Mini Road trip: Gold Coast to Balina via Byron Bay

Day 1:  An early Tuesday start leaving Sydney at 7ish.  The early morning flight over the eastern suburbs revealed a nice day and an aerial view of the eastern suburbs.

Arriving at Gold Coast Airport I picked up the car and headed straight for Coolongatta.  It was a bit of a debate as to whether to get in at Dbah, Snapper or check Burleigh.  In the end I opted for snapper.  Nothing was classic and the wind was beginning to get up, but it was good to lok in a surf.  Very strange place to surf- the point is like a wave machine.  Unfortunately the wind and choppy east swell made it much more disorganized than it looked from above.  Had a little cruise down the coast checking miles of average beach break before heading to a rainy Byron Bay.

Day 2:  An early start paid a dividends.  So did a bit of driving.  Winds were offshore and there was a short period but decent size easterly swell.  Nowhere in Byron looked any good but success was found at Broken Head.  I surfed for 3 hours before feeling destroyed.  Without having food or water I was starving and thirsty.  So headed to Ballina via Lennox Head.  Ballina is a cool and quiet little town.  After smashing a pie and then an ice cream Lennox I spent the afternoon driving around.  A bit of night out of Byron with a few beers meant a late finish and another awesome pie.

Day 3:  Rain and not much surf- well not any good.  I checked out the Byron Bay Lighthouse and Australia's Easterly point.  Also a quick surf at sharky Tallows.  It was pretty dumpy and hard work. The common theme continues.  After a 30 min session more driving and a stop at the 'Humble pie' company.  I wouldn't say this pie was exceptional, but it was good.  I finished up the evening arriving at Surfing Australia in Casuarina.  Healthy dinner and early bed were the order of the day.

Day 4:  Early start to the coaching day at Surfing Australia.  A productive day.  Once I bothered fighting the current caught some fun rights with some footage review.  An avro technique skate and a short surf in what had deteriorated to dumpy onshore closeouts.

The day finished with driving up to the Goldie for a night in Surfer's Paradise (not paradise by the way).  The highlight was free beer in one bar.

Day 5:  Got in a surf near Burleigh Heads at a beach break while it was small but clean.  Headed on to where the trip started at Snapper to pack up the board and dry the wettie.  A last lunch and beer at the Rainbow Surf Club with a great view of snapper.  All rounded up with a Gelato Messina, who have an outpost in Coolongata (how un Queensland, before flying back to Sydney.

All in all a fun little trip.  Not the best waves or weather, but saw plenty of big name surf spots and enjoyed driving round somewhere else in Oz.

Around Eastern Suburbs

I finally completed the Bondi to Coogee walk.  I also did the treck up to Watson's Bay from Bondi.  lthough not coastal all the way there are some nice pockets en route and Watson's Bay itself is great.  Easy ferry ride back.

A trip to Cockatoo Island

I have been enjoying free Opal card travel at the weekends.  So when there is no surf there is plenty of exploring to do.

On a sunny Sunday last weekend I took the ferry out to Cockatoo.  It was a completely free day out and an interesting one too.

Cockatoo was a prison and then for nearly a century shipyard (bizarely).  Its now a tourist attraction although not a busy one.  A kind of Sydney Alcatraz.  Plenty of semi abandoned industrial buildings and equipment.  You can even stay the night, but a few hours was enough to see it.

Passing landmarks

  And another one

Cockatoo with a view

And things to see on the island too

Around Sydney

My priorities were to open my bank account and get an Aussie mobile number which I achieve.

Unfortunately a bite I got in England which had swelled up huge- so I got my first experience of a n Australian medical centre and pharmacy.  I need to sign up to Medicare since there is a reciprocal agreement.

In the afternoon the weather was good so went to the CBD, Hyde Park and did a walking tour.

The long journey

It seems obvious that Australia is quite a long way- so the journey was to be long.

A while ago I had booked on Ethiad as it wad the cheapest one way (excluding China Southern and Malaysian).  I was also keen to fly on an A380 as I am a bit of a plane geek secretly.

I was impressed with the A380 and had a smooth flight to Abu Dhabi.  There was a seat in the middle free which was a bonus.  The seats were comfortable, the windows large, the plane was very modern and also the way it was compartmentalized meant that it did not feel like a big plane- except when you look out the window at the wingspan.  Unfortunately at 6hrs this  was much the shorter of the flights.

I did not rate Abu Dhabi airport at all.  There was no where to sit until they opened the gate and kept having to go through multiple security layers.  It seems in the Arab world they only give a s*** about you if you have loads of money.

