1770 & AGNES WATER

Day 26 - Saturday 10th October

CARMILA BEACH to 1770 (yes that's a town's name)

We had a long drive ahead of us today so woke early, devoured a quick bowl of cereal with a nice ocean view before hitting the highway. Our destination was a town called Agnes Water next to 1770 the first place you can consistently surf in Oz due to the Great Barrier Reef. Helen took the wheel first and knocked out a smooth 3hours. We swapped in a truckers lay-by and I took us the rest of the way to our lunch time destination Rockhampton or Rockie if you're from round here. 

Rockhampton is the capital of Australia's beef industry with hundreds of miles of cattle ranches sprawling out into the dusty countryside. Obviously we had to stop for steak and chips! A quick google turned up an old place called The Ascot Hotel just out of town. From the look of the place, its best years were well and truly behind it. However you should never judge a book by its cover. The inside was nice enough with a couple of bars, a rather upmarket looking restaurants and an area dedicated to slot machines or "pokies".

A jolly chap called Will told us all about the different cuts of steak and why the flavour differed. Apparently it's to do with how much the muscle works. In a nut shell, the more work the better the flavour. The special thing about the steaks at The Ascot Hotel is they are served on a volcanic stone slab that are kept in a special oven 24-7 and heated up to 400 degrees. The raw meat is placed on the stone and brought straight to the table. You flip the meat immediately to seal in the juices, then at your own leisure cut small strips, lay them on the slab, and cook as desired. We ordered a ribeye and a rump at Wills recommendation. It was a bloody tasty recommendation. 

We made it to Agnes Water around four and swung by the local surf shop for some tips and board rental. Knowledge and board acquired we made for a leafy campsite by Workman's beach just down the road. It was a lovely spot but due to being the weekend quite busy. A friendly chap called Luke moved his RV so we could park up in a space near his tent. We cracked open some beers and sat chatting into the evening mainly about England vs Australia in various sports. Cricket and rugby caused some pained expressions from both sides. 

Day 27 - Sunday 11th October

AGNES WATER & 1770

I rose early to go for a morning surf with our next door neighbour Luke. I threw my stuff in the back of his RV and headed for Agnes Water beach, leaving Helen snoozing away in the van. The waves were not the best for my first Australian surf. Mushy chest high peaks were breaking all over the beach, luckily distributing the weekend crowd. I caught a hand-full of semi descent waves on the beaten up rental board but felt at $30 a day I should buy a board pretty quick.

We got back to camp round 9:30 and bid farewell to Luke. He worked up in a town called Gladstone and like many folk here, had driven down to surf for the weekend. We had read about a local market in 1770 ten mins up the coast so we packed up, drove over there and filled our cool box with some fresh veg for dinner from one of the farmers stalls. After wandering the market and a  rather tasty sausage sandwich we made for the most northern tip of 1770 to see the view up the coast. A rather eerie plaque to a drowned fisherman marks the most northern point you can get to. We sat for a while watching turtles surfacing for air below.

I managed to squeeze in a quick afternoon surf on the point before we had to get the board back to the shop. Helen was racing through yet another book on the beach, we have lost count how many this trip. Back at the shop I checked out all the second hand boards in the rack. Nothing was really quite right, either too small and high performance or too big. I had a look at the new boards inside and found the perfect board with a not very perfect price tag. I decided to sleep on it, and check out gumtree. 

Dinner back at camp was a super tasty fusion of South American and Australian with kangaroo fajitas. They were really good and cheaper than chicken. 

Day 28 - Monday 12th October

AGNES WATER & 1770

We had a slow start, I had been brewing a pretty bad cold and today it decided to take full effect. I guess after recently coming off months of malaria preventative antibiotics the old immune system has had a bit of a shock and needs to get its act back together. 

After a spot of laundry we visited the surf shop again. Gumtree had turned up zero boards and after speaking to Nacho from a few days back who surfs the board I was interested in, my mind was almost made up, however the money was still an issue. After far too long umming and arrring Helen just said get it, you're only here once and you can take it home as a memento of Aus. I think really it's because of the "HS" (Hayden Shapes) initials logo on the nose.

