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We were expecting the surf to be good this morning due a promising looking report, so were hopeful to actually get a good surf in! I woke up about 6:30am do went straight off down to the beach to check the surf. I was surprised to see it was actually about 5ft and offshore at low tide, making it look very inviting.
Having watched for a while I went back, woke up Saskia, had breakfast and then headed out for a surf. In the 45 minutes I had been gone it appeared to have got a significant amount bigger, and was more like 6/7ft on the big sets right on the outside. It lead to an absolutely monster paddle to make it to the outside, about 300-400m out. Saskia made it half way but when we were both being relentlessly smashed by sets she settled to surf the inside instead.
It took me a fair while to make it to the outside, but it was worth it once I got there. I surfed for about 2 hours and got some pretty fun ones. It was so big that none of them really lined up that well, and were more about making the drop. It was brilliant to have some genuine exercise and give my arms a good workout for the first time in way, way too long.
We had been talking about having a change of scenery for a while and today was the day. We decided to head off down to Uluwatu area, and stay at 'Leggies' in Bingin, where I stayed before. Saskia had signed up for a week on a surf camp at Padang Padang starting the next day, and Leggies is only 2 minutes up the road.
We had lunch and packed up our crazy amount of kit, then got the driver from Serenity to take us down south. It was about a 2 hour drive due to having to go through Kuta etc, but having just stuck the headphones on it seemed to fly by.
We arrived and got a room no worries by 2pm, so had plenty of time to scooter around abit in the afternoon. Although I don't know that much about the area Saskia had never been down here so my limited knowledge was enough.
We went down to check out Padang Padang, which had a bit of a wave and looked quite fun. Then from there we went on and spent the rest of the arvo at Uluwatu. Having walked down and taken some photos in the cave and checked out how to get out into the lineup, we went up and sat in the bar on the cliff overlooking the surf. It was about 4ft and looked really fun - the first time I have actually seen a fair few people out surfing. We met a crazy Frenchman and an Aussie and sat talking to them for a while, as they were full of stories. One of which was that the Aussie had surfed out there once, and failed to get back to the cave when trying to get out, due to the current being so strong. He got swept away down the coast and eventually managed to paddle at Padang Padang about 1-2km down the coast! Apparently he hitched a ride with a local guy on his scooter to get back to Uluwatu!
Later on we went up to 'Single Fin', the bar where I partied with Wesley, Maurice and Bo. It's very different by day and is kinda chilled surf bar which was really cool. We stayed there for a little while and had a couple more drinks watching the surf from a higher vantage point, before heading back to Leggies.
Having had a shower and stuff, we headed out to the really good Italian place I had been a couple of times with Wesley for dinner. The food was awesome again, despite having a funny combination - Sushi for starters and Lasagne for main. Just when we were thinking of leaving it started HAMMERING down. We stalled for a bit, but in the end had to scooter back in the torrential rain. It was funny adopting the local tactic of me driving with the poncho on, and Saskia on the back under the 'tent' of the back of the poncho!
(Photo - how much kit do 2 people need?!).
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