Get Us To The Beach

So after spending far too long in the hills, for such beach-dwelling young folk, we decided to get straight on the road, once we had loaded Brucey up and had a last hot drink in the pub. I simplify this- really it took us hours to sort out the van and all of our gear, but when it was finally finished we wasted no more time and left the caravan park to begin our driving adventures.

We couldn’t leave the hills without visiting ‘the big rocking horse’ (apparently the biggest in the world- Australians are so competitive). This rocking horse is the centrepiece to a wooden toy factory, which was what originally caught my eye. There were some beautifully crafted toys and we would have bought some if we had the space or could afford to get them shipped for family and friends. The rocking horse was frighteningly tall and I was stupid enough to climb to the top, alone. After nearly having a heart attack we walked through to a random petting zoo and we all had fun feeding the kangaroos, wallabies, sheep, goats, alpacas and various parrots.

We have realised that Nabeela is another birdy person (like my Ma). She is constantly telling us about birds that she spots and I think she realises now that birds have different names and often looks at us and asks ‘wha’s that?’ It will be lovely for her to have a common interest with her Nanny on the other side of the world.

By the time we had finished at the big rocking horse, it was getting on for dusk, so we piled into Brucey van and drove on, out to the coast. Our first sense of the beach was when I caught a long whiff of it on the breeze- that tangy, fresh smell only found along the coast. The next clue was that ever present sound- the gentle ‘husssshhhh’ of the waves lapping at the shore. It was dark by this time, so we could only make out a hazy grey shadow of the ocean and a lighter shadow of the sand beneath. But it was still the beach, and we had missed it, so we whooped for joy! I’ve only recently realised how much the ocean and coastline means to me, I like the hills and countryside...for a visit, but I could never stay there for good.

We drove around, hugging the coastline, to find a spot to camp the night. It was too late to find a ‘proper’ place, so we settled with a side road and lay down to rest for the night, with the intermittent sound of cars shuttling past to remind us where we were. We were in Aldinga, the place we had found in our research before we left- what would we wake up to find?