We headed straight down to the beach and heated up the remains of last nights fajitas whilst I eagerly waiting for the tide. Once the tide had shifted from low and the fajitas had shifted from my plate, I waxed up my new toy and paddled over towards the rocky point. I have a history of breaking new boards within the first couple of surfs so was fairly cautious and nervous when taking the first few waves. The conditions weren't great but there were only about five guys out which was a bonus. I caught a fair number of waves, a couple that ran all the way down the point to the beach. Not a bad surf for my first session on the board and the only thing to hit rock was my foot when I got a bit too cocky and paddled into a wave far to deep.

Dinner was a chicken green curry with lots of chilli, my cold had stolen all my taste but Helen assured me it was delicious. We got talking to the family parked next to us apparently you can get a surf lesson here for 17bucks (£8.50) that's the cheapest of the whole trip! I think Helen might have a crack again tomorrow.

Day 29 - Tuesday 13th October

AGNES WATER & 1770

After a lazy morning I dropped Helen at the local surf shop in time for class. At $17 for three hours it was a steal, especially when renting a board for half a day was $20. I surfed a sand covered reef further down the beach that was pushing up a small wave, I pretty much had it to myself which was splendid. However after learning sharks often frequent the points at the two ends of the beach, surfing alone had turned from a dream scenario to a worry.

After a spot of lunch and life admin (mainly working out how much we had spent then wishing we hadn't) we headed over to 1770 again to watch the sunset over the bay and estuary. It was a beautiful spot and we were able to back the van right by the water where some locals were catching their dinner. The disappearing sun had turned the landscape golden as a group of pelicans landed in front of us to try and catch theirs. I think they were doing a lot better than the locals and after some hushed grumbles the fishermen disappeared.

On route back to our camping spot we had a text from Nacho. He and Stefie were on route to meet us after being held up by van issues in Rockhampton. They arrived round 7 and joined us for some catch up beers and wine. It was great to catch up.

Day 30 - Wednesday 14th October

AGNES WATER TO BUNDABERG

Me and Nacho rose round 6:30 for a morning surf. We walked ten mins round to Agnes Water beach and were greeted with very small but clean waves. We had the whole beach to ourselves catching the set waves and generally chatting away about various things. We both realised we had one of Lee and Abby's songs stuck in our heads from their impromptu gig in Airlie beach. We spent the rest of the surf trying to think of ingenious ways we could get rich off their talent.

After a couple of hours we walked back to meet the girls who were both still dozing. We had a lazy breakfast and a long chat with the family next to us. They were a well traveled couple from Melbourne that were doing a lap of Australia with their three young kids. They had been on the road eight months. We were excited to learn they too had a blog: fiveinafourwheeldrive.com 

We headed to the beach for a swim and a good old fashioned sit. This was followed up by one of Agnes Water Bakery's famous pies for lunch. They were damn good and set us up for the journey south. We had arranged for some post to be sent to an old friend of Helen and Lucy called Alex Lenton who lives in Bundaberg about two hours south. We arranged to hopefully meet Nacho and Stefie at some camping spot south of the city for dinner then bid farewell.

Bundaberg like most of the towns we have past through seemed far to big and open for its population as closed shops and empty streets seems the norm. The architecture was nice, a mixture of wooden wild west meets French art nouveau with ornate metal balconies and pillars. We met Alex for a drink where Helen and Alex caught up about what their friends and family had been up to and how Australia had been for her. 

Just as we were finishing up we saw Nacho and Stefie's vintage van chugging past. We waved them down, did a spot of food shopping and made for a free camping spot half an hour out of town. They had beaten us there and when we arrived they formally invited us round to their place for a dinner party, if we had known we would have brought a bottle or at least the dessert (how embarrassing). We got on the red wine under a starry sky and enjoyed a delicious dinner. It was a lovely evening of putting the world to rights and continuing our earlier plan to all get rich off Lee and Abby's talent.