A time where you looked in your own back yard, or continent for that matter. Exchange having to be at the airport on time, excess baggage trauma and so on for doing things on your own schedule: load up and jump in the car/ van/ ute/ motorhome or whatever form your vehicle takes and get out on the highway.
The road trip. Age old and timeless in its appeal. In fact, that precious commodity, time, should be its nemesis, when there are Tardis like flights waiting to whisk you away in a comparative instant. But there’s nothing like being the captain of your own ship and mine was the good ship ‘Silver Bullet Hundi’ van. In Australia it’s almost a rite of passage for any Aussie worth their vegemite, whether they’re on a surf mission or not. Only when you’re outback you can really fathom the scale and essence of this vast continent. The majority of my road trips have been surgical strikes, based on a swell or weather map. These routes are pretty well worn paths to my favourite hunting grounds of the Northwest and Sou’east West oz. And I’ve done a lot of trips to Esperance over the years chasing wind and waves.
So from the first moment of actually hitting new tarmac as I pulled out of Esperance, I felt like Peter Fonda or Jack Nicolson riding a Harley in Easy Rider. An overwhelming feeling of freedom. However, I had a sense of urgency. I had a month to do a mini-lap of Australia. The north is something that ultimately needs to be done as well, but that can wait till I’m a real greying nomad (elderly couple with a 4WD and caravan). I could allude to the fact that I was purely on a soulful surf mission around the country when in fact I was out spruiking my wares, but everything has been a justification up to this point in my life, to maintain as much water time as possible. This is just the next phase.
What I’ve always known about the road is, you start to become in tune. Movement is dictated by gut instincts. Sometimes you think you’re a little crazy, but when the urge hits to move you have to act. The arvo of departure from Esperance, I was feeling like I should get moving. My mate said to come for a last wave which I begrudgingly did, and it didn’t look that bad. Went out, stacked it and snapped my paddle on the first wave. By the time I was at the stairs his son had caddied another paddle down, but it was a sign. Get a
