Around The World In 80 Waves

After a day on the water at Frigates Passage I decided that I needed a day off everything and I couldn’t be in a better place to relax than Waidroka Bay Resort, where I am staying.

Almost everybody else went out to sea today and I feel like I have the Garden of Eden to enjoy by myself.

Unusually for here it absolutely chucks down with rain for three hours in the morning, but the air afterwards is beautifully cool and I can take a stroll around the grounds in the sunshine.

There are so many funky plants and trees, which all seem to have flowers even more exquisite than the one previously viewed.

This is my place set in amongst the trees. It is lovely to have my own space for a little while and being able to unpack everything and spread out even just for a few days is a joy I so rarely get to savour on the road.

After a great lunch and a chat with one of the other guests I even have time for a pleasant afternoon nap. It is such a relaxing day.

It isn’t long before everybody else is returning back to dry land from their various adventures during the day.

As becomes my custom here the evening is spent talking with the other guests, enjoying the great food served to us all around a large dining table, and washing it all down with a bottle or five of the local Fijian beer.

By the time I arrived at Waidroka Bay I was running on auto-pilot so I was delighted to be told that a boat was heading out to the famous break called Frigates in the morning because it avoided any decision making on my part. It is named after a gap in the coral reef that was big enough to get the old warships through, called Frigates Passage. 

The waves peel beautifully off the edge of the reef, however it is not accurate to say they break off the island of Viti Levu because it is a surf spot that is 16 miles out to sea and requires an hour boat trip just to get there!

I was joined on the boat by a group of surfers from Australia and a couple of divers because it is also a great spot for checking out the marine life.

Upon arrival at the passage we were delighted to be met by head high waves which were almost mechanical in their perfection and not a breath of wind. This wave was for Peter Kraus, and it might well have been the perfect wave he was always looking for. Just a shame it was a left Pete!

With him in mind I decided I had to try and charge the waves today, without holding back. There were only six guys in the water so my efforts were soon rewarded and I was quickly into a few beautiful rides.

I was once more wearing the boots and helmet to give me some protection from the reef because this was a very serious wave. Everyone had been warning me that the sun here in Fiji was particularly powerful too, so I also added enough zinc sunscreen to have galvanised a frigate!

There was no wind to start the session but it picked up steadily through our time out on the ocean, which made conditions increasingly challenging. You can see me here dropping into another monster, and also the other surfer ducking through the clear water on the left of the shot.

After a few hours I was tired and went back to the boat for lunch, only to be told by the divers on our boat about how many sharks and other marine life they had seen swimming around underneath us. Great!

However it was the wind rather than the angry fish that was the reason for me not getting back in the water here. The morning had been a perfect session and I wanted to treasure that for my friend, preferring to watch the other surfers and enjoy a bit of fishing. By the time I had got back to dry land I had been on board for almost eight hours and can freely admit to almost walking off the side of the jetty due to still being on my sea legs!

I have a ridiculously early flight from Sydney to Nadi in Fiji and of course get the usual surcharges for daring to travel with a surfboard. However I should say that with Fiji Airways it was at least done with a sympathetic tone and a smile.

I manage a two hour kip on the four hour flight too, but end up being the very last person off the plane due to waiting for the lady sat next to me and her elderly mother, who wasn’t at all mobile, to be able to get up and slowly make their way into the terminal without holding up the other passengers.

I didn’t mind too much because I have learnt that travelling anywhere on this trip, is a non event of a day, so there is no point rushing it.

That was until I saw there were only a handful of immigration desks open and I had to wait in line for over an hour, which was tad tedious.

Fiji is no further from Australia than New Zealand, and with it’s close ties to both I had high hopes of my phone working for a change when I get off a plane. Par for the course on this trip though, I don’t get a working signal when I switch my phone on upon arrival.

The trip around the island of Viti Levu to get to the Waidroka Bay resort  on the southern coast where I am staying for the next few days takes hours. As a consequence my driver suggests we stop along the way to get a bite to eat and a drink at his friend’s restaurant

Raju’s is run by Rakesh Singh who you see here posing in front of his bar, which is adorned with pictures of his sporting family. He used to be a professional boxer although I couldn’t understand if he had actually retired or not despite being in his forties. Like everybody I meet in Fiji he was incredibly friendly, and if anything in his case it was too much so. He couldn’t have known anything about it but after recent events I wasn’t really in the mood to hear every gory detail about how he had found his father after he had killed himself in the first five minutes of our conversation. 