The long 13 hour flight was less comfortable. The 777 seemed old and cramped compared to the A380 and a bad seat selection by me probably didn't help.  When I made it to Sydney there was a long queue for passports.  However once I got through it was easy.  So long as you don't try and bring organic matter in there is no hassle.  The train to town was easy and took 10 mins.  Handily the station was also next to my hostel.


Overall a long but in the scheme of things not too painful journey.  I thought Ethiad were okay but not nearly as good as they think they are.  Granted the food was good and they take surfboards.  But I don't want to watch videos about Man City or a stupid advert about the airline before every film or tv program.

I'm off to OZ

I am at Heathrow, waiting to begin a long journey to Oz.  Many months of planning finally coming to a head.

Final Days in and around Rio

It’s clear that I haven’t updated this blog in a while.  In this time Chelsea have even won the Premier League (YES!!!).  Now waiting at Galeo Airport gives me the perfect opportunity so I will cover off the last three days.

On Friday Maria had a day off thanks to a national holiday.  In the morning I headed for a casual surf down at Arpadoar.  There was a big swell hitting the whole coast.  I had avoided going in the day before as it had been raining heavily, and as mentioned in the last post rain equals sewage due the lack of proper sanitation in much of the city.  The left was working really well but with a crowd of 30-40 on it I opted for one of the ‘peaks’ further down.  It was still croweded and dirty but managed to score a left.

The weather was great and later on headed to Bar do Bacano- ‘my favourite bar in Rio’.  I hadn’t been there since my first trip in 2013.  We had to wait to get a seat but it was worth it.  I unintentionally managed to order 2 600m bottles of Orignial and had Maria’s Caipirhina- needless to say ended up pretty wasted.

Afterwards we headed to nearby Parque Large for a quick stroll around.

When the weekend arrived we agreed to hire a car and drive down to the national park around Prainha and Grumari.  We had done this before, but this time instead of exploring we were heading for cleaner beaches and a mini road trip.  After picking up a car at Localiza it was a fairly easy and scenic drive.  

Passing Prainha the waves were much bigger than expected and the paddle out looked brutal.  Prainha is certainly exposed- on a 5ft swell the waves were well overhead.  We carried on to Grumari where we got lucky on the parking space and also the waves.  A decent clean left was running right down the first part of the beach.  Grumari is the beach featured in the beach scene of ‘City of God’ and is probably the nicest in the immediate Rio area.

Waves were really good- with fun lefts and the odd shorter right.  You will have to see pictures Maria got of much better surfers than myself (below) to get the full picture.

Following a while on the beach we headed for a late lunch down at Guaratiba.  Unfortunately the restaurant, which did fish Bahia, style was not so good and quite expensive.  Generally I would avoid eating fish in Brazil- they seem to have a tendency to deep fry the whole thing and serve it with paste.  It ends up being far to heavy and lacking that fresh flavour.  This seems to have happened every time we have gone for local fish on our trips.  However at the town we saw another wave in the across the river mouth which was pretty small and clean,b ut had some shetler from the wind hitting the exposed beaches.  Clearly an option for big and stormy easterlies.

We had such a good day at Grumari we kept the car and headed back the next day.  Waves were smaller but still fun.  After hours on the beach we headed for luch in the restaurant by the beach, which was definitely and improvement on the previous day.  The only issue with Grumari and the area around was a large and aggressive bee population (they are everywhere).  Maria got stung and I certainly came close a few times.

The car journey back was pretty smooth and was even able to get a parking space very close to Maria’s flat.  I was so knackered and despite applying strong sun block ended up somewhat burned.

Sitting at the airport this concludes a great trip in Rio and around South America.  Now many hours on TAP await before returning to London.

                                              

Common Knowledge

Hardly news that Sao Conardo is full of s***.  Always avoided that beach.
It's raining very heavily here though...that doesn't boad well for anywhere.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/30/polluted-rio-de-janeiro-beach-ruled-out-for-pro-surfing-competition

Back to Rio and Saquarema

After leaving Valparasio we spent our last day in Santiago.  Having done most of the city before, we saw the modern district where they have just completed Latin America's tallest building.  Underneath there is also a huge shopping centre called the Costanera Centre.  We passed an afternoon here, before heading back to the Peruvian restaurant for dinner.  We found that in general the best food in Chile was actually Peruvian.  Although Chile doesn't have good beers.  I also bumped into a guy a had been surfing with in England a few times which was quite strange.  He agreed that the surf around Valparasio was quite s*** and was telling me about Pichelemu.  Maybe next time.

