There had been lots a talk over the summer holidays of Mom and me heading down to the beach for a couple days but nothing materialized until the last week of holidays. The weather forecast was not the greatest but we were running out of days so we decided to go. Since it was just going to be mom and me, the plan was to keep it simple. We would head down to Warrnambool for a couple days and soak up some sun, play in the sand, splash in the surf and run on the beach. Nothing else was on our ‘to do’ list except to try and buy me a wetsuit since I froze last week during swim lessons.Up bright and early Tuesday morning, we packed the tenting gear, beach paraphernalia, threw in a few clothes and we were off. To be honest it wasn’t that early but considering it was summer holidays and most mornings I am still in my PJ’s at noon, we did pretty well to get away by 10 am. It is a two-hour drive to Warrnambool and I entertained mom by singing songs, playing letter sound and spelling games with her. She did a great job of getting us there with not a single wrong turn, although I did hear her muttering to herself once something about “Oh, maybe we should of turned there”.
Since it was just me and my mom, mom let me to be the boss for most of the two days. I was allowed to decide what we got to do and where we got to eat, although Mom still had veto power. When we arrived in Warrnamboll it was lunchtime so we went to one of my favourite restaurants – McDonald’s. Did you know that McDonald’s are pretty much the same all over the place? There are a few different menu items, you can get a happy meal here with pasta but more importantly, you still get a toy. There are a few other different burgers, like the ‘McOz’ or ‘McFeast’. The ones here in Australia generally have the play centres outside. They are not as elaborate as the ones at home but there are still lots of fun. Most of the McDonald’s here have a McCafe, which makes it a little more tolerable for mom. The McCafé concept is a café-style accompaniment to McDonald's restaurants. McCafé is a concept of McDonald's Australia, starting with Melbourne in 1993. A McCafé is a gourmet coffee shop where the menu features a selection of specialty drinks, including cappuccinos, lattes, teas and fruit smoothies. Enhancing the coffee bar is a glass display case filled with a variety of high-end cakes, pastries, cookies and soft pretzels. They make really gooood strawberry donuts there.
I wanted the beach next but Mom vetoed that and we headed out to find a campground. That proved to be fairly easy. We found one that was central and only a few blocks from Lake Pertobe and the beach. I helped supervise the pitching of the tent offering to help put in a peg or two when I had the urge. It went up with ease and the bedding was next. I wanted to sleep messy but once again mom vetoed my idea and I helped lay out the sleeping bags.
Once that was all done it was off to the beach. Or so we thought. Towels, sand bucket, shovels, sunscreen, snacks, all in tow, we headed in the direction of the surf. The wind was blowing so strong it was like a sand storm hit us as we approached the path that led us down to the beach. We only made it a couple steps before I was whinging and did not want to go any further. We were only exposed to it for a minute or two but we were covered in sand when we got back to the car. It was everywhere: eyes, nose, hair, ears... I think the Sandman must have been in the area. For those of you who are not Spiderman fans, Sandman is one of Spiderman’s enemies.
So we wrote off the beach for the day and went and had ice cream and then spent over five hours at the various playgrounds across from the beach. It was great! There was a number of different play structures. A couple had some awesome slides. I met a fellow Canadian, Nathan, who was here visiting his grandparents and other relatives. We hit it off pretty good and played in the sand, made sand angels and splashed around in one of the fountains near by.
Mom and I grabbed fish and chips from a nearby kiosk and had tea down at the playground then walked over to the maze and flying fox and spent some time there before heading back to camp and to bed.
Wednesday morning was a cool one but was supposed to turn into a fairly nice day. I was awake around six o’clock and raring to go. Mom thought that it was awfully early but I didn’t think so. We packed up camp and headed out to find some food. We were camping but we were lazy man camping – we planned to eat all our meals in a restaurant. Keeping it simple, we didn’t want to be bothered with trying to cook things at the campground, although most of the campgrounds in Australia, particularly the ones in cities, have these wonderful camp kitchens. Most are equipped with a fridge, microwave, toaster, tea kettle, and usually some sort of hot plate or electric burner. All you really need to bring is your food and stuff to cook it in and eat it with. Quite simple actually, I am not sure why Mom and I never brought breakfast with us.
Once our bellies were full, we headed into the downtown area looking for a wet suit. There was a number of sports and surf shops but all were sold out of my size. The day was sunny with little wind so we headed to the beach. Again with all our beach paraphernalia in hand we headed in search of some sand and surf. We reached the stairs this time with little problem but were sadly disappointed when we saw the beach. The bay itself was beautiful, over 5 km of beach, but it was mostly
covered with kelp. Not just bits here and there, but piles of it. There was even a loader there scooping it up into a dump truck. The far ends were a little cleaner but of course we came out smack in the middle of it. And the smell … Yuck! I wasn’t too happy to be there. Mom made me pose for a few pictures and tried to talk me into playing in the sand for awhile but I just wanted to get out of there.
We went back to the playgrounds for a bit and then headed to the big bouncy pillow. I had a blast on there. When I was exhausted, we headed back downtown to grab a bite to eat. On our way back to the car, Mom happened to notice a sports store down the street so we figured that we would give it another go and see if we could find me a wet suit. It must have been our lucky day for they had one left in my size and it fits great. Having played so hard at the bouncy pillow, I wasn’t much company on the drive home. In fact I don’t recall any of it as I think I was asleep even before hitting the highway.All in all it was a grand adventure even though we never really did get to the beach!
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