It made me incredibly uncomfortable and that he wanted all my contact details in the UK and to know how long I would be away was a bit weird too, so I passed on the address of my old flat and just said two weeks!

The food was great though and the beer was cheap so I left on good terms after me meal. Once back on the road I arrive at the resort, after a few hours looking out the window at the local countryside and sugar canes crops .

It is time for me to head for another of the world’s rugby loving nations. Thankfully it will be one of the warmest. Fiji have been enthusiastic about the game since they played British soldiers in the nineteenth century, and today every village there has a team.

The British were also responsible for bring many Indians here to work in the sugar plantations, and there is a huge Indo-Fijian population and culture, reflected in the spicy curries enjoyed by all. However the clash of cultures has not always been an easy marriage, and because Indo-Fijians are still not entitled to the civil liberties of indigenous Fijians more than a hundred years later has largely been responsible for the four military coups which have taken place on the Island in the last twenty years.

I am going to be in the islands for just over a week, and am looking forward to enjoying another tropical paradise.

Fiji has starred in a number of films, but that it’s islands were used as the location to shoot Cast Away (the Tom Hanks version, as opposed to the Oliver Reed one) and The Blue Lagoon should give you some indication of what I am hoping to see here.

There is also a history of cannibalism on the islands, with vanquished foes regularly being eaten previously. So much so that when the mutiny on the bounty took place Captain Bligh sailed straight through the gap between Vanua Levu and Viti Levu after having been set adrift, in fear of being consumed by the locals. The channel has been named Bligh’s Strait as a consequence.

The waves are the real reason I am visiting this nation, and it is another stop on the ASP world tour, with the Volcom Pro taking place annually at Cloudbreak.

There is a huge coral reef that largely surrounds the archipelago, which results in some epic surf. All of which is breaking in warm and beautifully clear water. I can hardly wait!

Leaving Indonesia earlier than expected allows me some unexpected time enjoying more of the company of Kathleen, Chris, Adam and Rossana upon my return to Australia. I have come to realise the value of good friends on this trip and how precious time spent in their company is.

I am looking forward to seeing so many people again upon my return home. However sadly I have also discovered that I will not get the chance to catch up with another old friend any more…

My time is up in Java, so after packing up and saying my goodbyes I am back on board the G-Land Express. Everyone on board takes one last look at Money Trees on the way past, which was still cranking and the guys in the water were charging the break.

I haven’t been at all impressed with what I have seen of Bali and have decided to get back to Australia to spend more time with my friends there. I have spent so much time on my own during this trip, so it will be good to charge up my batteries whilst relaxing with people I know

I may be back in Indonesia later in my trip when Sumatra and the islands off the west coast will be close to my intended route home.

However I am unsure if I will travel across if the waves are going to be as busy as I have seen along the southern shores of the country. Whilst the quality of the breaks is undoubted there are so many people in the water and a distinct lack of surfing etiquette is all too often apparent.

Not much to report about the journey back other than due to my change of plans I had a ten hour wait in the airport before I could check into my flight. As usual I got ripped off for my surfboard going on a plane. I was flying Virgin Australia who only provide in flight entertainment for the six hour flight to those who have their Android or I-phone application. That there is no means of charging your device through the flight and that no warning that accessing the apps is necessary seems to have escaped them. Typical performance for an airline on my trip. 

The only other thing to report was that once back in New South Wales I saw a huge python in the road which we ushered back into the bush with a stick to stop it getting run over. They like to warm themselves on the hot tarmac apparently.

Whilst at Heaven on the Planet I am staggered to hear via email that my jacket, which you see demonstrating its wonderful waterproof  capabilities at Iguazu Falls, has resurfaced back in New Zealand. I have annoyingly bought a replacement already so it is now on its own way back to the UK.

You can catch up on its own exploits at www.aroundtheworldineightypostoffices.com

The tale involving some duct tape and the franking machine is outrageous!

It is time to move on again so I have packed my bags once more.

There were certainly loads more waves I could have chased in this part of the world, however I can’t say I will be too upset to be moving on from the feeding ground of Great White Sharks.

