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!!

Heading North Solo

Crikey Moses it has been a while since we did this, and now there is no we! Yep Sarah has set off on her new adventure leaving me to carry on solo for a little while until my mate flies in to carry on with me. (thats also why the spelling and grammer in this blog will be going downhill)

Sunset over Lucky Bay

So lets get the ball rolling, you last heard from us in Geraldton. Well we got the car serviced there and headed off late afternoon with Coronation beach in our sights. We spent a few nights here soaking up the sun, scenery and surf before heading north again to Lucky bay.

Well if you are ever looking for some free camping around Kalbarri then look no further than this place.

Amazing!

Sarah and I fell in love, the water is crystal clear, the reef is virtually tropical, it is teeming fish and corals and there are sand dunes for miles.

I went spear fishing every day, and of course I missed just about everything including big western lobsters, tusk fish, parrot and tailor. I had the same luck fishing, I was spooled (couldn’t stop a fish and it took all my fishing line), lost a mulloway in the shore break and was bitten off by numerous sharks.

Kalbarri was also great, amazing coastline; towering red cliffs drop into a deep blue Indian ocean. And to top off the scenery it boasts some amazing surf. 

Too fast for me on the log and my skill too limited on the twinnie for a wave like this. A bit el loco also for my likes but I spent ages watching and getting a few snaps, unfortunately most didn’t turn out too good. (this is the inside, out back was re-donk but all photos were way overexposed)

Heading north again brings us to Shark Bay, and believe me it truly deserves its name.

I finally land one! Probably the smallest one around judging by the shadows and runs.

The first thing we saw as we pulled into Denham was emus wondering the main street and park; Sarah was fascinated by them and spent the next day stalking them. 

When we opened the door in the morning this is the first thing we saw.

The first night we got there happened to be origin, so we watched a very delayed game in the Western most pub in Aus and stayed in the car just outside the pub (terrible idea).

We stuck around the area for a while to check out the national parks and get into some of the famous shark bay fishing. We stayed in Francis Perron N.P. where I hooked into tons of very big squid and also had some raging sessions of intense snapper and sweetlip fishing. Here is two days in Shark Bay from my 'captains log'

Trying to run down big bird

Sarah soaking up the last rays.

Obviously stoked to be in Sharkay 

Friday 26^th

I spent the day fishing, caught 4 nice flathead in the morning on plastics.  Another hot dry day with plenty of flies to keep you moving or in Sarahs case enclosed in a sarong. I blew up the boat and went fishing. Caught a few sweeties and cod. Had a trawl, picked up a few small barracuda. Chucked one on live and almost got spooled again before being reefed (big fish around these parts). That evening of fishing was the hottest of the trip so far; every cast was a pinkie or sweetlip. Biggest pinkie was 45cm but the limit in Shark Bay is 50cm, max is 70cm and 1 fish per person! Anyway, kept one very good sized sweetlip and a slightly smaller one for the belly.

Sunday 27^th

Fishing was on the agenda again. More flathead in the morning followed by another crazy squid session. Decided to try keep some squid live for fishing that evening. I filled the boat and released a few in there. After about an hour or so I noticed the boast was looking a little deflated and Sarah said the squid were bubbling. Yeah that was the boat. The little bastards had chewed holes in the sides. As it turns out they may have saved me from some toothy friends because at around 4:30 when I would have been having a fish in the boat I watched in aw as a 12foot tiger shark cruised through the beach in waist deep water. The fishing that night was hot again, apart from the fact that I couldn’t get a fish in as the sharks were too thick!

Shark bait!

Pinkie on 4lb

One of many many squid

After a few nights at this spot we moved on to another picturesque site, more fish were caught and I finally landed my first shark of the trip, not huge but huge fun on my old beach outfit.

Stopped in at a few more spots (ill let the pictures do the talking) and headed out of shark bay stopping by Hamelin Pool on the way out for the night and to check out the stromatalites (Google them if you are interested ). 