We had one last morning in Chile before our flight back which was taken up by visiting the National Zoo.  As expected it was not quite like a zoo in the UK.  Although not cruel, I would not say conditions where great, especially for the elephants who looked pretty sad.  The highlight were meercats who were pretty cheerful and friendly.

We had a smooth flight back on TAM again with decent emergency exit seats.

Back in Rio the following day- it started off with heavy rain.  However once the weather improved I was able to persuade Maria to come down to Arpoador while I surfed.  For one it was not crowded, although there were still plenty of drop ins.

We had pretty interesting sunset with the clouds and the light water giving special effects as below.

Saquarema:

The next day I got up pretty early (just before 5:00) and headed to the bus station in Rio to get a bus to Saquarema exactly as I did in December 2013.  Also stayed in the same hostel which lets say is pretty basic but a least it was cheap and near the beach.

The main reason to come here is waves.  And they have been really good.  A massive difference in power compared to Rio.  Although it is a bit s*** scary when they slam down on the sand.  The surf is very much like Hossegor.  Contrary to what the locals say I found the water to be pretty warm and was too hot in wetsuit so switched to boardies.

The night was pretty boring as the town is absolutely dead- couldnt even find a place to get a proper dinner.  Nevertheless a fun little trip was good to surf some waves in a different class to the city breaks.  I won't miss the mosquitos here which have eaten me despite repellent.

Chile- Valparaiso.

The return bus journey was less smooth than the outward journey.  The bus was stopped multiple times by the Argentinian Military Police, while customs into Chile also took ages.  Unfortunately on both bus journeys being night time we did not see much of the Andes.  However being more awake on the way back we could see the stars pretty clearly (almost at eye level) and experience the feel of 180 bends in the road.

We arrived early in the morning and were able to check in to the Ibis where we were staying.  It was the most modern building in Valparasio by a long way.  After looking at places up the hill which were more expensive this had proved to be the best value and we had a decent room.

For lunch I was keen to taste the local specialty dish 'Chorillana'.  Despite the beer being good the food was terrible.  As put by an Aussie we met later on- 'if that was my local dish I would be pretty embarrassed'.  Spot on.  The meat- a combo of beef, chicken cuts and cheap sausage was s*** and after Mendoza it was impossible to stomach bad meat.

In Valparasio one of the 'things to do' and also get up the hills is to take an elevator which is basically a rickety funicular railway.  Up the hill a few blocks are quite arty with many little cafes and painted streets.  Despite this the whole place felt very quiet.

After wandering around the bit of town on the hill, which to be honest is the only scenic bit of town we saw we went for drinks with a view of the sunset.  We chatted with some Aussies, who recommended a pretty decent restaurant called Cafe Tourri.  It was a relief to have something light in the form of salmon and salad.

Having checked out Valparasio which did not take too long, we used our second to check out the coast.  We headed to Concon, past Vina del Mar where waves small.  Nevertheless I hired the 'worst surfboard in the world' and had a quick surf in the small close outs- complete with a view of a nearby oil refinery.

We continued back past Renaca, which did not have any hire places.  But to be honest I don't think much was missed given that it was mainly close outs (below).

From our hotel we were able to observe the workings of the port including the comings and goings of ships like this.  We opted for dinner again at Cafe Tourri.  I opted to try Congor Eel, a Chilean dish, which was great.

Argentina- Mendoza 100 Posts

100 Posts since I started this blog

We arrived at Mendoza in the early hours and it was quite straightforward to get a taxi to the hotel.  We were able to check in early and catch up on sleep.  However the bus journey had not been too bad.  Our ‘luxury seats’ on Andesmar were not quite that, but comfortable enough to sleep most the journey and not notice the fact we were climbing the world’s second tallest mountain range.  Even Argentinian customs was pretty straightforward.

Later we headed out to Maipu by bus where we hired bikes and went around wineries.  However it ended up being more bike and less wine, albeit in sunshine and good temperature.  Despite this we went to two wineries and the wine was not that great except for maybe the Malbec at the second.  Although the tours where shortish we got a little insight into the production process including explanations about French vs American oak.  Bizarrely I even bumped into an ex-colleague who had left my last organisation before me on leaving a winery- which was quite strange. 

