Weon

This is a day that Olly and I have been looking forward to; it's sandboarding day. Having booked it when we arrived in town the day before, we found that we would get picked up from our apartment (yay) but it would be at 8am (boo). We see a trusty old Toyota Landcruiser pull up and out hops Max, the Aussie's Aussie! I swear that he could only have been more stereotypical if he'd been wearing a hat with corks on whilst tying a kangaroo down, sport. We all hop in and head off to pick up the rest of the day's participants. We meet Tania the Irish traveller who had stayed in town an extra day just to go sandboarding, and Colin who is an old buddy of Max, back in town from the big smoke of Perth.

Soon we are driving across farmland and then sand dunes at scaryfast speeds that make our own attempts at off-roading look a little pathetic. The dunes are all Crown Land which means that anyone can drive on them, without any need for a permit or licence - how cool is that? We are soon at the top of a huge drop at which point Max informs us he intends to drive down it. We all laugh nervously expecting him to engage reverse but instead he heads forward and into the abyss - it's one of those odd moments where you know that everything must be fine but you are still panicking inside!

Unfortunately the wind has really picked up and this means that when we step out of the 'cruiser we are getting sandblasted - still, at least we'll be rust free! So there we are on the nursery slope, learning the different techniques. There is the Superman (lying on your front, facing down the slope), the Reverse (lying on your front, facing up the slope), the Office Worker (just sitting) and the Death Wish (sitting facing backwards with no control over direction). Once we've mastered them, we head off for a bigger and more challenging slope that isn't also in the middle of a sand storm!

Max's driving is a little, er, enthusiastic and at one stage we go over a bump so fast that Anne is thrown out of her seat and into the roof that is a good foot above her - ouch. The wind is too much so we decide to take a break and Max looks for the fishermen's huts so we can stop for squash and biscuits. Our guide seems to have some trouble finding what he is looking for - it's generally not a good sign when the driver mutters "I'm a bit lost" - but we finally pull up in what looks like a shanty-town and chow down.

After a while the wind dies down and so we head to the next slope where Max teaches us the standing technique which is basically "stand on the board and don't fall off". For someone who is used to being able to steer a snowboard, it is very frustrating to have no control over where you are heading, so I generally opt for the Superman or the Office Worker. On the way down it's fun but the walk back up the slope is a bit of a killer and we are all tiring again.

With the wind still being a bit strong we head for the beach to have lunch and a dip. Over lunch, the topic of all the evil creatures in Oz comes up and Colin tells us the secret of dealing with them - just don't stand on them. The man is quite obviously a genius. Max produces a box of masks and snorkels and most of us head into the water. Unfortunately I manage to select a mask and snorkel combo that doesn't seem to work and therefore I'm constantly inhaling water but I still feel superior to Anne who is too chicken to venture into the water - apparently it was too cold.

Fed and watered we head on up to the big momma dune. It's like standing at the top of a cliff made of sand where you can't quite get close enough to the edge to see the face of the slope below you! Unperturbed Olly and I line up alongside Colin and Tania for our first run. Anne, who is distinctly perturbed, looks on thinking we are bonkers. This is the slope we have been waiting for and Colin leads the way, disappearing over the edge, letting out a whoop of fearful excitement as he did so! Olly follows suit, doing exactly the same, and then it is my turn. Now this is no Summit Plummet (see Blizzard Beach in Florida) but it is certainly fun and exhilarating and due to my superior technique I travel much further than both Colin and Olly - it is nothing to do with my excess body weight at all. Tania finally plucks up the courage to do the run and whoops and hollers all the way down, getting up with a massive grin on her face. We like this. A lot. We do run after run and even my collision with Colin doesn't put us off but eventually it is tiredness that forces us to stop.

We pile back into the 'cruiser and head on out of the reserve. After a brief stop for Max to re-inflate the tyres and the rest of us to sit in the sun, we are on the road back to Kalbarri. We bid Max farewell and head back to collapse in the sun and have a dip in the pool. Unfortunately the pool is only just above freezing so we give it a miss and instead Olly and I power-nap for a few hours. That night we head into town to find the local Italian restaurant (I have a craving for pasta) but when we get there it looks like the dodgiest place ever so we head back and stop off to buy fish and chips instead. We also pop into the drive-thru off-licence, the concept of which still makes me smile now, for some more beer and wine! Worn out from our extreme sports, we get an early night ready for our canoeing trip the next day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Friends/Family, Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.