I woke in the upstairs bedroom of Johns 1860s house and headed downstairs for breakfast. In the kitchen was their son Simon. They have some crazy aging genetics in their family because Simon is 51 but looks and acts like he’s not a day older than 40. He’s a keen outdoorsman and invited me to join him on a two night trip to the peninsula for surfing and showing me more things around the region.
It would have been silly to not take the opportunity.
We packed up his van with supplies and headed out of town. First agenda of the day was going to a spot on the river to try stop a wild platypus. They live in burrows and unusually come out to feed during dawn and dusk. We were lucky enough to spot him feeding only a few meters from us, ducking under water and shovelling through the stones on the bottom looking for food. Whacky looking creatures, and a lot smaller than I had imagined.
Before goring going to the peninsula we stopped to check out the surf at Park beach. It looked perfect and there were a dozen surfers out there. We wet-suited up and headed in.
I had kind of surfed once before, but that was easier on a long board and smaller waves. This board was short at only 6 foot 2 and the waves had some force behind them. It took some time with Simon teaching me the basics but it was an addictive feeling when I finally caught a wave and stood up. It’s definitely a waiting game to catch the perfect wave whilst also not getting in the way of the other surfers. I caught 10 or so waves, sometimes only lasting half a second, but others actually cruising on them for longer. I’ll have to strap a surfboard to my bike when I go up the east coast of Australia heh.
We were in the winter water for 2 hours and by the time we left the parking lot smooth Simon had gotten 2 phone numbers from surfer girls 20 years his junior. So funny. have to strap a surfboard to my bike when I go up the east coast of Australia heh.
I was yapping on about previously visiting Eaglehawk neck in my other post and weirdly enough I was back.
The family have a ‘shack’ at Eaglehawk neck. I assumed the word ‘shack’ would mean an old rundown tin shed but it was a pleasant surprise to see a three bedroom holiday batch, complete with a beach view.
We watched a couple of movies and then had lengthy conversations about psychology. It was like a two-way therapy session and was nice to pick the brain.