The Dirty South Trip Continued...
Sunday remained casual. We woke up late, some later than others, and stumbled up onto the deck. I know Mrs. Cope Fed us breakfast, but i don't remember what it was. Eventually we all got our bearings and headed out to go fishing. Copey said that nippers (these crayfish type critters) made good bait, but they burrowed deep into the sand and needed to be removed with a "nipper pump", a long cylinder that you jam into the sand to pump out the nippers with. Jeremy seemed quite keen and so while the others bought their bait for around 4 dollars, jeremy bought a $70 nipper pump...
We went to a number of places to try our hand a fishing, but they just weren't biting. eventually we wound up at the board walk where yesterday Caroline had caught about 5 in very little time. While the crew (minus max and benoite who were out golfing) went to fish off the board walk, Jer, Copey, and I tried our hand at nipper pumping. Apparently Jeremy, in his constant state of argue, had over heard Copey say "You can't eat nippers". The truth was that, yes, you could eat nippers, but their size and flavour made them less than a perfect picnic. However, Jeremy chose to take Copey's statement literally, and said he would eat a nipper (live) to prove him wrongand to teach Copey a lesson about choosing his words more careully. That might not have been exactly how the whole thing happened, but this was a couple weeks ago and my memory has gone a bit fuzzy. Maybe Jeremy just likes sea food? I know he was stoked about getting 12 oysters on the half shell for $7. I had a couple, they were damn good too...
Any way, When Nathan finally caught a nipper, It was over to jeremy who gobbled it down quick snap. He looked like he was gonna vomit about half way through, but he got it down in the end.
After another 10-15 unsucessful minutes of trying, no more nippers were caught and we gave jeremy shit for eating all of our bait. I decided to have a go at pumping and discovered my calling. I was pumping out nippers like no one's business. Some times i could even get 2 in one go. I think the final tally was Nathan - 1, Jeremy - 1, Andrew - 28. We filled our bucket and headed down to fish.
The fishing was far less exciting than the nipper pumping...
There were some people at the docks cleaning fish and throwing the heads and guts into the inlet. Ian's girlfriend Kayleigh(?) came racing over to me and pointed to the water, "look, look at the sting rays!!!"
I have seen sting rays in the past at zoos and aquariums and things, but never, NEVER have i seen sting rays that big. My photos don't do them justice. Their bodies were wider than i could stretch my arms. They move quite gracefully cutting through the water, and they kept making laps, so i ran back to my bag to get my camera. I climbed onto a rock protruding from the water to get a better shot and jeremy, with the finest of taste, yelled "ANDREW, COVER YOUR HEART!!!"
Max and Ben had finished their golf game and, at copey's request, had brought back the dreaded "Narooma Gourmet Sweet Chilli Hot Dogs". We chowed down, and they were quite delicious, while we hit the beach to catch some rays, and i immediately could feel their weight in my stomach. We went to kick under the domed roof of the plaza mall and i felt sick and bloated the whole time. Copey's comment to me was "Yeah, they'll do that to a first-timer..."
We all went back to Copey's place where his Mother had put on a feast. My cooking history got out and i was nominated to carve the roast. It was a fantastic spread and afterwards, those of us sober enough to participate, engaged in the thrilling Narooma Footbagger National Poker Championships. I gained an early lead with some well played bluffs, and some well played hands where i slowly drew them in, raising big enough for them to follow with out getting scared and folding. I was up around 300 chips (we were to done to be othered counting what the value of said chips actually were) while Jeremy and Caroline were at breaking point with about 16. I had stated that at the end of my beer i was just going to continually go all-in, regardless of the strength of my hand, untill i either won or lost. Took a while,but i eventually went out and hit the sack. Turns out jeremy went out just after me and Nathan beat caroline in heads up... and he vaguely remembers playing poker this time. Personally, i think he just says he can't remember as an out for losing...
Australia Day!