These ‘living rocks’ are amazing and date back thousands of years and helped pave the way for us by letting off oxygen into the earth then toxic atmosphere, really cool stuff!

And as I said at the top Sarah is now making her way to Canada. We said our goodbyes at the Overlander Roadhouse early Sunday morning and a big red bus took her on her 10-hour journey to Perth.

I have been left to fend for myself, the first day was very strange, I had to pullover numerous times to assess maps and work out what the hell I was doing and I missed plenty of turn offs and realised how lonely you are in this part of Australia.

Anyway that basically brings me here, Carnarvon. I am looking for work to fill in the time and help me get home… eventually. I have contacted Gnarloo Station and they sound keen for me to do some labouring as well as other odd jobs around the place so heres hoping I get to stay in their amazing part of the county for a few weeks. 

Guess what i'm going to be eating for a while

Hope everyone is well!

And I think Sarah is going to continue writing blogs from her Canadian adventure either under this one or a new blog under jacksarah. So keep an eye out for that. It will certainly be a contrast.

chicken?

Long time, no blog

It’s been a while since we last updated you all. In that time we’ve explored Fremantle, Perth and beyond. We’ve also done a lot of relaxing, with a bit of fishing and surfing thrown in there too!

We both loved Fremantle: nice cafes and parks, awesome retro op shop, small but good market, old buildings and a chilled vibe. so all in all, it seemed to be the cultural hub of W.A. The only thing lacking was free or cheap accommodation.

Perth was nice too. It’s a small city but there are heaps of shops and food. It looked like a comicon had just finished as there were people dressed up as Dr Who, Mario and Lewigi, samurais and other fictional characters.

As we were sitting down in the food court, in a shop close to us, a massive glass door suddenly smashed, spraying the worker underneath it with glass and cutting open his head and arm. A man with a pram only just managed to dive for cover.

We spent a number of days at a break a bit north of Perth, where Jack enjoyed some fun peelers, which made him feel like he was back at Neil St. I relaxed on the beach and read.

We met up with Rosie, who was over here visiting her family. We went out in the city to a great little place called the Hula Bula bar.

We said our goodbyes to the lovely city of Perth and headed north. 

Lancelin was our first stop, it’s a great little town, great surf and an awesome designated 4WD area over a mass of meringue-like sand dunes.

Next we drove to Cervantes, and just past the town we camped near the Hill river mouth, where we endured a series of heavy showers.

Jurien Bay was our next port of call and we loaded up on fuel and food. Just past the town is Drovers Cave National Park, where we found a delightful camping spot tucked away behind the dunes of a gorgeous little bay. We walked along the beach where there was everything from cray pots to tennis balls washed up amongst the weed, and we explored the dunes and tracks. We found a hidden cave tucked under a cliff, which had paw prints in the sand. Jack had a fish once we realised we were actually camped at the edge of the conservation reserve but had no luck (he spent 2 days watching trevally and tailor cruise around without wetting a line).

We had a few one night stands here and there in beach car parks, rest stops and national parks.

One spot we stayed a few nights, we camped in the dunes behind a great surf beach, which had nice reef breaks as far as the eye could see and great gutters for fishing. Yet my only luck was a shark that almost took my rod, proceeding to almost spool me, and then bit through 80lb trace.

A few more one nighters followed before we stumbled upon a place called Ellendale Pool. We spent three nights here, enduring heavy rain in between glorious sunshine. The pool is apparently 'bottomless': navy divers have been sent down as well as plumb lines yet the bottom still alludes man. A soaring vertical cliff resembling something you would expect to find in the Kimberly's lies on the other side of the pool creating a truly remarkable camping spot. 

We are now in Geraldton, but we are heading back out to the Pool as we are waiting to get the car serviced.

So all in all we are good, still cruising around soaking up some amazing scenery. Blogs will be far and few between from now on as towns are getting smaller and internet access is scarce.

Also I (Sarah) shall be leaving Jack to travel by himself as I am flying over to Canada to live for 6 months. Luckily he has a mate joining him a month or so after I go, and I'm sure they will have a ball!

'Till next time.