I woke up quite early yesterday, which was of course a Sunday, for those of us who currently reside on the Northern Hemisphere. I was waiting to hear from a friend, as we had arranged to catch up. We both are concerned about a mutual friend, who is really struggling at the moment and we wanted to get together and see if we could come up with a plan to help her. Once we had made contact, I got ready to leave. Happy to have a bike that I can use, as it is quite hot these days and I don't really enjoy having to walk in hot weather. Plus I knew that I would want to get home promptly, once we had finished.
This was going to be a heavy conversation and quite an emotional one as well. It's really difficult seeing someone suffer and not know how to help, mostly because they won't help themselves. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. But when they are at risk, then something needs to be done.
My plan was to return home and spend the day with my girls. To have a chill Sunday, after a heavy start. Before I returned home, I got some croissants for my girls, as a wee surprise, one they were very happy about. Upon reaching my truck, I had received a message from a really good friend of mine, asking if both myself and my youngest daughter, wanted to go to the beach with her and her daughter. A dip in the sea, wow I couldn't have asked for a better medicine right now.
Within two hours, we began our journey to the sea.
First we stopped at the petrol station for some well deserved cold drinks. Then we set off again, with me playing DJ. It always feels good to get away, even if it is only for a few hours. As I am in a valley, we have to drive up and over the mountains to get to the coast. It is a beautiful drive, but a very windy one too. I'm used to it, but many people who come to visit do complain of car sickness.
When we got to the sea, we had the choice of two beaches, one that was pretty crowed and more public or a more secluded one.
As you can imagine we chose the one that was more secluded. Which involved walking along this pathway, which at times was drowned in sea water, as the waves crashed over. Both the girls loved this and both the mum's as well. There is nothing like the beach to bring out the child in you. I was just as excited as the girls, when we tried our best to dodge the waves. Which we managed to do quite well. You could also hear the sound of the sea travel under the pathway, which sounded so nice.
There was quite a bit of rock climbing to do, once the pathway had finished. Rock climbing, that we all undertook very enthusiastically. The girls exclaimed more than once, how much of an adventure it was to get to this sandy beach. Black sand that is. As it is the summer and the weekend, the beach was quite full. But we found a spot and the first thing we did, was set up our umbrella, strip down to our swimming costumes and get in the water. It was very refreshing, a little cold even. But just what was needed after a hot drive.
As the girls played near the shore, me and my friend got to chill out. We chatted and laughed, until the girls came and demanded we take them out past the waves. Of course they wanted us to carry them as we walked out. I do remember how much fun I had as a child jumping the waves. I also remember being lifted by them and tumbling over, for what seemed like forever. We managed to get hit by two rather large waves, which did see us go under for a little bit. But the girls were super brave and asked us to do it again, as though we adults can control the size of the waves lol. I do love how kids think.
We checked out some rock pools and collected some seaweed. Which the girls used to make a very impressive seaweed tower. I wish I had taken a phot of it, but I was too busy admiring it, to remember.
I found the above photo, of me and my sister. I image I was 2 or 3 and she would have been 5 or 6. We got to go to the beach usually once a year, when we went camping and we would be so excited. Stripping off into our swim suits, once we saw the sea in the distance and racing out of the car to see who would reach it first. The sea, it just calls to me, it calls to many of us I believe.
After getting to spend 4 hours at the beach, it was time to head home, but not before a little stop at a beach bar for some hot chips. The perfect ending to our Sunday, Fun day.
All Photos used in this post are mine.