It started early. Too early. Mr. Copey had said the night before that they had a capitan to take us to montague island, but they still needed a deck hand, and that the likelyhood of us going to the island was about 10%. we would know at about 9am he told us. Well at 8:30 Mrs. Cope woke us up to say that the boat would be leaving in 30 minutes, much to our surprise. We quickly gobbled cereal and coffee and counted our numbers... We were missing Dan, who was staying at the hostel on the other side of town. I was about to give him a ring when i remembered a conversation we had the day before. He went kyaking in the inlet and made the mistake of bringing his cell phone with him. It got very wet and very very broken.
This was bad, as we knew he wanted to come, but we had no way of contacting him. We sent some to the boat to hold it up while we went to hunt him down. We arrived at the hostel banging on his door only to find that he was gone. We raced back through town looking for his car to be parked outside of one of the shops, praying that he hadn't gone for a surf.
We arrived back at the docks to find him there with the others waiting for us. He had gone to copey's place just before 9 and met the wide eyed gaze of Mrs. Cope who freaked out a bit teklling him that we had been looking for him. Thankfully the docks are close to copey's (hell every thing is, Narooma ain't big!), and we all made the boat on time.
The trip to the island was nice, but i'm told that many people die trying to get to the island,as the waters are notoriously rough between the island and shore, and that very small windows exist where there is calm, safe water. We were going in one of those windows and we had just over an hour in which to go out and back.
We circled the island first to get a good view and came across another National Parks boat, writing a ticket to a poacher fishing in protected waters. It was kinda funny as we all sat and stared at the offenders. Eventually we docked and made our way ashore.
Saddly it wasn't little penguin season, but we did get a good tour of the light house and the old lightkeepers cabins. We also managed to spy a sea eagle and the seals were out on the rocks and splashing in the water. Caroline was keen to go snorkeling with them, but we didn't have time. Probably for the best, as seals are the primary food source of great white sharks which do frequent the area for a snack on the regular.
Ollie and Leon started to make their way back to melbourne and we wished them well.Back ashore we decided it was time for some beach fun. With beers in bag we headed to the bar beach where we splashed about in the water. At first i think Jeremy and copey were just trying to throw a football and a soccer ball at each other, 10 points for a head shot. The soccer ball eventually skipped off someone's head and onto the beach. I walked over to it and gave an attemp at an around the world. Dan came over and we started a bit of freestyle football. All of a sudden Copey, Jeremy, Caroline, Dan and I had an awesome beach freestyle football circle going on. It's funny how anything that can be kept aloft by kicking it immediately takes top priority with our types. We got a big game of beach football foursquare going on and it lasted for some time. Eventually Caroline asked the time, To which Dan replied "Hell if i know, I'm on vacation for the next 7 days!" This would be a common saying for him over the following week. Turned out it was about 4pm, and caroline had to be at work in Canberra at 7:30 so she grabbed her stuff and said goodbye.
Dan and i eventually packed up our gear and slowly made our way to the town of his youth, Bega, where we would stay with his parents for a couple nights before we would turn north to Ulladulla for our surf trip.
The drive to Bega was quite scenic. Where north of Narooma the hills were forested, as we got close to Bega the hills turned into rolling pastures of farm land, dotted black and white with cows. It made sense to me later when i was informed that Bega is famous for it's cheese. We were in Australia's dairy land. Copey's comment of "Tip a couple for me" now also made sense.
We had a quick kick out front of Dan's parents house when they arrived. They had been duped into a 12 hour canoe trip down a partially dried up river. They had been told "three hours max" by the organizer, but it turns out no one had actually done the paddle,never mind timing it. Over grown with shrubs, completely dried out in some areas, and downed trees where the river was deep enough to paddle in made for a hellish afternoon. Dan's father had taken the following day off to come surfing with us, but he was now questioning how much he would actually be able to do...
we ordered in pizza for dinner and settled in to watch the open. i believe it was jelena in the women's and Monfils in the men's. I was falling asleep in the comfy recliners, so dan showed me to the guest room.
more photos from the jam and Australia day:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86388&l=f7edb&id=521569922
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86388&l=f7edb&id=521569922
Sunday remained casual. We woke up late, some later than others, and stumbled up onto the deck. I know Mrs. Cope Fed us breakfast, but i don't remember what it was. Eventually we all got our bearings and headed out to go fishing. Copey said that nippers (these crayfish type critters) made good bait, but they burrowed deep into the sand and needed to be removed with a "nipper pump", a long cylinder that you jam into the sand to pump out the nippers with. Jeremy seemed quite keen and so while the others bought their bait for around 4 dollars, jeremy bought a $70 nipper pump...
