Surfari Highway - episode nineteen
- Distance travelled:
- 14,834 KM
- Location:
- Margaret River, WA
- Travel dates:
- June 12, 2011
- Status:
- Fourth stop of our WA leg
- Surf:
- Six foot reefbreaks.
- Swell direction:
- South-west
- Wind:
- Light north-easterly.
- Weather:
- Fine, sunny.
- Tides:
- High tide 7.19 am, low tide 3.50 pm.
Having driven some 15,000 km around Southern Australia, our RAV4 is holding up fine. Not so my 46-year-old body. By the time we get to Margaret River I am feeling my age. This is roughly our halfway point, in time if not quite in distance, and all the driving, surfing and writing, and the deepening winter cold, is starting to catch up with me. If I needed a reminder that I am not a carefree youth, my seized up neck and lower back provide it.
I have been promising Kirst that I'll have some time out of the water at some point to be more present in family life, but the constant surf has not as yet allowed it. Now, finally, my body says enough. I pull into the car park at Surfers Point late on a Friday afternoon and the booming swell down south has hit here with full force, the winds are a gentle offshore and the Point is firing. But the car park and the lineup are also packed. After the empty lineups of the south coast, it comes as a bit of a shock, like we have arrived back in the surfing mainstream. Despite the glorious conditions, with my tight neck and back it is not too hard to pass up. I can't afford to put my back out this far from home. We have another 10,000 km or so to negotiate on the return leg north and across the top. We are probably as far from home as it is possible to get in Australia.
But I also realise an odd thing. I feel ? satisfied. I have surfed more new and empty waves in the past few months than I have in my entire previous life. I've enjoyed perfect surf with barely a soul about in the most stunning environments. I feel no need to hustle in these busy lineups, on a long weekend no less. My body wants to rest and my family deserves my full attention for a while. And Margaret River offers an embarrassment of riches to the travelling family.
Over a few days, while I resist the lure of stubbornly ideal surfing conditions, we visit the region's spectacular caves, its glorious wineries, cruise its charming little towns and stunning forests, my wife and kids delighting in quaint collectables stores, and gorgeous kid friendly beaches. I start to feel guilty, begin to appreciate just what a sacrifice my surf time entails for the family, how much more we could see and do together if I wasn't always dashing off for a wave. Yet it's a dilemma with no easy solution. Surfing, and my dubious career writing about it, is what has made this entire trip possible. Yet I am almost craving the return journey through the surfless Top End to experience a pure family holiday, free of my own selfish pursuits and the constant siren song of the surf. But we'll see how long that novelty lasts.
Tourist tip: The Caves of the Margaret River Region are astounding and well worth the modest admission prices. Culinary highlight: Cullen's Winery for lunch is sublime.