Point Walter Public BBQ, Point Walter

Coogee to Point Walter, 17km, 1hour 58 minutes

The good news is that The Wad in Hawaii reports that Perth Breakfast Paddles has been de-blacklisted (whitelisted?) from the U.S. Military internet! Apparently Ayman Al Zawahiri - despite all reports to the contrary - does not use this site to plan his evil deeds, although he well may use it to find a good Eggs Benny (hold the ham). 

The Wad has also clued me in to his Youtube channel which is now linked on the right of this post. Despite what some may think, and possibly previous form, The Wads' Youtube channel has nothing to do with nudity, and everything to do with excellent paddling videos on the windward side of Oahu. Not sure what has happened to The Wad over the years but he is half the bloke he used to be - must be the kilos he is leeching out with every paddle!

So for some strange reason, today in WA is a public holiday. I'm not bitching, that's for sure, but fair dinkum this state is just odd. Anyway - I put the word out last night for a paddle but had no takers so Mrs Blue kindly drove me down to Coogee Beach (just like the one in Sydney, but with no backpackers, no great pub and none of my skeletons in the collective area closet) at stupid o'clock, so I could venture out on my Pat Malone. There wasn't a breathe of wind, and the water was like a mirror. The bottom was clearly visible most of the way to the mouth of the Swan, and it was great to see heaps of people enjoying the morning out on their yachts, jetskis and pretty much any other form of water transport you could think of.

At one point I thought I had a "visitor" after a massive splash close aboard and I have to admit I was deadset packing it because I was a long way from anywhere! Fortunately, it wasn't a Noah, and I was extremely brave in chastising the shag that surfaced shortly afterwards.

It had been one of those weeks where the universe had been yielding dividends on previous crap that I had dealt with. A particular pain in the bum had left Gorilla Biscuits Pty Ltd and had me dancing a jig as I smacked my face furiously into the dough. Speaking of dancing, Mrs Blue has got the tin lids singing this disgraceful Gen Y anthem at the moment, and just like irritating earwigs like Spanish Flea and Girl from Ipanema, I couldn't get 'Sexy and I Know It' out of my head for the entire bloody 17km. Boy Wonders mate Ben has unwittingly bastardised one of the lines to say 'I've got passionfruit in my pants and I ain't afraid to show it' which I reckon is the best thing about that bloody song. Seriously, and at risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, music requires instruments. If in doubt see Jet, Eskimo Joe, Paul Kelly, Pete Murray etc etc.

So 17km later I emerged from the Swan River, ruffling my hair and looking every bit like Daniel Craig in that Bond movie, just as a white, mature Halle Berry came out of  the trees with a hot coffee from Pt Walter kiosk! OK. So maybe I didn't look all that much like Daniel Craig, but I'm pretty sure he'll get this good looking one day. Maybe when he's 80. Poor bloke. Along with Mrs Blue, Boy Wonder and the Little Princess, the Westy family was down at Pt Walter en masse - both sets of parents and Mrs Ws best mate Toni had flown over for Mrs Ws 40th on Saturday night.And the timing was spot on for my arrival with Westy and his Dad cooking up a storm on the Pt Walter public BBQ.

Point Walter Public BBQ, Point Walter. No phone, no email, no website and generally clean.

Happy Tin Lids.

So as I made my Daniel Craig-shaming exit from the Swan, Westy was putting the finishing touches to breakfast. My coffee had been provided right on time based on Westys estimate of my time around the Spit, and he had got it exactly right. The free BBQ, about 60m away from the Pt Walter cafe, was going great guns and sausages, bacon and 'rustic' fried eggs were being produced at a great rate of knots, even a yolkless one for Boy Wonder. Instead of taking out a second mortgage to get brekky from the Bank of Pt Walter, the barbie had proved its worth. Bacon and Egg rolls were rolling off the production line in volume and really hit the spot. The tin lids were certainly impressed (i.e. they listened when we asked them to come to eat) and the adults were too. Our group had commandeered our standard spot and there were quite a few families with the same idea.

'Rustic' eggs!

The facilities at Pt Walter are generally good, on average, but a little improvement would take them from generally good to deadset tops. The public toilets are, well, public toilets but the addition of a shower near the BBQ would be excellent, particularly noting  that most kayakers put in near the spit. 

This BBQ is clearly a better option than the Pt Walter cafe when you take into account the ludicrous prices and generally hit and miss service that I have had there in the past. To be fair, I'll review the place soon, but I've been saving up for a while so hopefully once I'm into four figures I'll go then. Also to be fair, the kiosk coffee was very welcome this morning and of a better standard than I've recently had there. 

In short, if you love Australia, use a public BBQ. It will encourage skinflint councils to use your rates for something other than bribery, graft and corruption.

Pt Walter public BBQ. 10/10.