Surf Beach - Part 3

DAY 5 - Wednesday January 18

Clark has bought himself a second-hand surfboard at one of the local shops and heads for the beach at 5:30am.  He is ecstatic to have a surfbreak he can see from the patio lounger. 

At a more decent hour we take a stroll through the Eurobodalla Botanic Gardens to check out some of the local greenery and birdlife.  A beautiful spot to see some old Wooly Butts (a eucalypt tree not a botanic streaker), superb blue wrens (which truly are), and a lovely picnic spot with an innovative playground where Rusty bangs on various wooden instruments to her heart's content.

Audrey has begun her adventure into the world of solid foods.  We started by offering some rice cereal, mum-mum's and fruit purees in late December.  She devoured all the rice cereal I offered in the first several days, but then she wasn't too interested in anything much beside the mum-mums.  Given her sister's motto towards food (no fruit, veggie or meat shall ever touch these lips) this was causing me a certain amount of anxiety.  Over the past couple of weeks I had offered her a variety of different fruit-type purees that I thought she would love - but for each one she would make a terrible face and get as far away from the spoon as possible.  Still, she was incredibly interested in everything that we were eating.  Time for another approach we thought. 

I started by offering her some mushed-up banana from my finger - she grabbed my finger like she'd been starving for weeks and shoved it straight into her mouth.  Then she leaned forward and opened wide for more.  Only from my finger though - she refused to eat it from the spoon!  Next we tried mushed up carrot - same response, then green beans - loved them!  Today she discovered kiwi fruit (after one bite of kiwi she tossed the carrot she was holding, grabbed the whole kiwi right out of my hand - jaguar speed - and shoved it straight into her mouth - I had to do a finger sweep to get it out!).  So, we have skipped the puree stage altogether and she is quite the little fruit and veggie lover so far.

Audrey after a bout with carrots!

We manage to get the girls down for a nap at the same time and Clark catches some more waves while I spend some time with my book, and a glass of wine on the lounger.  Love simul-naps!!!

When we first arrived in Sydney there was a huge mural of Australian underwater life in the airport with an arrow pointing to what they described as the #1 killer - the Box Jellyfish.  The Sydney aquarium also gave this creature its due with some pictures of extreme burn-like wounds and instructions on issuing CPR should you be bit.    I was keeping my eye out for these creatures whenever I ventured into the surf.  After his surfing session Clark comes trotting across the road to show me his jellyfish wounds - stung once on each arm - and it looked very red, swollen and bumpy.

"Did you see it," I asked?

"No," he replies.  I start trying to remember how to do CPR in my head (was it 1 breath and 5 compressions or 2 breaths and 3?).

"Well, do you think it was a Box jellyfish," I ask, somewhat concerned.  

"No," he replies.

"How come?"

"I'm not dead," he says with a grin.  We find out later that Box jellyfish only occur in the warmer tropical waters up north (doesn't that sound odd to a Canadian).

DAY 6 - Thursday January 19

We’ve fallen into a bit of a routine.  Clark goes surfing in the morning, while I get the kids up and dressed, feed them breakfast and pack for that day's adventure and then I have eggs, bacon and a hot coffee waiting for him when he comes in the door.  Or... he surfs while we continue to sleep.

Today we have a lazy morning around the house and then head into town to try to get some internet stuff done (blog posting, banking, e-mail, etc.).  The only crux of our Surf Beach place is that there is no internet access.  We have to drive to Bateman's Bay (a bigger town about 15 minutes from our place) and find a parking spot where there is a decent connection using the portable dongle that we bought.  Then one of us tries to amuse both children somewhere in the vicinity, while the other sits in the car and conducts business - it's a painful and slow process (the dongle is not synonymous with high speeds).  Today it was my turn to do the internet while Clark took Rusty shoe shopping.

We always knew that Rusty had a bit of a shoe fetish.  In the green space at Lane Cove she pointed and sang to one woman's shoes for so long that the woman commented "a girl after my own heart".  Putting shoes on is the first thing she wants to do when she wakes up in the morning, and sometimes it's a battle to get her to take them off before she goes to bed.  She likes to wear her shoes inside of my shoes (the more shoes the better).  For days now she has been eye-balling the flip flops that all the kids are wearing down here and Clark decides that it's time to replace the little yellow crocs.  After trying on and finding the perfect pair of flowery flip-flops he tries to take them off her to pay for them.  Apparently she screamed all the way through the entire K-Mart and most of the way down the street.  Poor Clark.

DAY 7 - Friday January 20

On the road again.  Today we are off to Mallacoota for 7 days.

The Gear

By popular request - the Swagg'n Wagon

We take the 350 km drive from Surf Beach to Mallacoota in basically one fell swoop, and it takes us about 5 hours of driving time.  Driving in Australia is not the same as driving in Alberta!  When planning the stop after Surf Beach we think 350 km (like Calgary to Edmonton) will be easy.  350 km on the prairies - piece of cake - 350 km on Princes Highway - slower, curvier, narrower, and much longer.  But the drive is mostly uneventful -  no puking, no screaming, no nothing.  Audrey sleeps for the majority of the trip and is content to jaw on mum-mums the rest of the time.  I hand them to her from my front seat and her tiny little hand reaches out and grabs each one like a mogwai that's been fed after midnight.

Rusty is completely entertained by the portable DVD player that Grandma bought her for Christmas.  What a great gift (thanks Grandma!!).  She watches Huffalump at least 3 times, everytime it finishes she says "more, more" and then sings, yells and talks along to the characters (thanks Aunty Jana)!  We will surely have this movie memorized by the end of our trip.

In the name of the 100-acre wood, I capture you