Yallingup (Friday 17th – Tuesday 21st May)

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We are joined at Yallingup by Joey and Heidi and their tribe, the triplets, Ava, Sienna and Tia and Seb and their friends, James and Kate and their children Holly, Karri (mini Carrie) and Stirling. The kids set straight out to explore and discover a small forest of climbing trees and spend much of their time playing amongst the trees. They also undertake bow and arrow construction led by foreman Ella, so that everyone is armed and ready for play.

We spend our days, the boy’s (Matt and Joey) enjoying the surf and the kids swimming in the lagoon created by the reef. We also head out for an afternoon at Margret River’s Duckstein’s Brewery. An amazing building landscaped to perfection with a dam, complete with island as the outlook, accessed by bridge...it was suggested that we blow the bridge once all the kids had crossed! The perfect playground for the kids while we soak up the atmosphere and enjoy a delicious lunch and a beer and wine or two!

The cold nights saw the kids huddling in the van for movie night and the parents braving the cold and mozzies to battle it out at cards under the stars (guess who won "up and down the river", yep Heidi...again) . We were in for a spectacular show that night as a huge thunderstorm swarmed in and of course lots more rain!

We farewelled our friends and were back on our own for a final night at Yallingup. Matt took advantage of the six to eight foot surf and headed out for an adrenalin rush. After catching a couple got swatted and felt the leg rope let go, sitting 400m out at sea with no board and 6ft plus sets and no board in sight. After a 20 minute swim to get back to shore, Matt was minus one surfboard but on the bright side, safe and uninjured (maybe pride was a little injured)!

Odyssey Issue No. – 1 x surfboard crashed on rocks or sailing out in the Indian Ocean – Who Knows!!

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