go west handbook – the blog

Thats Nigel standing up

Just before we reached Kalbarri we stopped off at the Grandstand viewpoint. Finto being the Irish Bear Grylls, and Eugene thinking he was Finto’s cousin (Fintan claims his cousin was McGuyver’s stuntman) decided to attack the cliff downwards, wearing only a pair of cheap flip flops. Lads thought they were being pure hard trying to impress a couple of old grannies.

We all made it to the bottom after a wee bit of slipping and sliding. But it was well worth it once we got down as the views of the shoreline and waves were top notch. Eventually we made it back to the top in one piece, bones intact. However, Eugene struggled as he’s the only man in the world without born without calf muscles.

Not so much of a laugh getting back to the top

On into Kalbarri we went to set up camp for the night. We decided we deserved a treat and checked into the Anchorage campsite on the outskirts of town. Looks like a decent spot too with BBQ, pool, decent kitchen and hot showers. Unloading the car Nigel said “Feic it lads, lets hit the goon”. We said may as well, but we were wondering what brought on the sudden urge. Then we turned around and low and behold, there were 3 birds setting up tent next to us.

As it was still early in the afternoon, we decided to chance a bit of fishing on Murchison River. Off to the beach we go, Darren casts off and just as he’s reeling the bait back in a seagull flies down from nowhere and robs the bait. Darren being the Minister of Finance decides he’d sooner chase the seagull up the beach than pay for more bait. Sure enough, he managed to wrestle the bait back from gull. That’s why he was elected to this role in January 09.

Whats that Skip, there's a truck coming?

We continued on with the fishing and sure enough Nigel was losing more and more bait, weight and hooks as the evening wore on. So his fishing stats to date are: Caught 1, Lost 6. Retirement could be recommended.

Back to the campsite demoralised at the zero fish caught and the amount of equipment lost. We needed a bit of a lift so we picked up 3 boxes of goon, and 2 kilos of chips. Do ya honestly need to know who’s idea it was for the chips!? Just as we cracked open the goon, who pulls up but the 3 girls c**k blocking boyfriends. Plan B, lads session and a bit of banter. We tore into the vino like there was a shortage of it, and sure enough the mid night hunger struck. Into the kitchen we go to rustle up a feast of scrambled eggs and beans, kindly donated by our fellow campers. No milk for the eggs, so you can imagine the fine smells that would have been deposited later that night.

So off to the cot we go for another sleepless night in Arctic conditions.

Distance Travelled: 254km (Total Distance 901km).

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 3:45 am and is filed under Irish go west. 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.