Waiting for Harri

After great surf at long beach in Robe and scenic drive through the Great ocean road I'm here in Melbourne. Nice looking city but the traffic is quite challenging with hook turns and trams. One of my childhood friends Harri is coming here tomorrow. I'll meet him at the airport. It's gonna be interesting to speak Finnish again.

From Esperance to Adelaide

When you're going from Esperance to Adelaide, you need to cross the Nullarbor plains. These are plains with pretty much nothing. At some parts there's no trees anywhere, just vast plain everywhere you look. Quite interesting experience was the longest straight in Australia. 90 Miles of road without a single bend. Made me quite numb while I was listening again and again the only four casettes and 256mb mp3s which I have in my car.

I had to stay overnight on the road because you can't do these distances in one day. The warning bells started ringing again when I woke up the first morning in the Nullarbor plains and the car didn't immediately start up. It took me a good time trying to get the car started and it seemed that it doesn't get spark. Finally it started and I wondered if I just flooded it. I headed to Cactus beach which is again one of the World class surfing beaches in Australia. Cactus beach is surrounded by nothing, only sand dunes. There's a small camp site and there was couple of people camping there, mostly surfers. The other habitants in this area are the flies. Pretty annoying little creatures when they keep flying in your eyes and mouth.

The day wasn't really good for surfing. Really small swell and onshore wind made it again worthless to go into water. After the nice surf in Esperance I didn't really feel getting myself wet. The views at the Cactus beach were worth checking out though! I continued towards Eyre Peninsula following the tips I got from John but as the day was bad at the Cactus beach, it wasn't better in the Eyre Peninsula. There was good potential spots around Streaky bay though and I'm sure there's nice surf and sharks around. There's a big sea lion colony at the Western Eyre peninsula and there's a good lookout where you can observe them. I spent a night at spot X, had same ignition problems in the morning and finally drove around the whole peninsula. The ride was really beautiful which proofs that the journey is part of the experience.

I stopped around 70kms before Adelaide and this time in the morning it took almost an hour to start the car. I decided to service my car in the Adelaide again. They changed the spark plugs and did some cleaning around the distributor. It seemed to work since the car starts without problems again. Yay! I proceeded onwards through Adelaide but had a double whopper with cheese on the way.

The germans have updated their pictures. Check out this link and especially the cool river crossing outback pictures

Stuck in Esperance

Well the overheating problem didn't correct with the change of the fan clutch. I had to stay for over the weekend in the Esperance to get my car serviced on Monday. No worries though! John is a guy who I met in Esperance and I finally found out the true meaning of Australian hospitality. First of all, on Thursday John invited me to see some cool surfing photos around the area and the World while having couple of beers in his house. He also offered me to have a shower, make the laundry and sleep in the house but I was glad enough to have a hot shower and sleep in my van in his carpark. On Friday we got up 5am to get some waves and John rode me around the Esperance and to one cool beach with his 4wd Jeep. He could again tell everything about the local surf breaks. This was the day I was planning to leave towards the East and the Nullarbor plains but since the car didn't got fixed I gave John a call and he invited me again to sit the evening in his place. There was also a local couple Lara and Shain(or Shane) and we had a great pasta dinner with wine. While having a dinner I found out that Lara and Shain are running a local coffee business. Surprisingly I got a free coffee next day from their stall. The weekend went pretty much waking up early 5am-6am in the morning and surfing 2x2hr sessions during the day. Surfing takes your juices out and I've been going to bed usually around 6-8pm.

John gave me some great surfing tips for my future journeys and also some insect repellant to take me into the cactus beach which is quite notorious of the flies. When I said that my car eats some oil he also gave me some spare oil he had in his garage. Quite unbelievable.

On Monday I took my car to the service again and we changed the thermostat but no avail. Then we took the whole radiator out for long process of cleaning but temperature gauge was still showing overheat. We started to suspect the actual gauge and made manual temperature measurements. It turned out that the bloody gauge was showing total bullshit and I ended up buying a manual gauge. It's a cool pimp up for my van though. Quite expensive service but atleast the cooling system is now in good condition. I said goodbyes to John and gave him many thanks before heading towards the treeless Nullarbor plains and the surf in Cactus beach.

