Crescent Head 2000 - Oz Crew on the other side of the Hill

I must say that my sleeping habits improved quite a lot while we were away, as I found myself sleeping in regularly til 2:00AM every morning. At 4:00AM on Saturday I was walking the dogs over in a nearby park when I noticed a stationwagon with longboard on top do a u-turn and pull into the caravan park, ‘twas the Mountain Man. . We supplied him with his usual fix, a dozen morning cups of coffee, and much talk was made about the state of the current surfing conditions. One of the unique things about MM is the way he makes his cup of coffee. It’s a real treat to watch, as he never uses a spoon and pours the coffee straight out of the jar.

The minutes passed very quickly and before we knew it the time was approaching 6:00AM, it was decided that we head down to Crescents to see if there was any improvement in the surf situation. This experiment proved to be fruitless so we journeyed on to Big Hill and the other locations that we had checked out on the previous day, with even less success. The Mountain Man decided that he was going to make his base camp at Big Hill. So while he was getting himself settled in and ready for a quick nap, the girl decided to go out while I grabbed a camera and made my way up to the hill with the intent of getting some rare photos of the girl surfing. At first she was out there by herself, then shortly afterwards she was joined by two gentlemen who gave her a few clues on which waves to go for. And I’m pleased to say it was one of her better sessions, which enabled me to get a couple of reasonable snaps of her riding. She didn't want me to post any, as she doesn’t consider them or her surfing abilities worthwhile, but I've sneaked one of them in anyway.

Sunrise-Big Hill

Just after midday an onshore breeze sprung up and what little surf there was deteriorated rapidly, so we left the Mountain Man there and made our way back to the Caravan Park for lunch, where later I hoped to watch a match of AFL Footy. I had just sat down for a feed of chicken and rice when I heard the girl talking to someone outside. To my surprise and delight it was Riq de Carvalho from Newcastle, on his way through to home but he couldn’t hang around long. He had already been to Crescents to check the surf out and when I told him that the Mountain Man was there sleeping in his car he seemed genuinely disappointed. Even more so when I told him that he’d just missed out of getting a reasonable sized wave or two by a day. Within a few minutes of Riq turning up I heard the girl talking to another person outside, this time it was Madrat, who had set up his "Taj Mahal" tent in the park directly across from our cabin. Riq was in a hurry to get home so we very quickly got a photo session going. Talking to Maddy a bit later about Riq, we both agreed that he looked exactly how we both mentally pictured him to look, right down to the moustache.

Before I go much further here I would like to make mention of Maddys "Taj Mahal" tent. It was huge and you could’ve held a decent sized party in it, also he had everything to go along with it, ie cooking facilities, heater, light, blow up mattress and I suspect even a blow up doll, all operated with the aid of his car cigarette lighter. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, after Riq left, we decided to go back down to Crescent Head with Maddy and check it out again and try and catch up with the Mountain Man. As we were about to take the turn-off into the Crescents beach parking area we spotted MM coming out of the local general store, eating a banana. After introductions were made we walked over to the Crescent Head Tavern for a get-to-know-you session, knowing that a surfing one was totally out of the question. While in the Pub someone brought up the subject of playing Pool, I very hastily declined as playing competition sports with the girl can be quite dangerous and I had no wish to have a Cue Stick wrapped around my head. Maddy took up the offer and beat her three zip and to my surprise came through it all unscathed, she must have liked him.

Sunrise-Big Hill

Checking it out

Small but nice

She can surf

Madrat

The next morning was freezing. We woke up Maddy who followed us down to Crescents first, but nothing was happening there, so we made our way to Big Hill, where we found the Mountain Man already awake. A magic scene greeted us: there was a thick fog hanging over the water, which was slowly drifting seawards, whereas on land everything was clear. The main thing was that there was a little wave going for us. We got changed and waded out into the water, boards under our arms, I took the little water camera with me, hoping to get some nice clear shots. Unfortunately the ones I took were not too good, perhaps due to some wax getting on the lens of the damn thing. The sun was just rising and what a glorious sight it was, everything was bathed in a golden light in amongst the thick cover of fog, the water was so crystal-clear you could see the sandbar ripples underneath, and it was as warm as toast.

