Gnaraloo: Voyaging for Waves 6/6 - Dune Jumping Turtles

 

Gnaraloo: Voyaging for Waves 5/6 - flat day fun

On a windy blown out day, we went to Dolphin Point. The swell had dropped too much to surf. We also went walking in the dunes.

luging

Gnaraloo: Voyaging for Waves - 4/6 - Fencelines

Callum

Shots taken by James

Me

Ella getting a push

Siblings :)

Drop

Gnaraloo: Voyaging for Waves - 3/6 - Tombstones

Morning surf check

Uncle Bill at Tombstones

Laid back

Dad - whale breach on the horizon

Dad

Whales

 

Gnaraloo: Voyaging for Waves - 3 Mile Camp 2/6

Gnaraloo - 2011 Surf Trip - 1/6

Dolphins

We have been and now we are back.
All in all we were only camping for 4 days. My grandfather has been unwell and - as a lot of the family was on the trip - we needed to come home. He's doing really well now.
It felt so amazing to be up there again. In fact, when we arrived with the sun setting on Saturday afternoon, I could hardly believe we were there. We've been around the world since our last Gnaraloo trip and last July feels like a lifetime ago. The dynamic was really wonderful with my Aunt, Uncle, two cousins, as well as my Dad and James. It was great spending some time with my cousins; we haven't seen much of each other over the last few years and they've grown into amazing people.

I'll talk about the waves in the next post.

I took a pile of photos with my film cameras and will post them once they're developed. Really didn't take many digital shots, so I'm excited to see how/if I've managed to capture the trip through film. Excited to see how my Rebel 2000 (old film SLR) performs too.

We saw heaps of whales, dolphins, one dolphin who kept jumping entirely out of the water, a turtle and a reef shark/ray. There were some dugongs around too, but it's probably lucky I didn't see any of these guys! I just would have registered that it was big and not a dolphin.

Minimal injuries. Slashed my hand open on razorshell - this was after a surf as I was getting out. Ridiculous.
So still fighting fit and primed for Bali in 4 weeks!

Turtles

Gnaraloo - Winter escape!

In less than a week we will be taking off up north for the third time. It was touch and go as to whether we'd make the trip this year, but things have worked out. We've been head down, bum up with work for the last six months, now the holidays begin! This time next week - weather gods willing - we will be surfing in the desert and sleeping under the stars!

Across to Tombstones

I am looking forward to whales breaching, open fires, warm weather, wide skies and long rides.

The long range forecast is still a bit vague and looking big, but with any luck, the beginning of next week will bring smaller swell and fair winds.

The photos from last year's trip can be found here.
Also, a little video I made last year using my GoPro is here.

Fencelines and the full moon