Surfs up
There are two reasons I haven't spent much time on beaches in my life. Firstly, I grew up in Scotland, and secondly, I look like I grew up in Scotland. So when we ended up on Sydney's famous Bondi Beach last week and Jen suggested we spend the day there, I was naturally concerned. It's not that I care about my appearance, I was more concerned that the glare from my lily-white back and chest might blind the pilots coming into land at the nearby airport. But I relented and decided to dig out the swimshorts. More problems arose when I discovered, much to my horror, that I couldn't squeeze myself into them anymore. It's only been a year since I wore them, but my stomach was putting up a hell of a fight and wouldn't let me get them on. So a quick trip to a beachwear shop was necessary, and once I was fully kitted out we hit the beach.
I don't know what it is about sand that is appealing to millions of people, I'd much rather the Pacific Ocean lapped up along a bank of nicely cut grass, but that's just me I guess. I knew that just by setting foot on the sand I was guarenteeing that for the next five or six weeks I'd be finding it everywhere. How does it do that? It was in my hair, my wallet, my camera, and most remarkably my shoes. Remarkable because I'd left them in the hotel across the road.
But we spent a good hour floundering around on Bondi Beach, not, it has to be said, one of Sydney's better beaches - it's quite crowded and very touristy, but I did start to enjoy myself after a while. When we bought our car it came with a free bodyboard - the main selling point for Jen - so we had fun trying to stay on that for longer than forty seconds.
We'd ended up back in Sydney after three days in the Blue Mountains - not, as I mentioned before, particularly blue or even technically mountains - but they were well worth the visit. The weather did a typically British thing when we got there - it changed without warning. But the skies cleared on our last day and we had a good few hours sightseeing before heading back to Sydney.
When we left last Friday, we intended on popping into Port Stephens on our way up the coast, as was recommended to us by a guest at the wedding we'd been invited to (it was in the most stunning of settings, right by the Opera House, but more about that another time) but we've enjoyed it here so much that we're still here. We've been in Australia for twenty days now and only made it a few hours north of Sydney. Still, I'm having fun despite the sunburnt legs I gained after a day of kayaking, and am currently quite content. Although that could be to do with the fact that I'm sitting in a lovely air-conditioned library, and the beach is miles away...
I don't know what it is about sand that is appealing to millions of people, I'd much rather the Pacific Ocean lapped up along a bank of nicely cut grass, but that's just me I guess. I knew that just by setting foot on the sand I was guarenteeing that for the next five or six weeks I'd be finding it everywhere. How does it do that? It was in my hair, my wallet, my camera, and most remarkably my shoes. Remarkable because I'd left them in the hotel across the road.
But we spent a good hour floundering around on Bondi Beach, not, it has to be said, one of Sydney's better beaches - it's quite crowded and very touristy, but I did start to enjoy myself after a while. When we bought our car it came with a free bodyboard - the main selling point for Jen - so we had fun trying to stay on that for longer than forty seconds.
We'd ended up back in Sydney after three days in the Blue Mountains - not, as I mentioned before, particularly blue or even technically mountains - but they were well worth the visit. The weather did a typically British thing when we got there - it changed without warning. But the skies cleared on our last day and we had a good few hours sightseeing before heading back to Sydney.
When we left last Friday, we intended on popping into Port Stephens on our way up the coast, as was recommended to us by a guest at the wedding we'd been invited to (it was in the most stunning of settings, right by the Opera House, but more about that another time) but we've enjoyed it here so much that we're still here. We've been in Australia for twenty days now and only made it a few hours north of Sydney. Still, I'm having fun despite the sunburnt legs I gained after a day of kayaking, and am currently quite content. Although that could be to do with the fact that I'm sitting in a lovely air-conditioned library, and the beach is miles away...
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