That night we headed out to 1884 Francis Malman, which is the ‘top’ restaurant in Mendoza.  The place was extremely up market and the service was really good.  So was the bread, Bife and deserts ect.  It made Gaucho in London look like a poor cousin.  In the end despite having been a high end experience the bill came to the equivalent of around £84, which for main, excellent deserts, continuous water and a bottle of Malbec.  Afterwards we were pretty stuffed.  Was it the best in Mendoza? – Well that will be covered later.

The next day we woke up later and were able to do a late check out.  Overall we were pretty impressed with the Hotel Internacional in Mendoza, since we were able to check in early, check out late and the staff were always pretty helpful.

Instead of leaving town we opted to wander around.  To be honest there is not a huge amount to see- it is more a place to experience.  As a town it is a decent size, mainly because it is quite spread out covering a large surface area.

The highlight of the day was the Don Mario steakhouse. I had been recommended by a taxi driver and also the internet.  It was very good.  Unlike 1884 it was quite quiet and local.  The waiter recommended a choice of three different steaks to share giving a variety of cuts.  This was a great choice, since they were all great ranging from tender to full of flavour.   We also did well on the wine.  The method of choosing the cheapest Malbec each time paid dividends, since this was definitely the best I had in Mendoza.  I ended up drinking most the wine and felt pretty drunk.

So much so that when getting an ice cream in town I crushed the cone and had to dive down to catch the falling ice cream.  The afternoon was filled with more wine at a wine tasting place and then a bar, before it was time to leave Mendoza.

Overall I was very sad to leave Argentina, which I had a very positive opinion of in the short time I spent there.

Chile- Santiago

We left on Sat evening.  The flight with LAN was quite good.  It was an extra bonus that Maria managed to get us seats in the emergency exit row that had loads of legroom.  Santiago airport was very 21^st Century (unlike Rio), and we got a cab quite easily.

When we arrived at our accommodation at 1:00am it turned out that our original room was gone.  The man took us to his other hotel where he had space.  He was talking for ages trying to be funny and chatting to us- which quite frankly dazed and half asleep the last think I wanted to do was chat to this guy.  In the end the hotel was quite nice (although our room was small).  When he said his other hotel at first I had imagined something resembling a brothel. 

The next day we ended up speaking to the guy.  He was quite eccentric and even sang to us which was slightly weird, but during the conversation we picked up tips to explore Santiago.

It doesn’t take more than a day to visit Santiago.  As it was Sunday there was relatively little traffic.  We walked through the park along the river, seeing the Museum of Bella Artes.  The city is certainly quite clean and civilised (compared to Rio at least).  We had some good luck going up to another park and unplanned ending up in a food festival, which was mainly local.  A further museum of Andes culture, pisco sours and a view from the ‘Virgin on the Hill’ which is Santiago’s answer to the Cristo in Rio.

Unfortunately our opinion of Chile was rather dismissed when a taxi driver screwed us other en route to the bus station, by switching notes.

Flat day Friday

Flat day Friday meant a visit to central Rio again, but this time for most the day.  Checked a few things I hadn’t seen in Rio before like the Central Station, Portuguese Library, and Flamengo War memorial.  It’s all quite compact and easier to walk around.

Met Maria for dinner in Santa Teresa at Bar Mienero and ate the usual copious portions

2 days of FLAT and 1.5 days of surf

Monday was FLAT.  So headed into town on the metro.  Got some coffee in Urgagui and had a wander around Centro. 

Tuesday was also FLAT, but opted to spend the day in Zona Sul which is quite easy to do.  This included playing beach football on Ipanema until the sun got the better of me and working out on the many pull up bars to get stronger (I hope).  For an alternative sunset I headed to Lagoa where they were clearing out dead fish (yum).  Sunset not too bad.

Wednesday waves.  All in the convenience of a wander over.  Sadly also crowded with Brazilians and not the best.  But got in 2 sessions of shortish rides.  Finished the day with a big feijoida.

Today (Thursday that is) there were waves again but much smaller and dying.  So opted for a bit of extra size and made  the close to 2 hour bus journey (each way down to recreio).  Got a few waves in- but the water was pretty gross (s*** and plastic).   By about lunch the wind picked right up and the swell was dropping.

Managed to get one of the exectuivo busses back (they are more expensive but well worth- unlike other public buses the seats are comfortable, you don’t feel like you are about to be killed by dodgy driving and you have personal space.  Paranoid about surfing in contacts in the filth I found myself taking them about on the bus journey home.  Fortunately when I arrived home Maria had made some pretty nice late lunch and I lazed the afternoon away doing nothing particularly useful.