We went to a number of places to try our hand a fishing, but they just weren't biting. eventually we wound up at the board walk where yesterday Caroline had caught about 5 in very little time. While the crew (minus max and benoite who were out golfing) went to fish off the board walk, Jer, Copey, and I tried our hand at nipper pumping. Apparently Jeremy, in his constant state of argue, had over heard Copey say "You can't eat nippers". The truth was that, yes, you could eat nippers, but their size and flavour made them less than a perfect picnic. However, Jeremy chose to take Copey's statement literally, and said he would eat a nipper (live) to prove him wrongand to teach Copey a lesson about choosing his words more careully. That might not have been exactly how the whole thing happened, but this was a couple weeks ago and my memory has gone a bit fuzzy. Maybe Jeremy just likes sea food? I know he was stoked about getting 12 oysters on the half shell for $7. I had a couple, they were damn good too...
Any way, When Nathan finally caught a nipper, It was over to jeremy who gobbled it down quick snap. He looked like he was gonna vomit about half way through, but he got it down in the end.
After another 10-15 unsucessful minutes of trying, no more nippers were caught and we gave jeremy shit for eating all of our bait. I decided to have a go at pumping and discovered my calling. I was pumping out nippers like no one's business. Some times i could even get 2 in one go. I think the final tally was Nathan - 1, Jeremy - 1, Andrew - 28. We filled our bucket and headed down to fish.
The fishing was far less exciting than the nipper pumping...
There were some people at the docks cleaning fish and throwing the heads and guts into the inlet. Ian's girlfriend Kayleigh(?) came racing over to me and pointed to the water, "look, look at the sting rays!!!"
I have seen sting rays in the past at zoos and aquariums and things, but never, NEVER have i seen sting rays that big. My photos don't do them justice. Their bodies were wider than i could stretch my arms. They move quite gracefully cutting through the water, and they kept making laps, so i ran back to my bag to get my camera. I climbed onto a rock protruding from the water to get a better shot and jeremy, with the finest of taste, yelled "ANDREW, COVER YOUR HEART!!!"
Max and Ben had finished their golf game and, at copey's request, had brought back the dreaded "Narooma Gourmet Sweet Chilli Hot Dogs". We chowed down, and they were quite delicious, while we hit the beach to catch some rays, and i immediately could feel their weight in my stomach. We went to kick under the domed roof of the plaza mall and i felt sick and bloated the whole time. Copey's comment to me was "Yeah, they'll do that to a first-timer..."
We all went back to Copey's place where his Mother had put on a feast. My cooking history got out and i was nominated to carve the roast. It was a fantastic spread and afterwards, those of us sober enough to participate, engaged in the thrilling Narooma Footbagger National Poker Championships. I gained an early lead with some well played bluffs, and some well played hands where i slowly drew them in, raising big enough for them to follow with out getting scared and folding. I was up around 300 chips (we were to done to be othered counting what the value of said chips actually were) while Jeremy and Caroline were at breaking point with about 16. I had stated that at the end of my beer i was just going to continually go all-in, regardless of the strength of my hand, untill i either won or lost. Took a while,but i eventually went out and hit the sack. Turns out jeremy went out just after me and Nathan beat caroline in heads up... and he vaguely remembers playing poker this time. Personally, i think he just says he can't remember as an out for losing...
Australia Day!
