkered down amongst the banana palms and wild goats and waited out the storm. I punched up to the blowholes as soon as the storm subsided and was greeted with huge seas and more gale force winds.

I woke the next morning to an offshore breeze and clear skys. I barrelled the lux down the winding dirt tracks, through deep mud, raging water and popped out overlooking Red Bluff, and wow! What a sight! A huge headland jutting out into deep water, I could spot surf of the tip and a tiny dot ripping the face to shreds.

I checked in at the wicked little reception and was told to camp wherever I wanted. Hell Yeah! I parked the rig at the top of the beach and when I killed the motor I could feel the shore break shaking the ground. I trekked it out to the point, the little wave I could see was turning into an 8foot monster barrelling and spitting some shredder from impending doom on a urchin filled ledge. I decided that the surf was out of my league so I opted for a refreshing pound in the shorie, yeah well that turned into an absolute whaling on the exposed rock ledge and a fight to get myself back in.

Bluffs pet lamb

Deathly shorie

So after all this fun and games at the bluff I punched further north to 3mile camp and the infamous Tombstones. Well I thought the surf at bluff looked good. Tombies was peeling through at what looked to me like a nice solid 4-5 foot and the most perfect shape I had ever seen (unfortunately for me a left) anyway I suited up (water is warm here and so is air temp but everyone was in steamers, protection from the reef and chilly desert breezes) pulled out the ol fish and after a while of asking people where the hell you get down the cliffs I was steaming out into the line up, somehow I got out there during a lull and positioned myself in the channel waiting for the next set to loom. Well shit me a set came, 6foot+ easy, it threw itself over a boiling and angry looking tropical reef, a bloke airdropped into the tube and somehow held onto it, stood up straight and got the best barrel I have ever seen. The next two blokes were not so fortunate one going over the falls and the other disappearing into the black pit behind him. Well I stayed out there for 4 hours, sitting in the channel and watching blokes get the best waves I have seen and others get dragged across reef more brutally than I have ever seen also. I got whaled twice and that was enough for me I caught one in and watched from the cliffs for the rest of the day.

The swell, fortunately for me, dropped off a bit so I spend the next week surfing every hour I possibly could. One day I had the privlidge of surfing with a mother and calf whale who were frolicking in the channel 20m away from me.

I met 2 guys from JanJuc down in Vic who were up for a surf and fishing trip. They invited me to stay on their site as they had payed for 3 and had the best site in the campground. That started my fishing component of Gnaraloo, we went out in their boat and over the next few weeks caught loads of big Cobia, spangled emperors, cod, macks not to mention the hundreds of sharks. The first day in the boat we had a 10foot tiger come up to the boat, while I was filling a bucket of water and 8foot bronzie cruised 30cm under my hands.

Bloody sharks, this one was lucky, we actually got it to the boat.

Rankin Cod

Craig holding up one of my emps… haha

More highlights of this utopia was learning to scuba dive, snorkelling with a manta ray and whales, going spearfishing with some blokes from Perth and one shooting a 20kg Spanish Mack and the numerouse times being harassed by sharks.

Lachie and I learnt to scuba

Gnaraloo golf trophy

One on the thousands of whales.

Well im sure I have forgotten some epic things but the month has blurred into one amazing memory. Sorry for the lack of photos, I have been terribly slack, I will try get some photos from the people at camp.

3mile ding repairs, best in W.A.

Millie, 3miles pet goat.

I will be picking Isaac up in Exmouth on the 15^th and we will be going back to Gnaraloo, hopefully with a tinny on the roof to slay some more waves and fish. Yehaa!

Hope everyone reading this is having at least half as much fun as I am having.

Bye!!