One Armed Bandit
We left cardiff around midnight, got to Dover and caught early ferry at about 5am in the morning, saying our goodbyes to Britain. We got to Calais straight onto the 'Peague' motorway. After a number of hours hit our first obstacle Paris! Seemed like the only way to get to the south of France was through Paris.
We got onto the Paris link road which consisted of 5+ lanes and made the M25 look like a country road! Whilst getting onto the link road, we hesitated looking for a gap and had no choice but to stop...thus blocking all the traffic behind us and on the link road! Furious French honking of horns ensued, I just shrugged my shoulders in a French stylie. Whilst on the link road we glimpsed the Eiffel tower!
We eventually got out of Paris heading south, driving for hours. One moment of notoriety occurred at a stop off when Mat had his first encounter with the 'hole in the floor' toilets. He took it in his stride and said it was a pleasant experience! Mark was not so sure...
After reaching Bordeaux, we headed west to Lacanau, and arrived about 6pm. That night we camped at Grand Pins. Everyone was a bit tired and stressed after all the driving so we decided to go for a surf, seeing as we had come all this way! Wave conditions were not very good, about 1-2ft choppy. In fact conditions were not too dissimilar to Rest Bay! But the water was lovely and warm and it was nice to get in the water after all the travelling.
Later in the evening we checked the internet and to our amazement saw a very deep low tracking west of Britain. It was agreed we would need to go further south into Spain thus avoiding the weather but still getting the good waves...
Next day awoke early itching for a surf. The surf had definitely picked up at Lacanau. We spoke to an Australian who said this was the first decent swell he'd seen for a while. We went in and surfed 3ft glassy waves that were deceptively powerful. The first wave of the day went to myself! We all had plenty of waves and few cover-ups... nearly!
Whilst outback I thought I heard somebody shouting my name. Thought nothing of it but then a few waves later, I saw a fellow OTL member Simon which spun me out! He too was on a surfing holiday, and had been here for a number of days and said that this was first decent session for a while. Only board shorts and rash vest were worn, it was so warm! I came out and spent the rest of the day sleeping!
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