Rushing through Stirling Ranges, Esperance and Cape le Grand national park

From Albany I headed North towards the Stirling ranges, which are pretty nice mountains in middle of surrounding plains. I did some hiking there and climbed up to the summit of Toolbrunup peak(1052m). I first wanted to climb the highest peak Bluff Knoll(~1080m) but the summit was in clouds so I had to plan something else. Luckily I found out the Toolbrunup peak and I found interesting the fact that the actual summit was pretty much couple of rocks. On the other hand in the Bluff Knoll the summit is pretty much big flat area. I also heard that the Toolbrunup should be more challenging with really rocky climb where you need to scramble the last meters up to the mountain. Really rocky it sure was but luckily my great trekking boots, which have helped me in my journeys around the globe, didn't fail me this time either. When I arrived to the summit it was, to my luck, bloody windy and totally cloudy. After swearing for a while for my great luck with the weather there was suddenly a gap in the clouds revealing the magnificent 360 degree view to the surrounding landscape with many mountains. I looked around astonished and tried to shoot some quality video with my videocam before the next clouds would come in. I spent quite a long time on the top just enjoying the moment and the fact that there was no grannies or other tourists on the summit. That's how travelling should be.

With sore buttocks and thighs I then drove towards the beach city of Esperance. This time I was lucky and I found immediately some surfable waves close to the town centre. I decided to boost up my surfing skills and went out with my shortboard just to realize that my arms are not really strong enough for paddling in strong currents and bumpy water. Well I got half a wave but it was good to get wet again. On the afternoon I headed to Le Grand national park which is advertised to have the best beaches in Australia. I climbed the fisherman's peak(~350m) to see the nice views of the park and indeed saw some nice beaches around. Closer look revealed that these beaches had really white sand, like in Whitehaven beach, and no crowds. Really beautiful beaches indeed but atleast that day missing one main key point, the surf. I have seen quite a many beaches lately so seeing just sand and water can't make me frollock too much. I camped one night there and repaired my van door by lubricating it with vegetable cooking oil. Opens nice and smoothly now.

I had pretty much same kind of surf next morning in the Esperance with my shortboard than before. This time it was hard to get waves because it was quite "crowded" with maybe 10 people in the water. Still nothing comparing to Margaret River, Gold coast or other packed places. After the surf I started to drive towards the Adelaide and made it 20kms before the temperature gauge started heading towards the red. I drove the car back to Esperance to check it out before starting the 2100km journey to Adelaide and found out that my fan hub isn't working properly. I'm not sure if I understand how it works whatsoever but it should lock when the hot air blows through the radiator and therefore make the fan speed faster. Well anyways they had to order a new hub and it should cost around 200aud with the labor. I had to wait one more day in the Esperance. Back to the beach and surf with my good old minimal. Got really good lefthanders this time and no crowds in the water. While surfing I talked with a local guy called John who had lived six years here in Esperance and 20 years in Margaret river. He invited me to have a beer and check out some photos this evening. Friendly locals around here!

Towards the Albany

I left the Margaret River cause the bloody surf isn't getting any better in few days and headed towards the Albany in the far South. My route went through beautiful Karri-tree forests and I climbed the 74meters Dave Evans Bicentennial tree. The climb was quite thrilling since you had to make your way up through the ladders which were circling the tree. There was a net at the side of the poles which prevented you falling from the sides. The poles worked as the 'ladder' but there was nothing under them so if you would have slipped you would have fallen to your certain death. Well I haven't usually been afraid of heights but this time I have to admit that I may have used a little bit of excessive force to enhance my grip from the poles. No grannies at the top.

I also visited the treetop walk at the valley of the giants. It's like a catwalk going up to 40m on the treetops and offers nice views to the surrounding tingle tree forest. Lots of grannies here.

I've finally in Albany and the surf is small/unsurfable again. Well didn't surprise me at all anymore. I might go to camp next to Muttonbird island for this night since they should have a surfbreak and free camping there and head to do some hiking at Stirling ranges tomorrow. However, first I'm going to Domino's Pizza or Eagle Boys to get some long needed unhealthy food. Normally in the bush I'm living with a strictly vegetarinary pasta/noodles/porridge diet excluding occasional cheese/tuna/salami treats.

Surftrippin' Margaret River

Headed towards the SW coast and the Margaret River area with plans to do lot of surfing on this world class surf and wine area. Well wasn't very lucky in the beginning since a strong westerly winds and a big swell made surfing on the western coast impossible or atleast too challenging for me. Luckily I did a little bit research in the Cape Naturaliste area and found a nice break at the Picques Point. This point was facing east and then covered by the NW winds. Some of the locals were surfing at the same place and told me that I was lucky to found this place. They were also quite impressed to see a Finnish 'surfer' in the water but also told that they would probably cause same kind of effect if they would snowboard the slopes in Finland.

As the NW winds eased up a little bit I made some journeys from my base in Cape Naturaliste to Yangidup and the surfbreaks around NW Margaret river area. I found a really nice spot at Injidup carpark and had one of the biggest surfs at the Injidup point. I met a Norwegian guy who had surfed for 5 years and is now studying in Perth. He was taking these huge waves like nothing with his minimal. I wasn't that successful but just being in the water and watching 2m surf crashing just next to you was impressive enough and gave me my adrenaline shot. On the next day the surf got again small and we were fighting of the waves like a flock of seagulls with two local senior guys with their minimals. They took most of them.