At least for a short while!

There are loads of other things I haven’t had the time to do either.

I am a bit disappointed not to have been able to visit the geographic feature known as Wave Rock whilst here, but I guess that will have to wait for another time.

Time to head off to the airport once more.

I decide to try and squeeze one more break in before returning to Perth and drive another 50 kilometres south to the Margaret River area. It is another of the world’s great great wine growing areas and there are vineyards everywhere but all this is once more wasted on myself.

However I guess I can be very pretentious at dinner parties upon returning home, waxing lyrical on the geography of all the regions I have seen on this trip.

As usual I am more interested in the surf opportunities and head straight for the mouth of the river, and the break there known as Surfers Point which is legendary in surfing circles.

I am gutted to discover that the road is closed upon arrival so they can beautify the car park and its approach, so there is no chance of me even seeing the break.

I drive on to the next beach called Gnarabup, but as I feared the swell has all but died and what little there is left is being ruined by the westerly winds which have picked up again.

Whilst there I have a chat with a local lady called Mim, who tells me more about some of the local Great White population. A short while back the beach you see here was full of tourists swimming and kids playing in the shallows. That was until somebody gave a warning that a shark was in the water causing an understandably rapid exit for everybody! 

The 5 metre long shark which would have a mouth the size of a kitchen table then swam along the length of the bay, rolling onto its side so it could have a good look at everybody on the shore as it went. Not satisfied with that it then swam back the other way doing exactly the same thing.

If they had tongues you could imagine the thing licking its lips!

Given I don’t want this to be the last thing I ever see, I am all of a sudden not at all unhappy about being unable to get any more waves in this part of the world!

From there I drive into the town of Margaret River, which is the home of Gath who manufacture helmets which you can wear whilst surfing.

I have a bit of a grail quest finding their operation which is on a business park right on the edge of town. It is where all the helmets shipped worldwide are manufactured and as a consequence I decide it will be the best place to buy one.

In more ways than one I have a big head, and have been unable to find one anywhere on my travels that is large enough for me. Even in their workshop there is only one in stock that fits comfortably so I snap it up.

Thus far I have several bouncings off boulders on my travels and that my face and teeth are largely the same as when I left the UK is arguably more by luck than judgement. I am flying to Indonesia the following day and think that making some effort to protect myself whilst surfing all the reef breaks there will be a sound investment.

It is a worrying sign however, because with tangible levels of self preservation and common sense creeping into my psyche I must be getting old! 

Yallingup Reef is a serious wave and the home break of Taj Burrow who is a regular contender on the world tour. The wave breaks from the left of this shot over the edge of the rock reef which runs all the way out from the shore under the flat water you can see on the right.

You wade and paddle across that until the edge of the reef and then try to time launching yourself into the white water in a spell when not many waves are coming through. On that score I didn’t do so well and had a real battle paddling out into the waves which were well over head high. Each one hitting you sends you back a bit towards the rocks behind you so there is no choice but to dig deep and paddle like a man possessed until you get clear of the white water and are able to catch your breath out back.

The consensus opinion when catching the waves is to then surf rightwards back towards the edge of the shelf because it will be less of a paddle back out after your ride, as opposed to battling through about thirty waves having gone left.

However once clear of the white water there are all kinds of shadows beneath you due to the rocks, and because there is so much swell you can’t tell if anything is moving or not. Knowing what is in the water here I have to say I didn’t enjoy myself a great deal and I think this photo says more about that than I can.

To make matters worse all the wax on my board started flaking off making it very slippy and I then got stung by something all the way up both my forearms.

I did catch a few rides though, but not knowing the break more than once found myself having to violently swerve around rocks breaking the surface just in front of me.

Not really my cup of tea this sort of thing so I got out before too long managing to muddle my way back up on to the reef having ridden a wave to the edge of it and bailing off at the last minute to stop my board hitting the rocks.

I dried off and got changed before going back to watch some of the locals who were really charging.

This fantastic statue has been erected next to the car park to celebrate the surf pioneers from Perth who first came down this way decades ago searching for more challenging waves.

I had another chat about the angry fish with somebody whilst there who sincerely believed that my life was under more threat from the local kangaroos population jumping out in front of my car.

I can’t say I am convinced by this argument.