Australian Story

Anyone watch Australian Story tonight? It was on Shane Gould and there were a few shots of her SUPping down inher home town of Bicheno, Tasmania. Looked like a pretty nice part of the world.

Bicheno, my Australian story.

I went on a campervan holiday around Tassie in January 2007 with a new girlfriend and her 9 year old daughter.

I was a surfer and had just started kitesurfing a few months earlier (the trip was planned before I started kiting) it was January (peak time for kiting in Perth) and I had just got the kiting bug so I was almost ready to stay in Perth and can the holiday.
There was a few heated discussions about wether or not I was going to take a surfboard and /or kiting gear.

In the end I relented and decided 3 of us in a campervan for 3 weeks was going to be crowded enough and that I could go without my surfboard etc and do the tourist thing.
It turned out to be an awesome holiday and I would recommend a lap of Tassie to anyone.
We did heaps of hiking, Cradle Mountain, Wine Glass Bay etc I even did a solo hike to Shipsterns Bluff, stunning coastline.

By the time we arrived at Bicheno I was starting to get frustrated that I didn't have a surfboard and was not happy, it was a beautiful day though and we had a great BBQ lunch at the foreshore of the protected bay (magic spot).

I started talking to a local surfer and next thing I know I had borrowed a surfboard and was going for a surf with him just around the corner, sort of a back beach down a gravel road not even sure what it was called now, it was absolutely firing and I had a fantastic time despite having no wetsuit and almost suffering from hypothermia, I was paddling all over the place like the keenest grom just trying to stay warm.

We stayed there the night and we hit it again the next morning, an ocean fix was just what I needed and was one of the highlights of my trip, the GF reckoned I was happy as for days after.

Gotta get back there one day with a SUP and a bloody good wetsuit.

P.S. When we were right down South at a place called Cockle Creek the temp was 31 degrees from memory and we were swimming and sunning ourselves on the rocks, I rang my son in Perth and they freezing their tits off over here with a temp of 14 degrees at the time in Perth, January 3rd 2007, I kid you not.

I just did a google search and it seems the max temp got to at least 19+ that day, still unbelievably cold for January in Perth.

members.iinet.net.au/~jacob/pthclim.html

Oh and I missed the Australian Story, but the fact that Shane Gould moved from down Margaret River way to Tasmania is a sign of how good it is down there.