We all had an enjoyable session, although it wasn’t challenging, it was just pure fun and pleasure, just sharing the company of people that love being out in the water, in nature, fresh air, just the four of us, we had the waves all to ourselves. As usual MM milked the waves again, riding them nearly all the way to the beach while I had to put up with some Sheila dropping in on me again, while Maddy was doing all sorts of tricks from hanging 10 backwards to doing head-dips. At one stage I had just paddled out and was turning my board, Maddy was paddling for an oncoming wave when all of a sudden he stopped, yelling out to me ‘yours’. By then I was quarter of the way up the side of the wave, I briskly proned out, trying for a one-thrust-takeoff. Of course I missed it and snapped back at him sarcastically ‘Thanks! Mate, good one!’, meanwhile the girl who was sitting in the middle of this was cackling so hard she nearly fell off her board.

The Mountain Man

Madrat

A bit later on, when we were having a little rest, Maddy attempted to light a smoke with the aid of his car cigarette lighter and to his amusement found the battery was dead. All the basic checks were done, water, oil, petrol, fuses etc. to no avail. As the girl and I were getting hungry anyway, we gave Maddy a lift to town to ring for assistance while we had a meal at the pub. About a half an hour upon our return to camp, the bloke from the NRMA arrived and got his car going again. His advice on leaving was that Maddy should NOT stop the motor at any cost before he could get it to someone and have a real good look at it. Of course, Maddy took the guys advice and only stopped at the bank, the petrol station and the Pub.

WWhen we pulled into the Caravan Park later, we got the shock of our lives. We saw immediately that our German Shepherd was not tied to the railing of the cabin anymore where we’d left him, but instead lying on the grass, with the leash trailing behind him. On other occasions we have always taken the dogs with us but since we were likely to be surfing in a national park area we had left them at home, as there is a heavy fine if one is in the parks. When the girl got out of the car and grabbed him, a bloke who was our new cabin neighbour walked over and advised us with lowered voice of what sounded like an absolute massacre that appeared to have happened in our absence. We just heard ‘attacked kid, killed chickens, police called’, as we stood there dumbfounded, wondering how the hell our dog had gotten loose, when the leash was still in place around his collar. As I walked closer to the cabin, I could see what had happened: part of the railing had broken off, so he got free. We just could not understand why he would do a thing like that, something or somebody must have provoked him to pull the leash so hard that a metal piece of the railing broke off. The girl wasn’t thinking clearly, still holding our dog who was pulling to get off the leash, when this bloke came closer towards her, still talking about the dogs. Rex lunged at him and tore a hole in his jeans. The girl apologised to him and offered compensation and he went on to say that he knew about dogs and that this dog was dangerous, but not to worry about the jeans. He then retreated back to his cabin and the girl put Rex in the car. Then the police arrived, two female cops who took our details and also advised us that my dog was dangerous and we shouldn’t leave him tied up to the cabin. Then the bloke re-appeared and very nicely changed his story and advised the cops that it was a dangerous dog and should be put down. Turning to me and patting me on the shoulder saying ‘Hey Mate! I can see you’re working class people, just like myself’. And then in the next alcoholic breath he went on and advised that we could be sued by the lady who’s chickens got killed and he went on to describe all these horror scenarios. The cops went on to interview the chicken lady and some other people, while the Caravan Park manager came over with a smile on his face and saying, not to worry about anything. He was sorry about the resident yelling abuse at us because of her chickens. The cops left us with the threat of returning with a ticket, while the girl got all dizzy and nauseous and had to sit down. It wasn’t making sense. Nobody had actually seen our dog killing the chickens, and no child was hurt either, and it seemed as if some of the kids perhaps may have provoked the dogs, and Rex being protective eventually tore himself loose.

Ron Taylor

The girl was devastated. What a miserable ending to a wonderful day. We were sitting in the cabin, shaking our heads in disbelief and shock when Maddy popped in and said he saw the cops leaving and inquired as to what the trouble was. He casually planted himself and a bottle of Tooheys on the couch and proceeded to reassure us that we shouldn’t worry and nothing much would come out of it, and he also confirmed that the guy that posed as a dog expert shouldn’t have approached Rex the way he did. We were sitting on edge, listening to every car going past, waiting for the cops to come back with the shotgun to shoot our dog, but it got later and later and nothing happened. Finally we dragged ourselves to bed.

