After doing my national duty by visiting the capital I was happy to head east again, this time stopping at Currarong on Jervis Bay. There's a big caravan park here mostly filled with permanent caravans and during the week it feels like a ghost town. It almost feels like we have the park to ourselves.
We were set to stay here a few weeks as we had several appointments in nearby Nowra. Tomoko had a visit to the optometrist to order some new glasses while I need to visit a podiatrist and sports physician. My foot has never fully recovered from the incident in Stockton months earlier and is often annoyingly painful, particularly after using the clutch. Somewhat inconvenient when your travelling around Australia. It also means that Tomoko shoulders a lot of the driving which is quite stressful for the both of us.
The podiatrist taped my foot and I immediately felt improvement. I have terribly flat feet which contributed to the initial injury and so also decided to get some new orthotics, my current ones being almost 20 years old.
I decided to see a sports doctor for an old injury I have had for over a year now. It's a chronic ache along the edge of my spine and no matter how much physio, massage and chiro I have, it refuses to get better. Despite having an MRI last year its' still a bit of a mystery. A few weeks ago I was googling sports doctors around Sydney and couldn't find anyone who I felt would be beneficial. I googled Nowra and came up with Dr Paul Bloomfield, whose name I instantly recognised. He recently was the club doctor for the mighty Manly Sea Eagles and I instantly felt a rapport. So I had a consultation with him and he suspected inflammation in the joints where my ribs meet my spine so I booked in for a bone scan. The waiting list for the doc is about three weeks or so but I scored a cancellation follow up appointment the following week in Wollongong. The result of the bone scan didn't determine the problem so I was given a new stretch to loosen up the area. If no improvement in the coming months the next option will be trigger point injections. I will admit to being a touch distracted in his office looking at the 2008 premiership memorabilia on his wall.
A few days after arriving here I took Shaka to the vet for a second look and opinion of his urine problem. Again there wasn't much clarification from the vet and it actually cleared up the following day. There was no need for the antibiotics and anti inflammatories I was given and it seemed like a unproductive use of $140.
The town of Currarong is adjacent to the Beecroft Weapons range, a tract of land used by the Navy as a live-firing range. The attractions include the lighthouse at Port Perpendicular, big game fishing spots and the very picturesque Honeymoon Bay. We were all keen to go but Shaka is again on the naughty list and there was zero likelihood of sneaking him through the security checkpoint at the front gate. So it was a solo mission for me. It's a 9km drive from the checkpoint to the lighthouse and I think I found every corrugation on that short stretch of road - it's really poor. At times the truck shook so bad I was forced to slow down to a leisurely 5km/h. All the other cars seemed fine however, zooming past me with reckless abandon?
I was relieved when I reached the lighthouse and the view was quite spectacular although peering through the 2 metre fence takes something away from the experience. Oh well...I guess they need something to keep the silly buggers from plummeting from the cliffs. The car park also leads to a renown fishing spot, Outer Tubes - named for the torpedo tubes installed there in WWII. It's one of only two places in the world where you can catch marlin from the shore and I ventured through the scrub and down some stairs to capture all the action.
There was only a few fishing here but I was to learn it gets very, very crowded. I was enlightened by a local fisho who liked to refer himself in the third person as Mudcrab. The moniker certainly suited his personality as he gave me a rundown of all the dickheads ruining his fishing experience. He is a lure fisherman and apparently gets upset when the live baiters get in his way. He controlled himself last year but his New Year resolution is to have fisticuffs with anyone who gets in his way. People don't understand that what he is doing is the pinnacle of the sport blah blah blah etc. Jeez he could carry on. After 20 minutes or so of this I began to tune out and watch a playful seal frolicking in the sun. A couple of nearby fishos glanced furtively our way and gave me a sympathetic look. I made several hints that I was on my way but he kept going and going until a phone call from Tomoko saved me and I was able to leave - talk about good timing.
It has been almost three months since my last surf and a nearby beachie enticed me out. There were 3-4 foot shifting beach breaks. All my paddling strength was tested and I only just managed to make it out the back. My arms were moving but I just didn't seem to be getting anywhere. In fact I put all of my resources into the effort and I only managed half a dozen waves on the session. My arms were bloody sore the next few days though. Luckily, I managed a few more surfs here and my paddling strength is quickly returning.
During our recent inland sojourns Tomoko has often lamented on the lack of fresh seafood and I felt it my duty to remedy the situation. I wasn't really packing the right gear for chasing marlin so I settled on whiting as the target species. I had read reports the shallow waters of nearby Callala Beach held whiting and one morning, armed with my Ballina beach worms, I gave it a go. It was very shallow indeed and I had almost given up on catching fish when I lucked onto a nice bream in knee deep water.
Later on when the swell dropped I went spearfishing along a shallow ledge. The water was very clear with good visibility but weren't holding a lot of fish. I had a few low percentage shots at a flatty and some luderick but came up empty handed. I did notice a lot of sea urchins though and on reporting this to Tomoko, was duly sent back out to collect some. I arrived back at camp proud of my bounty and Tomoko was suitably enthused. The roe of the sea urchin is a delicacy but Tomoko seemed a bit perplexed on how to get to it as they 'look a bit different in the shops'. A quick youtube tutorial showed her the way and she was into them straight away, firstly eating them raw and later in a creamy pasta.
After two weeks here we figured it was time to make to say our goodbyes and venture to our favourite destination, Kiama. Until then...adios amigos.