Kirra

- November 17, 2017

Writing from Kirra Beach, the sleepy end of the Gold Coast, a mecca for surfers and host to a CT surfing event. Unfortunately it's currently short on swell. In fact there’s none. Nada. Zip. It's spectacular nonetheless with warm turquoise water and outstanding water temps.

We’re adapting well to the culture, subtle changes in behaviour like curling the ends of our words, speaking in shorter sentences and using an abridged vocab. We’ve also lost the benefit of daylight savings, so sunrise becomes 4.30am. Seems to self adjust with folks heading off to brush teeth shortly after the evening news.

We arrived having spent 5 glorious days at Clarkes Beach Tourist Park in Byron. Location-wise they don’t get much better. Reflected in the exorbitant price, it's on the beach and a stroll to ‘the pass’, a cracker right hand point break that boasts a 150m ride on an average day. Surfing etiquette generally prescribes the inside surfer priority on a wave, so the line up is a frolly of surfers plying for the inside, sitting as close to the point as possible, centimetres from the rocky outcrop.

Having missed out diving Fish Rock Cave further south, I signed up for Julian Rocks a few km’s off Byron. It was quite spectacular. With low expectations I sunk into a rich marine reserve. There were a range of Sharks, Turtles, Rays, huge Snapper, massive Kingies and the odd nudi (a mollusc!). There was a particular cave we swum through full of massive Jews and Cods circling, quite a site.

Following Byron we headed inland to Bangalow to visit an old roomie of mine from days gone by. It was hilarious to reminisce on our John Birmingham style share housing days in the inner west of Sydney.

Thursday we did Dreamworld. What a nightmare. We cleverly purchased a 3-day pass so we could relive the punishment of Thursday at White Water, fortunately the kids much preferred the water park and had a great time on the slides.

Next onto Moreton island which by all reports will be awesome and great prelude to Fraser. We’re also expecting a pulse in swell before we leave which is exciting. On a good day the 'super bank' can put you 500 meters down the beach.

Finally, I’d be grateful if you could get behind a great cause, Movember, which raises money and awareness of mens health. I’m participating with some of my work colleagues. You can donate through https://mobro.co/tomhandley?mc=

Ciao.

P.S I fixed the subscribe button on the header for those interested in trigger emails.

P.P.S. Linda will also add a German thread for her peeps, copyright rules apply to the content of course :)