Quick trip to the coast

I like to take every opportunity to get near the ocean - my one gripe about Canberra is that it is so far inland. I love the sea - being at the beach, swimming, splashing in the surf .... everything about it except being in a boat ON the sea. Because that makes me puke. So when friends invited us down for an overnight stay  we packed ourselves up and left. Doesn't that make it sound easy? Putting enough things together for 4 of us for 48 hours took about three days and completely filled the car ... and even then we forgot the kids' boogy boards.



But it was worth it. This is a little beach we went to on the first day - it was a windy day and this was the most sheltered choice. This photo looks quite deceptively sunny, it was about 20 degrees in the air and about 14 degrees in the water. Not that the ocean on the south coast ever gets very warm - straight from Antarctica I think. The best thing about this beach was as I was splashing about squealing (it was COLD) two perfectly synchronised dolphins leaped high over the wave in front of me and landed back down before playing in the breakers for a couple of minutes. Just breathtaking! Luckily I didn't see them before they leapt - there is nothing like seeing a fin attached to a dark shape in the water to have you levitating back on to the sand. I have lost bowel control because of dolphins before now.



Our friends were renting a house right on the lake - on one of those big peninsulas that have lakes on either side open to the sea and then wonderful surf beaches at the end of the peninsula. The house was lovely and felt like a beach house with a great big deck out the front for sitting. And sitting some more. And having a beer, while sitting. The boys had ice blocks.

On the second day we went to another beach that was patrolled - it was a bit rough and the beaches had rips, so I prefer the safety of lifesavers, especially with the kids. It wasn't exactly tropical, but I had a wonderful swim and splash in the surf - caught enough waves on a (borrowed) boogy board to get my adrenalin rush, and got dumped by enough of them to get a bellyful of salt water and sand in my gussets. After being largely motionless for the last month because of this stupid toe, it was nice to be out of breath for a while. Although that might just have been the icy water.

Just looking at the pictures there makes me wish I was back there! We might have to do another flying visit in the next week or two. It was a three-hour drive because of the traffic and a couple of snack stops ... but I'll do that to get my saltwater fix.