The South Coast

Wednesday a couple of my Young Men and I headed down to the South Coast. We left early in the morning, taking the King’s Highway, a narrow ribbon of bitumen which races across yellow, drought-parched paddocks and then winds through dim, grey-green groves of towering gum trees before plunging down the face of the Great Dividing Range via a seemingly endless series of tortuous hairpin curves. It was a pleasant two-and-a half-hour trip. Alex had brought his guitar, and he kept us entertained with his own latest compositions plus a few requests from me. In addition, we stopped en route at Braidwood’s award-winning bakery and breakfasted on their hefty meat pies slathered with tomato sauce. I usually don’t eat breakfast, but for this I made an exception.

From Bateman’s Bay we headed south along the coast til we came to Broulee Beach. I’m a bit of a beach snob, preferring the quiet, less-developed kind to the crowded, noisy ones lined with fish & chips shops and ugly toilet blocks, so the extra half-hour drive is worth it to me. As you can tell from the photo, it was a beautiful day to be at the beach. Admittedly, it was a bit cooler than it could have been, reaching only 22 (72F), but the sun and sand both felt luxuriously warm after the chilly weather we’ve been having in Canberra.

After warming up thoroughly with a long sunbake, we played in the surf, jumping over and diving under the waves. They weren’t the biggest waves by a long stretch, but they were big enough that some people were surfing on them, so they weren’t boring either. The water was bone-chillingly cold, however, so, after we’d turned blue, we had to soak up more solar radiation til returning to a normal—or possibly ruddier—colour.

Early-afternoon we stopped for lunch, which we ate in the shade of a large tree behind the beach, hoping to keep our consumption of sand down to a minimum. We’d all brought odds and ends from home, and we ended up with a nice meal: cheese sandwiches, most of a roast chicken, two kinds of potato chips (Thai sweet chilli and cheese & onion), and two bottles of lemonade. We managed to finish off all but part of a bag of chips and half a bottle of lemonade.

Then it was back to the beach for more fun in the sun, surf, and sand. I’m happy to report that I won four out of five arm wrestles, which is not bad considering that I was not the biggest competitor. We also buried Dobbie in the sand, sculpting the pile on top of him to look like a mermaid. I am afraid, though, that he’ll likely be getting sand out of his ears for the next fortnight or so. After a final swim, designed in part to minimise the amount of sand tracked into my car, we packed up our towels and sunscreen and headed back up to Bateman’s Bay, stopping at a developed beach for a shower and a chance to change out of our wet bathers.

Despite our earlier feasts, everyone was up for a bit of dinner, so we parked near the harbour to get some food. The boys chose the ‘safe’ option and headed off to KFC, but I went to a fish & chips shop and bought grilled fish, grilled prawns, chips, and a small salad. We then ate by the harbourside, watching the pelicans on the pier and keeping our food safe from the greedy seagulls which flocked ‘round us.

The drive home was longer than the drive down had been, as is often the case, but it was tinged with the quiet satisfaction that attends those whose backs are a bit sunburnt, whose bellies are full, and whose bodies are tired from a full day of good fun.