Today is my birthday, and I’m 50. It makes it seem a bit too real when you type it! I woke up and cried when the boys all said Happy Birthday. I really, really don’t want to be 50.

After our extended stay at Red Bluff, followed by our sand pit camp right here, it’s now been six days since we had a shower. My hair feels like it has too much hair spray in it and John needs a shave rather badly.

Fergus cooked up pancakes for us all, and John did the coffee. This wonderful little Italian invention is the very best thing we’ve brought on the trip.

I wouldn’t go anywhere unless the coffee maker comes. I hunt high and low for good, fresh coffee beans too. A little obsessive? For sure.

The boys have given me this deluxe camping chair for my birthday.

It is a quantum leap from the old one – three more of which the boys are still using. So I’m like the Camp Princess now.

John has given me a gorgeous hand carved seat/bench made from tree branches made by a man in Darwin. We saw some of these seats in Central Australia and I just love them.

Given the glassy conditions this morning, it was, perhaps, a little naïve of me to think we would leave straightaway. Nah. We went up to Turtles surf break for another “quick one”. I must say the smile on John’s face was exceptionally big when he returned from the water.

I’m a bit sick and tired of taking surfing photos actually. And we haven’t even got to Kalbarri yet.
So finally, we are on the road to Carnarvon. We did some chores, and stopped at the long jetty – 1493m long!

It’s quite historic and is being restored by some local volunteer groups. The pylons are made from jarrah from the forests in the south west. They’re building an Interpretive Centre (that’s the new lingo for Visitor Centre) at the jetty. Carnarvon also boasts an enormous (really, really enormous) satellite dish that helped track the NASA Gemini and Apollo space missions. The Grey Nomads wouldn’t miss anything on tv with a dish that big.
We left town rather later than planned, and pulled off the highway for a bush camp. The sandy track we took looked quite firm, but was actually very soft. This was a bad thing. We got bogged in the sand about five times. We used the clever “get you out of the bog” rescue tracks that had yet to be christened. That’s another item we’ve brought along that’s been used – although I could well have done without the opportunity.

After about an hour (and finally letting the tyres down), we were free and sat round the fire for a well-earned beer/G&T. Can you believe I’m drinking UDL cans? That’s another story.

We’ve been here for four nights now, and are tempted to stay. Conditions are perfect this morning, and the water is glassy.
Ferg took (lots and lots of) photos this morning when John had an early surf. There were whales there watching them too.

It was just John and one other guy from near Margaret River who was once munched by a Great White Shark. He’s not worried about a whale.

Ferg said the whales hung out and flipped their tails for ages.

And the last view of the Bluff comes from my flora collection. There was huge patch of banksias as we drove out:

(Do you like that one Al?)
While we’re having flora, we’d better have fauna too. So here’s a big Red that Ferg and Harry met on the way to the point. He could be the one who ate our bread.

It’s not every day you spend the first light of the day surfing with Joel Parkinson, but today John found himself doing just that. After aborting a planned early dash to surf Gnaraloo this morning, he surfed “local”, as it were. He had the break all to himself. Till Parko arrived, with Ky Hurst, Kane and Shannon Eckstein, Zane Holmes and Wes Berg. So for those that have no idea who I’m talking about, that’s Parko – World Champion surfer, the rest of them are surf ironmen on the Nutrigrain circuit. They are here filming a series for tv on sporting challenges at various destinations in WA. They were headed up to Coral Bay after this to swim with the manta rays. Ha! We’ve already done that!
So as well as the “talent”, you also get the other 20 odd people lugging cameras and sound gear to capture the action.

Then there’s the jetski crew. And the tag along lackies to fetch and carry. And – they ate the café out of just about everything.

Anyway, we left them to it, and had a good day at Gnaraloo. John surfed in a strengthening wind that saw the number of sail boarders and kite surfers outnumber the regular surfers. The boys had a fun snorkel in the lagoon, and we headed back to the Bluff for a late afternoon session at the point.

It was another perfect evening of crashing waves on the shore break – and sunset cameraman tonight was Harry.

We have been seeing humpback whales since we hit the coast way back at Cape Leveque, north of Broome. They are usually a fair way out, and it’s hard to catch a good photo. But this evening, we were all relaxing round camp at Red Bluff when Ferg spotted a whale close to shore.

Campers appeared from their shelters and shacks and posh tents up and down the beach. This was a rare treat! This next photo shows how close to shore he was.

He frolicked all down the beach and out to the surf break at the point, into the sun. But we loved to watch while we could.