Totally I stayed 3 nights in the spot X at the Cape Naturaliste and managed to spot some blue whales from close distance as well. Priceless. Margaret River is one of the top winery regions in Australia and I decided to celebrate it by drinking couple of mugs of my (12aud/4liters) fine wine and watching stars and the bright lighthouse beam in the Cape Naturaliste.

The most breaks in the Margaret River area are really world class which means that they're not really place for the beginners. Breaks include names like 'Guillotines' and 'Gallows' and I didn't really want to find out what's behind these names. I saw some really good surfers in the water and most of the cars which I saw had surfboard mounted on the roof. Reminded me of the skiing resorts in Northern Finland.

Bloody great day

In the morning I spent 400aud for car, new shockies to the back + basic service. In the afternoon I got a 25aud parking ticket. First ticket in my 6-year driving history.

I think I'll head towards SW Australia and Margaret River tomorrow since the surf should be getting up. Perth is a nice green city with surf and I would probably enjoy this place if I would like cities whatsoever. Nils and Sebastian are gonna stay here and look for job so I'm gonna move on by myself. Reminds me of the beginning of the roadtrip when I was surfing in Northern NSW.

Coastal drive to Perth

It was too rocky at the Kalbarri even though there was a great looking point break at Jack's point. However we headed to Geraldton to look for some beach breaks and found some swell at the Back beach. The waves were pretty much closing out and all you could get was whitewash but it was still cool after dusty travelling in Northern territories. The conditions were pretty good for Nils and Sebastian to practise paddling and standups with my 8.6" minimal. I tried to get past the waves with 6.3" shortboard but the long break in surfing had done it's job and I didn't have enough strength to get through the crashing waves.

From Geraldton we got some tips about surf in the Flat rocks which is around 40kms South. We arrived there to see the beautiful sunset and noticed that there was no "no camping" signs even thought the beach carpark was just next to the ocean and there was a toilet as well. The scenery fit perfectly to my previous thoughts about deserted Western Australia with good surf and no crowds. We ate pasta with beans for dinner next to the crashing surf and watched the sunset. You don't need much to be rich.

In the morning I wanted to try the surf. The conditions looked quite calm but I was a little bit worried to go out since it looked quite rocky. It was also the lowtide. I spent a long time trying to catch the waves but couldn't paddle fast enough for most of them and I was too wussy to stay next to the break point. When I finally got one wave I also discovered the truth behind the name of the site. As the wave was growing behind me it sucked all the water out in front of me revealing all the rocks. I wasn't fast enough with my minimal and as the wave was closing out I had to jump into it to avoid totally smashing into the shallow water and the rocks. Even though I still scratched my foot into rocks a little bit and were lucky not to get any bigger cuts. Scary experience and I probably stick with the beachbreaks until I get some of my confidence back :)

We tried to find more surf on our way to Perth but it seems to be totally flat next few days. We camped one night at Lancelin, drove straight here to Perth and are staying now in the Fremantle. I should get my car serviced and then leave towards the world class surf and wines in Margaret River. I heard that Jonas' car, the Misty Yellow, is broken down in Port Hedland and waiting for the new carburator. Poor old Misty.

Diving in Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay

Hey again. I made two dives to Ningaloo reef from Exmouth and Manta ray tour from Coral Bay. Total 3 dives to great spots and saw again some new stuff. In Exmouth I went to diving trip with Village dive. Saw some huge seasnakes which swam just next to me and I wasn't quite sure whether to panic or not. One bite and you'd be done. I also saw really cool yellow mooray eel which was angrily defending it's hole against us and the fish.


We also went to Cape Range national park for 2 nights. Really nice snorkelling and beautiful beaches. Two gorges to do some walking as well...


In the Coral Bay I went to Manta ray tour. The tour included one snorkelling spot for spotting manta rays and one reef dive. We had a spotter plane looking for mantas so chances to find this huge ray were supposed to be pretty good. And succesful I was and were lucky to snorkel with 4m ray around 15 minutes. Manta ray is like a battleship, slowly flying in the ocean with lots of fish escorting. Massive, amazing. The dive was one of the best ones I've had as well. Visibility was good and the corals were amazing. I saw three big gray reef sharks at the same time, turtle, lionfish and heaps other.

Now I'm in Kalbarri. There's again some surf here put looks quite rocky. Maybe I'll wait for the high tide and see if it gets any better. I'm missing my surfing mates who are probably around Exmouth at the moment. Greetings to them and everyone else :)