Monday morning we got up early again and we decided that we weren't going to take any more risks, so we put the dogs in the car and took them with us to Big Hill. The surf had dropped a little, but we still had some fun waves and took photos as well. Rex wasn't t too happy to be tied up and decided to chew up his expensive $50.00 German leather leash to join us. I can't say the girl liked him very much then, he definitely wasn't in the good books. At about 1:00PM it was time for Maddy to leave, so we all said our good-byes. Later in the afternoon and after he'd gone we drove back to the cabin with trepidation, but thankfully the bloke next door had left already. We had a chat to Mrs. Caravan Park and she apologised for the commotion and basically voiced our suspicions, thinking the kids had teased the dog. She wasn't concerned at all about the whole episode, which made us breathe a big sigh of relief, so we decided to stay another day instead of moving on to another Caravan Park. We were a bit sad to see Maddys Taj Mahal tent gone, but he'd left a block of wax on our doorstep, which was really beaut. That night was the first night we slept like babies all the way through.

On Tuesday morning brought MM another Thermos of hot water and coffee to indulge in. While the girl walked the dogs along the beach I walked to the top of Big Hill to check out the surf. The surf that had dropped even further but we bothered ourselves and went for a little splash and giggle wave. It was another glorious morning in paradise after the previous day’s tensions. A pod of dolphins joined us and slowly swam really close by, and as we were lying on our boards watching we noticed that some of their dorsal fins were distinctly marked, exhaling the air, just another magic moment. After we finished this session we were just lying around on a grassy bank, I got a fire going to bake some spuds in the hot coals. Suddenly 3 white jeeps came around the corner, carrying a group of park rangers, and one of them came up to ask who the dogs belonged to. We were advised that on this side of the park dogs were not allowed, but on the beach they were, which didn’t make sense, and neither did the sign at the entrance of the park. He was waving his ticket pad around and we thought it’d be wiser to retreat instead of spoil the day with a $300.00 fine. MM was very compliant and said we were going to leave. There was no way we were going to leave before the spuds were cooked so we just took our time getting packed up. We ate the spuds half cooked, packed up our gear and left for the pub, where the girl convinced us to play some more pool. A little later MM had decided that he was going to go up north to see a friend, and we thought the prospects of no surf in the immediate future was not very attractive, so we had a final cup of coffee at Munchies, said our good-byes and parted company. It’s always a bit of a feeling of loss to see the Mountain Man going, as he always seems to have a way about him. We were a bit undecided about which way to go home the following day, but when I saw the weather forecast that night we left the next morning via the same route we’d arrived – inland.

We left bright and early that final morning and although the first hour of our journey home the weather was clear but as we got further into the mountains it was cold and raining. On top of that the girl was suffering from belly pains, which we couldn’t quite identify. They went away eventually, along with the foul weather. By the end of the day we arrived at West Wyalong and to our dismay were advised by the guy from the Caravan Park that they didn’t allow dogs anymore because they’d had some bad experiences. The girl queried with him what should we do with the dogs now, only to hear ‘Shoot them’, said the guy. Very friendly. We went to the 2nd park in town and thankfully got a very nice, big, comfortable cabin for the night.

The journey always seems a little longer going home and every one of us was a feeling very tired and jaded. On one of the more tiresome, longer stretches that I was driving when everyone was asleep I found myself reminiscing some of the episodes that we had shared over this whole time frame. I had mental pictures running through my mind of the Mountain Man, Silhouetted in a barrel of a wave with his characteristic style of back to the wall stance, while with Maddy, I remembered his endless noserides. As for the girl, I guess a smile came to my face as I relived the moments of agony and ecstasy of every wave I saw her catch and how they ended up.

Surfwise, this was not one of our most successful trips but I will say it was one of our most enjoyable ones. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve always said the New South Welshmen are the most friendliest people I’ve met in this country and the ones we shared our time with on this trip only confirms that belief even more. Thanks you blokes for making our trip.