By the pool

So I haven't been well for the rest of the trip. Managed to drag myself around to a few shops with my mum on the last day. That was about all the shopping I ended up doing. Dad, Rich and Em all surfed on the last day, but I know I'm sick when I can't get excited about surfing. So the most energetic thing I got up to was lying by the pool and doing a cryptic crossword with my mum.

This is what else was happening earlier on in the week.

Fun with the nephews

Baby pool time!

Cocktails

Tidak bagus & Bali nightlights

Two days of our trip have been spent feeling very fragile. Both James and I had an attack of Bali belly or some derivative. Stomach cramps all Wesnesday. The night was a tag-team, world of pain and we still felt very tender Thursday.

So. Instead of more about that, here are some photos of the lovely lanterns around Legian and Seminyak.

I just wasn't well enough to surf for the remainder of the trip, even though my dad had so much fun on Saturday that he had to go out twice. It's my fourth trip to Bali and I've never been sick before, so I guess that's pretty goods odds.

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

On the mend...

At 5 and a half weeks, the Dr has given me the ok to stop wearing my splint and boy is it a welcome reprieve! I've been doing the stretches the physio has given me so that I can increase the flexibility in my wrist from nonexistent back to normal. Strengthening starts next week and then, so long as I have normal mobility, when I hit the 8 week mark I can go surfing!

Swimming and "water exercise" is apparently good for healing a break, so I went for a paddle on my 6'8 the other night. Sitting on my board, chatting to a mate and watching the sun go down was pretty special.

So the forecast is that we're gonna have a hardcore cycle season. Pretty sure that's the meteorological term. That sucks. But if it has to happen, I'm hoping that we might get a few bursts of swell down here before the Summer flatness descends.

This is my local. One of my favourite spots. I haven't surfed it in almost a year because we were away over Winter. It is seriously swell deficient and only breaks when the rest of the coast is firing. I'm hoping I might get lucky with a few freak sessions in November before we say goodbye to the waves and hello to the sou-westerlies until next Autumn.

3 weeks, 5 days and counting...

So the slow process of sorting through the 3000 odd photos has been made slower by the fact that I broke both my arms our first day back in Australia. Plans for a quick trip down to Yallingup before heading back to work were replaced by trips to Emergency rooms and x-ray centres. The lesson has been learned: Skateboarding and jetlag don't mix.

So now I'm counting down until I'm no longer cripsey and can get back in the water. It's been almost 4 weeks now. It'll depend what the Doc says at my next appointment in 2 weeks. If the splint can come off my left wrist then I can, with any luck, be wave sliding on the first day of Summer.

In the meantime, I've been getting mobility back into my right arm with physio exercises, checking the swell charts to see what I'm missing - nothing - and surfing vicariously.

Some visual poetry from Flickr... mouse over images for credits.

Inspiration by:
umeplumme
sgblyth
meisi
Maddie J
felipesiebert
J.boltz
Sosidesc
JerseySurfing
Zaz by Roxy surf
PatrickSmithPhotography

Gnaraloo

I don't even know where to start. We had such a fantastic time. Sure we weren't without our dramas - the hired trailer suspension died on the way up resulting in the 12 hour drive taking an extra 5 before we were all at camp... but all in all, it was pretty nice! It was windy this year but all easterly. Sunny everyday which was a real treat after leaving Perth at 3am on the coldest night since 2006.

Our campsite was massive which allowed for my parents' Taj Mahal-of-a-tent, plus ours, plus the kombi. We were joined by a number of visitors around the campfire as the entire surfing population of Margaret River seemed to be there at the same time as us.The following day was our first day out at Tombstones - the mainbreak. About as small as it gets up there and so much fun. The following couple of days were bigger and we left it to Bill and Dad to surf.Dad kneeboarding

We managed to find some waves too...Hannah

Hannah
James on a bomb

We worked up the courage to go out at Fencelines one afternoon which proved to be a fun little wave. Very dependent on the tide but a shorter paddle and nice and fast. Courage was needed to get over the thought of ending up on the reef ledge at low tide.We had a couple of days by ourselves out at Tombies when dad and Bill went off to Turtles.

Suited up and ready to paddle out. The water is really warm and glassy, but the reef is nasty. On the first day out I put a sea urchin through my bootie and carved chunks out of my board on the coral coming in.Endless Summer

Loving the lefts.All lefts here... me bottom turning to head down the line.

James had a knack for finding ones like THESE!

Richard making the drop. Me about to be decapitated...

James and Dad went into Carnarvon to collect the trailer (complete with two new springs) towards the end of the week. Rich, Emma and I took this time to chill out and do some drawing!
We had a fantastic and unusually crowded day out on the water midweek. Waves were so fat that we were getting push-ons from Dad and Bill. But the Meiklejohn boys didn't stop at giving James, Rich and I a boost. I think everyone in the line up benefited. It was a great vibe, there were heaps of other women out and it was like a tea party out in the ocean.
We ate so well. Bill's meatballs, Dad's chicken casserole. Emma & Richard brought along the gourmet contingent with red Leicester cheese, honey and banana breads, roti... The highlight as always though was fresh caught fish and handcut chips.

After cooking for 9, the place got a whole lot quieter when James and Sarah left, shortly followed by Rich and Emma.We had some quiet days with less wind and even smaller swell. I took the 6'8 out at Fencelines and found that it went pretty well with the new skills I've picked riding my minimal.

Dad and I also shared some father daughter time out at Tombstones one afternoon. Whales breaching not so much further out. A whole four people in the water.The tranquility up there is unparalleled. No power, no phones, no fresh water. You feel pretty isolated. And we were, until the Friday before we were due to leave. It took me a while to realise where all the people had come from. School holidays. So our last 3 days were a little less tranquil and a little more circus-like. Having said that, there were plenty of waves to go around, still waves going unridden and the sun kept shining.

Still offshore

The idea that we'll shortly be getting on a plane and heading off for 8 weeks seemed alien. The thought of airports and traffic and people, a million miles away. Totally unreal. Reality?

The sunset and the stars and the sound of the waves...