It started early. Too early. Mr. Copey had said the night before that they had a capitan to take us to montague island, but they still needed a deck hand, and that the likelyhood of us going to the island was about 10%. we would know at about 9am he told us. Well at 8:30 Mrs. Cope woke us up to say that the boat would be leaving in 30 minutes, much to our surprise. We quickly gobbled cereal and coffee and counted our numbers... We were missing Dan, who was staying at the hostel on the other side of town. I was about to give him a ring when i remembered a conversation we had the day before. He went kyaking in the inlet and made the mistake of bringing his cell phone with him. It got very wet and very very broken.
This was bad, as we knew he wanted to come, but we had no way of contacting him. We sent some to the boat to hold it up while we went to hunt him down. We arrived at the hostel banging on his door only to find that he was gone. We raced back through town looking for his car to be parked outside of one of the shops, praying that he hadn't gone for a surf.
We arrived back at the docks to find him there with the others waiting for us. He had gone to copey's place just before 9 and met the wide eyed gaze of Mrs. Cope who freaked out a bit teklling him that we had been looking for him. Thankfully the docks are close to copey's (hell every thing is, Narooma ain't big!), and we all made the boat on time.
The trip to the island was nice, but i'm told that many people die trying to get to the island,as the waters are notoriously rough between the island and shore, and that very small windows exist where there is calm, safe water. We were going in one of those windows and we had just over an hour in which to go out and back.
We circled the island first to get a good view and came across another National Parks boat, writing a ticket to a poacher fishing in protected waters. It was kinda funny as we all sat and stared at the offenders. Eventually we docked and made our way ashore.
Saddly it wasn't little penguin season, but we did get a good tour of the light house and the old lightkeepers cabins. We also managed to spy a sea eagle and the seals were out on the rocks and splashing in the water. Caroline was keen to go snorkeling with them, but we didn't have time. Probably for the best, as seals are the primary food source of great white sharks which do frequent the area for a snack on the regular.
Ollie and Leon started to make their way back to melbourne and we wished them well.Back ashore we decided it was time for some beach fun. With beers in bag we headed to the bar beach where we splashed about in the water. At first i think Jeremy and copey were just trying to throw a football and a soccer ball at each other, 10 points for a head shot. The soccer ball eventually skipped off someone's head and onto the beach. I walked over to it and gave an attemp at an around the world. Dan came over and we started a bit of freestyle football. All of a sudden Copey, Jeremy, Caroline, Dan and I had an awesome beach freestyle football circle going on. It's funny how anything that can be kept aloft by kicking it immediately takes top priority with our types. We got a big game of beach football foursquare going on and it lasted for some time. Eventually Caroline asked the time, To which Dan replied "Hell if i know, I'm on vacation for the next 7 days!" This would be a common saying for him over the following week. Turned out it was about 4pm, and caroline had to be at work in Canberra at 7:30 so she grabbed her stuff and said goodbye.
Dan and i eventually packed up our gear and slowly made our way to the town of his youth, Bega, where we would stay with his parents for a couple nights before we would turn north to Ulladulla for our surf trip.
The drive to Bega was quite scenic. Where north of Narooma the hills were forested, as we got close to Bega the hills turned into rolling pastures of farm land, dotted black and white with cows. It made sense to me later when i was informed that Bega is famous for it's cheese. We were in Australia's dairy land. Copey's comment of "Tip a couple for me" now also made sense.
We had a quick kick out front of Dan's parents house when they arrived. They had been duped into a 12 hour canoe trip down a partially dried up river. They had been told "three hours max" by the organizer, but it turns out no one had actually done the paddle,never mind timing it. Over grown with shrubs, completely dried out in some areas, and downed trees where the river was deep enough to paddle in made for a hellish afternoon. Dan's father had taken the following day off to come surfing with us, but he was now questioning how much he would actually be able to do...
we ordered in pizza for dinner and settled in to watch the open. i believe it was jelena in the women's and Monfils in the men's. I was falling asleep in the comfy recliners, so dan showed me to the guest room.
more photos from the jam and Australia day:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86388&l=f7edb&id=521569922
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86388&l=f7edb&id=521569922
