Saturday 2nd June – the drive from Bordeaux took about 2 hours including a stop at a service station for some lunch. We had booked to stay at Wood ‘N Sea Lodge which sounded perfect for surfing. We were met by the girl who works there who spoke really good English and showed us around. Sylvianne and Antoine (the owners) arrived shortly after and gave us a map pointing out all where all the key things are (surf spots, restaurants and shops!) then onto the important part; selecting our surfboards! Luckily they had a board for each of us; a 7’6″ learners board for me and 6’2″ short board for Doug and it was only €8 a day for hire! The nearest break “La Piste” was only a short walk away so we headed off boards under our arms and Doug walking barefoot since he cleverly didn’t pack any flip-flops and hadn’t yet bought any as intended. It was about head height and really fun which was a great start to our surfing adventures!
After a couple of hours we were both pretty tired so we headed back to the lodge where we were greeted by the best welcome ever “I’ll turn the hot tub on for you”!! It was just what we needed as, while the sea wasn’t that cold, the air temperature had definitely dropped and the jet stream helped to ease our weary muscles. We decided to head to Terramar, a cabana on the beach, for a drink with a lovely view back to La Piste loving the light evenings and then walked along the coast to Nina’s Cáfe for dinner where we had an amazing view of the sunset. The meal was lovely too; calamari to start followed by moules which came as a massive portion although I think it will take me a while to get rid of the garlic smell! We finished off the evening with a drink at Kraken Bar along the river and walked back to the lodge admiring the massive houses and crept back in just after midnight.
Sunday 3rd June – breakfast was included in our booking which made a nice change so after both sleeping through to 9:30am, we got up quickly to make the most of it and then headed back out to explore the other surf breaks. There are numerous beaches north along the coast so we checked out Plage Centrale (which apparently is the party beach), Plage Des Estagnots (from where we could see “Le Graviere” surf spot where the Quicksilver Pro surf competition is held) and then finally Plage Des Bourdaines where we stopped for a surf. The waves were smaller but it was still fun and I felt more confident on the board. After a couple of hours we were both exhausted as the waves were pretty far out so we had to do a lot of paddling and could definitely tell we hadn’t been surfing for about 2 weeks. We were also starving as by now it was 2pm so we grabbed a baguette at Coleur Locale, another cabana on the beach with another great view.
A thunderstorm was rumbling so we used it as an excuse to check out the outlet shops although sadly forgot that lots of places are closed on Sundays in smaller towns, clearly we are spoilt living in Sydney. We headed into Hossegor centre instead, famous as one of the homes of Rip Curl (along with Torquay in Australia and Tressles in America as shown on their logo). A few of the shops were open so we had a stroll about and then went back to the lodge for a quick sit down to devour a bag of haribos starburst (one of my vices) and then went to check out the waves at La Piste. Sadly they were smaller and not worth putting on a wet wetsuit so we had a wander along the beach to look at the World War II bunkers and for a drink at Terramar again.
I decided to have a day off drinking and we wanted an early night for a change so we drove into Capbreton for dinner by the river. Unfortunately we took a slightly long way round since we were being old school and map reading which is pretty hard when the streets aren’t all marked, not sure how we coped before iPhones and gps! There are lots of restaurants along the river although most of the were either closed or empty so we opted for Havana Beach. I had the Menu du Jour (set menu) for €18.90 and Doug just had a main as we have quickly learned we can share the starter and dessert and then the calories don’t count!! We were then back at the lodge by 9:30pm and feeling pretty smug we could have a lazy evening with Netflix and good nights sleep.
Monday 4th June – we were up early and unusually we were the first ones at breakfast as we wanted to head out for our last surf. It was raining really hard so we retreated for a while but then braves the rain and headed back to La Piste which was pretty heavy compared to the previous day. I played around in the white water while Doug got some good waves but after a while I was getting fed up of the constant barrage of waves coming straight for me so decided to head up to Santocha the other side of the bunkers where the waves were calmer. I was enjoying the calmness for a while when unfortunately my board decided it was time to stop and hit me straight in the face just above my left eye! I didn’t think it was good bad at first until I saw blood and then my Australian instinct kicked in to get the hell out of the water! It seems it was slightly worse than I thought and after patiently waiting for Doug to finish surfing we made a hasty retreat back to the lodge where Antoine suggested we should head to the doctors and kindly made an appointment for me. Luckily it didn’t take too long and about an hour and €56 later I was the proud owner of 4 stitches!
That marked the end of my surfing for the day at least and it was time to check out of the lodge and head onto Biarritz, not before stopping off at the outlet shops again!
The Holiday Bug 