It’s been a busy few days at Mayfield Beach

The “Kooks on Tour” surfing expedition of Sam, Glenn, Alistair & myself continued to venture into more remote Tassie locations with almost perfect conditions except a general lack of swell & hence the absence of any sizeable waves. Anyway, waves were caught & even fish were caught as I swapped a surfboard for a speargun on a couple of occasions. First up, all I managed to do was shoot rocks. More practice required. This rock shooting business sure does blunt the spear tip quite a bit which later required the use of a “bastard file” to reshape/sharpen the tip. Thanks for the loan of the file Glenn. The next dive was more successful. I still shot a few bastard rocks but also a couple of fish (sometimes the fish just swim in front of the rock I’m aiming at). The bastard file must have worked as I later identified one of the fish as a “bastard trumpeter”.

The remote surf trips also became opportunities to collect firewood in preference to paying $8-$10 a bag in town. While the collection of wood from National Parks & Conservation Areas is not allowed, timber on the side of the road outside these areas and on private land (with owners permission) is fair game. We were surprised how a little battery operated saw could chop thru a log as we cleared it off a fence.

During the wood collection process we noticed a few spiders running about. Even more once the logs went on the fire later that night. There was much stomping of feet. It seems they were nesting in the logs. We’re all a bit concerned that Alistair, who transported the wood in the back seat of his dual-cab ute, will have a few extra passengers than usual.

On these surf trips we traveled as far & wide as the Friendly Beaches & Bicheno. There was also this secret spot Glenn discovered from a friend of a friend whose mates brother (or some other relation) owns a sheep station on the coast & involved being granted access to private property, swinging farm gates, big tractors, rough tracks, no tracks, duck hides, avoiding livestock & the most perfect spot for a camp, surf & or a dive. Alas, on that trip, the waves were missing, but it sure was a purdy spot for future reference.
Tassie has such beautiful coastline.

So with fish on the Barbie & firewood a plenty we had a few good nights around the campfire, solved a lot of the worlds problems & probably ate & drank too much.

Howler of a Moon

Campfire Light + Moon Light

It may have been during one of these evenings when Sam suggested a surf lesson for Jayne. As Mayfield Beach had a suitable beginners wave right out the front of our camp, it would be all too easy. In a moment of weakness or Pinot Noir, Jayne agreed & the next day it was game on.

It was a successful first lesson with Jayne getting to her feet a few times.

The following day Jayne joined the “Kooks on Tour” & the 2nd lesson was much better with 3 “awesome” waves being ridden. Jayne is now a full fledged surf grommet (grommet is a term for a young inexperienced surfer). After just two lessons from Sam the “Super Surf Instructor”, Jayne is now officially a surfer (well, at least a frothing grommet) having caught & stood up on 3 waves in one session. We reckon that’s the default minimum amount of waves needed before it can be considered a real surf. She has even started using surfer language in every day conversation. Maybe the cold water has shrunk her brain a bit…

We left the coast just as the camp spot was filling up with campers for the long weekend & have ended up at Deloraine tonight on our way to Cradle Mountain. With the van unhitched we took off for a look at Liffey Falls, a 40 minute round trip walk thru the rain forest. The falls were very scenic but the surprise of the walk was the 6′ tiger snake that slithered down the path & scared the daylights out of us. Evidently I nearly stood on it. Jayne grabbed my arm & made the international sign for “tiger snake” which looked a bit like a deer in the head lights with a bit of squealing thrown in. For some reason I didn’t react quick enough to take a photo of it…

Liffey Falls

Wefie at Liffey

Jayne tells me she has a few sore surfing muscles for some reason.

Hopefully, we should both sleep well tonight, as long as we don’t dream of big black snakes.

07 Feb This entry was published on 07/02/2015 at 7:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.