The photos

I have made all the photos from our trip available online, so you can check them out here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/blairdods

I have divided them into 2 albums, one purely surfing and the other containing everything else – just so the non-surfers don’t go mad scrolling through them all.

Thanks
Blair

8 hours sleep in 4 days

Finally I have almost recovered, over 1 week after leaving Spain. Didn’t end up sleeping at all in London – stayed up all night for Tessa’s party then we carried on all the next day before I had to get the flight @ 10pm. I had lost my ticket though so was not sure what flight it was and ended up being the last person to check in and almost missed the plane. I was so over tired I only managed a couple of hours sleep until Sydney, then I had a 10 hour stop-over. Eventually made it back to NZ and never have I been that happy to see my own bed. Been really sick the last few days, but definitely all worth it!

Will post a link to view all the photos online shortly…

Blair

Dejavu…

Well we almost did it again – despite vowing never to put ourselves in the same situation as we found ourselves at the start of the trip, yesterday we made our ferry with only a couple of minutes to spare. Somehow we turned off the wrong exit into Bilbao and found ourselves in the depths of the city stuck in traffic with only 20 minutes to get there. We had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we would miss the ferry and that we would be driving back into France and spend the next 18 hours heading to Calais (losing the $800 we had to pay for the ferry in the process). By some miracle we fluked a turn and found ourselves with a clear run to the turn off. This meant we didn’t have time to go to the supermarket so have spent a fortune on food. A pretty shitty pie, chips and peas is $20 but we managed to discover a good salad scam – you can fill a bowl for GBP3.50 and there is chicken, fish, tomatoes, lettuce etc. so we have been taking the piss to new limits. The same guy at the cashier has made the same joke everytime we have rocked up with overflowing bowls.

Any romantic notions of cruises have been completely erased from my mind – we were quite excited when we got on the ferry as it has a couple of cinemas, casino, nightclub, restaurants, gym, swimming pool etc. but after 30 hours in here we have both gone slightly mad. If we didn’t have the laptop and a heap of DVD’s things would have been a lot worse – it didn’t help that I left my book in the car though!

What should have been my first good nights sleep in a semi-proper bed in a long time turned into a shocker. The predicted 4-5 metre swells turned out to be 8 metres and it hit when we went to bed at about 10pm. I must have been in a generous mood when we got into our cabin as I didn’t contest Tom’s chioce of the bottom bunk – silly move. After getting 1-2 hours sleep I awoke at about 1am about to get rolled out of the top bunk. For the next few hours I had to grab the side of the bed to ensure I didn’t fall to the ground with every swell we went over. Managed to get another hour or so sleep in the morning, but am so shattered now. Because of the huge storm the ferry is going to arrive almost 4 hours late which also means we probably won’t make it to Tessa’s going away party until 10:30pm tonight. Not sure how I am going to stay awake – pretty sure I have never been this sleep deprived. Then tomorrow night I fly out at about 10pm which means I will be a complete wreck by the time I get back to NZ as I can never get more than a couple of hours sleep on the flights. Have to be at work at 7am Wednesday morning (after getting home close to midnight) so will be relying on extreme quantities of coffee to get me through the day.

On a more positive note we had a couple of great days relaxing in San Sebastien before having to catch the ferry. No waves but some good weather and a couple of good nights out. Not sure when we will see Mark & Fraser again so was sad saying goodbye to them yesterday, no doubt we will start planting the seed for next years trip soon.

Only another couple of hours on the ferry then the 2 hour drive to London and straight to Tessa’s party. Will try and make one last post depending on how much of a zombie I am – if not though, it has been the best trip of my life. Some amazing memories I will have forever.

Thanks for reading!
Blair

The weather has caught up with us…

Well we finally have had some bad weather – woke up at the beach on Tuesday morning to a hideous storm with fallen trees and torrential rain/wind. The van got completely blasted with sand managing to permeate every nook and cranny. We did manage to get the best waves of the trip on Monday though so no complaints. Had a small but fun surf at Capbreton in the morning then checked Hossegor in the afternoon which was still triple overhead but absolutely perfect. As we were checking it one of the biggest, cleanest, most perfect beach break waves I have seen rolled in so Tom and I decided to paddle out (although somewhat hesitantly). No more sets of that size came in while we were out but there were still some solid waves with barely a drop of water out of place.

Yesterday we decided to head back into Spain so we have spent the last day at San Sebastian checking out the city a bit more. The waves are small but the good weather has returned so we are all enjoying just relaxing and taking in the sights. Tomorrow Tom and I have to get the ferry back to the UK – only 1 more night in the van! Have had an amazing time, but am not going to miss sleeping 1cm away from Tom every night. The only reprieve I have had from the van in the last few weeks is when we went out in Hossegor and I thought he had somebody in there with him when we returned (he didn´t). I ended up sleeping in Mark & Frasers van, but having RC´s elbows and knees in my back all night was even less enjoyable than Tom´s chronic snoring.

Hopefully I will get a chance to post one last entry from London – there is meant to be a 3-4 metre swell for our ferry ride tomorrow so it could be interesting…

Blair

P.S. Thanks for your comments on the last entry RC – amusing as always and was great catching up.

P.P.S. If any of the Aucklanders out there are at a loose end on Tuesday night and would like a nice bottle of French red wine for their troubles, I fly in late evening…

The latest

Everyone woke up a little hungover today for the first time on the trip. After watching the final of the Quiksilver Pro we decided it would be a good night to go out so we indulged in some red wine in the van then headed to the Rock Food. RC flew in for a couple of days last night as well so we all had a heap of fun:

I have managed to lose both my jandals and new shoes this week so I now have no footwear. Judging from the reaction I received in the supermarket topday you would have thought I was walking around naked – the security guard stopped me on the way in and only let me enter after I explained I was going to buy new shoes in the supermarket. Over the next 15 minutes I had a further 3 supermarket staff stop me and fire off their concerns in French. This was on top of every single person in the supermarket staring at me and shaking their heads in disgust – walked out feeling incredibly self-oncious.

Today has been very relaxing – the surf is huge (about triple overhead) and onshore so it’s the first day we won’t get a surf in. No one is complaining though due to the hungover state we are all in.

My laptop has decided to work again so I can finally post some photos:

At the Rock Food last night (Fraser, RC, Myself & Mark):

A couple of minutes after this shot, Fraser threw me a dodgy throw and it veered off into the cafe at the beach. Somehow the frisbee simultaneously smashed two full pints of beer an elderly couple had just sat down to enjoy. The staff found it hilarious and replaced the beers free of charge but the couple were understandably pissed off.

Here are a couple of shots of Kelly Slater surfing the right that we have been camping at the last week:

The Quiksilver Pro earlier on in the week:

Mark, Tom & Fraser at the Quiky Pro:

Tom’s Van in all it’s glory:

Mark & Frasers Van:

We headed to Spain for the afternoon last week, this is Tom, Fraser and myself:

The huge swell was smashing into the groyne at Anglet today, throwing huge amounts of water in the air so we decided to wander out as far as we could. Was pretty amazing and we ended getting completely saturated several times (from left to right – Mark, myself and Fraser):

Only 4 more days left sleeping in the van, then a 29 hour ferry ride from Spain back to the UK, I get back to London just in time for Tessa’s going away party on Saturday night then the next day begin the mission journey back to NZ. Just double checked my ticket and I didn’t realise I have a 6 hour stop over in Sydney so it will be a 36 hour trip before getting back to NZ on Tuesday – a whole lot of travelling to look forward to!

Until next time…
Blair