From the Coast to the Capital

It's like 1am in Melbourne and i would really like to get some sleep. I also really want to get caught up so, i'm gonna power through and get another section done. I also keep remembering things after i have done the blog for it.

A list of things i forgot:
-Mogo Zoo
-Tilba
-Seeing a wild roo but being unable to get my camera out in time (wait did i blog about that? i can't be bothered to go back and check)
-Wine Tasting in sydeny
-My first poker tournament in Sydney
-Watching surf vids with Mr. Boyle
-other stuff i still can't remember

Okay, here goes another chapter (minus the stuff i forget)

Woke up and breakfasted at Dan's Place. Dan's mother was in sydney for the weekend celebrating the birthday of one of their cousins, so mr. boyle, dan and i decided to go to Merimbula beach to do some snorkelling, followed by some surfing at another beach. Merimbula bar beach was quite nice, and we walked out across the rocks to hop in the sea. I snapped the heel strap on my fin, so again i was down to one. Dan's mask didn't fit so water kept seeping in and forced him out of the water after a short while. Mr. Boyle and i kept at it around the reefs. We tried to peel some abalone (sp?) off the rocks as mr. boyle has a liscence but they were on there quite well. I also saw a puffer fish, which was neat, and a really big leather back (leather skin?).
We had coffee at the beach shack. Mr. Boyle said it was the best coffee in the area, but i was non plussed. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not the best. Maybe they were having an off day.
We then headed to another beach. We changed back into our wet suits, grabbed our boards and hit the 1 km trail to the beach. We met a guy who was on his way in from the beach and mr. boyle asked him what the waves were like.
"High tide, Flat and breaking close to shore. No good."
We stopped and looked at each other for a second. I think the lack of surf during the past week made dan and i a bit eager. "Well, we could at least go and have a look..." i offered.
"Yeah... yeah, we came all this way."
"Well let's have a look then!"
and so we went to look.
We had been told, but alas we thought we knew better. He was wrong about one thing. it wasn't totally flat. There were some waves, but they were breaking close to shore. As we prepared our gear mr. boyle also broke a fin, and dan told me that it's pretty rare to break them, and probably even more rare to break 2 on the same day. Looking back on it, it may have been an omen.
We floated around in the surf for a while as the waves rolled past, unable to actually catch any breaking. Slowly, and stupidly we went closer to the shore out of desperation for surf. I caught one wave and rode the white water right into shore. I had no choice. Looking over my shoulder i saw another ready to dump me on the sand so i kept surfing right to the sand.
I paddled back out and got worked a bit by some close sets near the beach. I lost hold of my board once and just managed to dive below a crashing wave after surfacing. I looked around and saw that there weren't any other surfers out. It was about now that i realized we probably shouldn't be out, and mr. boyle warned me to be careful. that only helped ingrain the idea that we ought not to be trying this.
I tried to catch a couple more, but no luck. Dan caught a big one close to the sand and then got dumped hard. He got slammed into the sand, the force of the wave driving his face and the point of his shoulder into the sand. He came up sputtering and looking a bit dazed.
We decided to head in after that. I tried to catch one more without learning from dan's mistake, and got dumped into the sand and then rocked again by the following wave. I swallowed alot of sandy salt water and came up sputtering. i pretty much stumbled onto the shore with my wetsuit full of sand.
We all kinda said "who's brilliant idea was that?" and dan nursed his shoulder. I was afraid of an AC separation due to the moi. After a quick look it seemed like it was a minor sprain, so when we got back to Bega i had him put some ice on it and told him to avoid using it as best he could.
We had dinner and i watched the longest tennis match in history. Nadal vs. Vedasco, 5hours of nail biting tennis. As soon as it was done i went to bed, as the next morning we were headed to Canberra on the bus.