Photo courtesy of Jay Laurie
They surfed for most of the morning out there. It was a good wave for turns and cut backs and as one of them paddled back out after a wave he watched the other riding and hooted and grinned as he swooped past. They were alone for the first while. Then a wiry guy with fair freckled skin and a flop of sandy hair and a beautiful dark haired girl joined them. A few other people also drifted out as the morning progressed and the strong offshore wind lightened off. They all took it more or less in turns and in breaks between waves, bobbed about in a small pack, sitting astride their boards with their legs dangling in the dark ocean below and talked about where they were from and The Point and where they were headed.
When Riley wandered back to camp around midday, Will had already lit the fire and dragged the card table and a chair over and was busy piling cheese and tomato and onion in between pieces of buttered bread in the jaffle iron, shaking his head and blowing over his lips and snorting to get some brief peace from the flies picking and sticking in the corners of his eyes and around his mouth and nostrils.
“Smells good mate,” Riley said putting his board down.
“Yeah… I was starving, had to come in… did it stay good out there?”
“For a bit after you left it stayed good… glassy, no wind… then the sea breeze started to waft in. It’s come in now and the waves are a bit crumbly but the wind isn’t too strong at the moment… not like back home… the Frenchies are still out there,” Riley said as he pulled his wetsuit down to his waist.
“Here wrap your laughing gear round this,” Will said handing a toasted sandwich to Riley and taking a swipe at the flies near his face.
Riley put a towel around his shoulders against the burning sun and they sat in their deck chairs by the smoking fire with the breeze blowing in across the low dune and ate a pile of toasted sandwiches using up the best part of a loaf of bread between them, swishing away at flies with bits of broken bush.
“Think I’m gunna get out of the sun and the flies and have a kip for a bit,” Will said getting up out of his chair.
“No worries, I’ll probably do the same… wanna still check out the right later on if the breeze isn’t too strong?”
“Yeah, ok.”
There were no trees tall enough to give any shade anywhere. Their tents baked in the dirt under the hot sun of the middle of the day. Loose bits of canvas flapped about without rhythm in the sea breeze. They lay splayed out on their mats and sweltered groggily through the heat of the day.
In the afternoon, a truck pulled up and an ill-fitting door creaked open and slammed shut: “Anyone ‘ere?”
Will unzipped his tent and squinted into the glare through puffy eyes at a bloke in khaki overalls standing with his back to him looking down at the thin trail of smoke rising up from the remnants of their lunchtime fire. A skinny black and tan dog was sniffing busily around with its nose to the ground weaving across the dirt on the trail of something. It paused at their car to lift its leg on one of the back tires. It looked up with its leg in the air, panting hard, as Will climbed out of his tent. Will walked over towards the campfire and said: “G’day.”
The bloke turned around. He had bleached straw like hair which fell straight down either side of his face and chopped off horizontally across his forehead. The skin on his face was tanned and cracked and tough like a beaten up boot left for years out in the elements. The creases on his face deepened as he smiled and put his hand out to Will: “G’day… sorry if I woke y’up.”
“No worries, time I got up anyway… I’m Will,” Will said shaking his hand.
“I’m the caretaker here… you guys just get in?”
“Yeah, last night.”
“Gunna stay for a while?”
“Yeah probly a few months, maybe longer.”
“Ok… it’s bloody hot during the day at the moment ‘cos it’s summer but cools down at night… Autumn is the best time of the year if you’re still here then.”
“Probly will be… at least for some of it.”
“Here’s an info sheet on the place… it’s a bit dog-eared but it’s got a mud map of where’s where and info on what’s bloody what. We get the wood for you… I come round once a week or so to collect the week’s camping fees.”
“Ok,” Will nodded.
“How many of you are there?”
“Two, mate ‘n me.”
