Camping... Aussie Style!

Howdy!

Thanks for making it back here :)

I'm taking a rare day off school/work undertakings today... But much like my father, I can't seem to actually take a full day off to just chill out. Always gotta be in motion, doing something. Worked on the yard this morning, did some "home-improvement" to my room this arvo (Aussie slang for 'afternoon'), and here I am writing this blog entry before I head off to the gym. Is it good to always be productive, getting stuff done, or do I need to learn to take it easy more? I'm not too sure.

Anyways, good news, the school semester is winding down, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... And not even that far off in the distance!

Friday was the last day of class, and after furiously editing a paper in the morning and handing it in, I was happily on my way to the "End Of Semester Show" . EOSS is an outdoor concert that takes place in the middle of campus, much like ACF/Block Party at UBC. The sun was shining (like always!), the music was good, and the beer was flowing freely. Everyone was stoked on being done their assignments, so needless to say, the vibe was outstanding. Once the concert ended, I was off to a big party at the Law Faculty outdoor courtyard and it turned out to be one of the best parties I've been to at UWA. Stellar day to finish up the semester!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had been extremely keen on going out camping and trying my hand at spearfishing since my roommate Christian had moved in. Well, with all my school projects done with, and my first exam a week away, this was the perfect time to go ahead and do it.

After a few hours sleep, I woke up surprisingly refreshed on Saturday morning and we started packing Christian's truck. He's got a Land Rover with custom-modifications for outdoor expeditions so we were rolling in style!

Getting the truck ready for the expidition

After going to pick up my buddy Sam at his house, we were our way to our destination, a spot 2 hours up the coast called Ledge Point.


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As soon as we got out of Perth, the scenery started changing, and Freestyle Phil was feeling as relaxed as can be.

Chilling in the back of the truck. Stress level... Low, very low!!!

After a couple hours of driving through landscapes which resembled nothing I had ever seen in my life (a mix of desert and very arid forests), we arrived to our destination.

We drove up and down the beach to find a good spot where we would be protected from the wind, and eventually settled on this nestled area 25 meters removed from the ocean.

Setting up camp in the dunes

Once we were properly installed, we walked over to scope out the beach. The lads weren't too keen on going for a swim, but I haven't traveled 25 000km to come here and just watch the ocean. I ran in and even though at first the water was a tad chilly (20-21 degrees), it felt amazingly refreshing.

On the way back from my conquest of the ocean!!

After getting dried off and putting some fresh clothes, it was time for a few sunset beers.

As nice and relaxing as it was... It wasn't long before I got a little rowdy. Haven't been able to do any cliff jumping lately, so I decided to try my hand at dune jumping instead!

About 1 second later I learned that sand doesn't make for as smooth a landing as water does!

Once the sun went down, we walked back to camp and got the fire going. Chris cooked an amazing curry on the fire and we threw a few steaks on there as well.

Chef Chris taking care of business

We washed down the meal  with a few cold beers, a glass of goon or two, and a nice cigar under the stars. After a lovely evening, we were all ready for some sleep, knowing the next day would most likely be an eventful one!

I kinda woke up around 5:30am and while normally I would have gone right back to sleep.. I realized the sun was about to rise and the ocean in the distance looked incredible, so I figured what the hell... Got up and walked over to check it out. Here's what I found.

Breathtaking!

After a few more hours sleep and a couple peanut butter toasts, we packed up the truck and drove off to find the best surfing spot around. Unfortunately, we got off the sandtracks and ended up getting stuck in the sand!

Still beats getting stuck in the snow in -20 weather!!!

Luckily, some guy pulled us out of there and we were back en route in no time. Once we found a spot we liked, we put on the wetty's, grabbed our boards, and headed out.

Sammy and Chris on their way out

After a good little sesh, we came back out, made some coffee and sipped on it while enjoying the surroundings ;)

All caffeined up and feeling good, we set off for a little drive on the beach towards Wedge Island, the site of our next adventure.

The Wedge

Once we got there, it was time to put the wetty's back on... And get briefed by Chris for our much-anticipated spearfishing debut!!! I had been looking forward to this for weeks and my heart was racing but as soon as I saw how big the guns were I realized that I was better off paying attention while he was giving us instructions.

Rule #1 - Don't ever point your loaded speargun towards one of the other lads!!
Rule #2 - Don't shoot a fish that's in front of coral or rock to avoid breaking the spear
Rule #3 - When you see a fish you wanna shoot, dive down to its level to have an undistorted line of sight.
Rule #4 - Once you're there, take a half-second to focus, and then just shoot!!!
Rule #5 - If you hit it, hold on to the gun. The fish might try and swim away with it.

The Student & the Master ready for action!!!!

We got in there and it was everything I had hoped and more. It's hard to explain, but basically spearfishing is like snorkeling on massive steroids. You get to see all the pretty little fishes swimming around, swim through  underwater tunnels, check out the corals, etc... But! You're swimming around with a massive speargun, in  hunter mode with adrenaline pumping through your whole body, ready to dive down as soon as you see a big fish. Pure awesomeness.

Unfortunately, Sam got tired quite quickly so we had to leave him behind. Chris and I kept going and on some level, I felt like all my years of swimming had lead me to this very moment. I felt totally comfortable in that setting. I wasn't getting tired, had no problem diving down, holding my breath, and just staying calm underwater.

 We kept going for a while and we saw a lot of fishes but nothing big, until Chris pointed towards something that looked quite big and for a split second I thought it was a shark and kinda froze up. We went back up and I asked him what the hell that was, and he said it wasn't dangerous or anything and I could go and shoot it if I wanted. About 0.32 second later I was back underwater looking for the big fish. Unfortunately I couldn't find it and had to give up on it.

A few more minutes passed, and Chris was about 15m away from me when I spotted a good size fish and decided this was it. I wasn't going to miss my chance this time!

I dove down... Stabilized myself... Fish was about 7-8 meters away and didn't seem particularly concerned that a guy with a giant gun was looking at it. Having never shot anything before in my life I hesitated for a split second, then I remember thinking "sorry fish, but I'm about 5 rungs above you on the food ladder". I pressed the trigger, the spear went off and I just saw the fish going all crazy... I was a bit confused until I felt a yank on my gun and realized that I had hit it! Holyyyy crap. What a feeling!! I pulled the rope in until the fish was right next to me, swam back up, and started yelling Chris' name like the world was ending (he later told me I sounded so frantic he thought I had seen a shark!).

He swam over, we pulled the spear out and killed the fish before putting it on the rope that Chris was pulling around for this particular situation.

We kept swimming around for an hour or so but didn't see anything worth shooting at (I was so close so many times to shooting small fishes but Chris had told me not to so I controlled myself.. barely). It didn't matter because I had my fish.

My first catch!

Tonight Chris showed me how to makes filets out of the fish I caught, which is called a Drummer Fish. It takes a bit of practice and finesse with the knife, but overall it's not overly complicated.

We weren't too sure how good the flesh was going to be, but I was pretty excited about trying it so I just started eating it as sashimi. It was actually really good! I then threw one of the filets on the barbie and it turned out even better. Tasted like victory! And I have 6 more filets to eat over the next couple weeks!

So as you can see, all in all this was a great weekend. Every time I get out of the city, I just think to myself... "Why don't I do this more often?" Well, I don't have a car so that certainly is a bit of an issue!

But this weekend served as a great reminder of how much I love road trips... And since you only live once, I've decided that as soon as I get my Quebec government money, I'm buying a car, some basic camping gear, perhaps even a speargun, and I'm gonna make the most out of this beautiful place called Western Australia! Can't wait!

Phil