Look, I apologise…. I really do….. It seems cruel to blog on about a scorching day on a white sand beach when I know many of you are braving sub zero temperatures and lots of snow…. However, facts are facts, and it is true that today, Bob and I, put all our new beach equipment to the test on Greenmount Beach in Coolangatta, about 30 minutes south of Broadbeach.
Why trail 30 minutes away when there is a perfectly wonderful beach a short walk away? Well, most of the beaches along the Gold Coast face directly east, And facing directly east means that the next stop, barring a few islands along the way, is South America. The waves, therefore, have a long run in which to build up power. This makes most of the beaches absolutely fantastic for surfing of all kinds, body, boogie, big board…. But today, we felt like swimming. I smile as I write this. What I really mean is we felt like bobbing and wallowing undisturbed by waves, or at least any waves that might rudely splash us. So, we needed to find a beach that didn’t face due east. And there are a very few, and Greenmount is one of them.
Like all of the beaches along this coast, it is a perfect great swathe of white, powder sand, leading to turquoise waters. And as we’ve already discussed, aforementioned white, powder sand is not disturbed by the blight of loungers, umbrellas or deckchairs!! No! Proper Aussies sit on a towel and like it. LOL
Well, there were a good few umbrellas given that it would be positively suicidal not to have shelter. The sun was fierce. Temperatures were about 31C, but that doesn’t give you the full picture of the sheer burning strength of the sun here. Without shade you would be burned to a crisp within the hour. Being on the beach would be impossible.
Luckily, we had our rather wonderful $25 popup sun tent/shelter from Kmart. Being from Kmart, there weren’t any instructions so we had to puzzle it out by looking at the picture of the assembled shelter on the bag. Some ladies nearby watched us with interest, clearly hoping for a comic turn. At first we gave them what they wanted, turning the bits over in our hands, and trying to hold down the flapping tent bit which kept trying to take off in the breeze. Ah, but we soon got the hang of it and it went up in no time. What a brilliant thing!!!! I thought it might have been a bit claustrophobic and sweaty but no, it was really wide and spacious and gave us shelter while letting the breeze in. We could have lain sideways in it and been totally sheltered but we went for the ostrich approach and just shielded our upper halves with legs poking out. We also deployed our beach towels and my beach rug/pillow thing, a 9$ clearance bargain from Kmart. Bob was hugely jealous of this when it became apparent how comfortable it was so we’re going back tomorrow to get him one! Hope there’s some left. They were in one of those clearance bins…….
There weren’t a lot of people on the beach, it was pretty quiet. Got chatting to some ladies (yes the ones who hoped our tent erection would fail) and they were interesting. Very chatty they were in that Ozzie way. Had abbreviations for all sorts of weird things. You had to keep up! So, “see you in the avvie” (you have to imagine the accent) etc. Bob was a bit bewildered by the “avvie”….. “did they say, “see you in the alley?”, he whispered to me, whitefaced…
What was interesting and very wonderful was that lots of different school parties came down onto the beach for their games lessons. They did all sorts: running, lifesaving, swimming, jumping. What a great place to have a games lesson. So much better than a sweaty old gym or freezing swimming pool like we had to endure. Not just one school either, quite a few. One lot had come over the border from NSW (well, it was only down the road…). We enjoyed watching them especially the lifesaving. They were really good surf swimmers. Great idea to learn that at school.
We went in and out the water countless times. It was gin clear and a nice temperature, about 25C. About 50m from shore there was a sandbar and as the tide went out, the beachside of this turned into an almost-lagoon. Lots of little fish. We had lots of wallows and bobs in there. Beyond the sandbar and on the point there were a few surfers, beginners I should think. We saw a few little classes on the beach. I was quite tempted to do it again but as it has been 40 years since I stood up on a surfboard, I felt wisdom was the better part of valour and passed…….
Had lunch in the surf club at the back of the beach. This time we didn’t go up to the main restaurant we ate at the kiosk café at ground floor level. Had grilled chicken/avocado/cheese/spice Turkish bread sandwiches. Now, I’ve never had Turkish bread quite like this. It was like a fluffier version of pitta bread and utterly delicious. Yummy. Good value too.
Had a really fantastic day on the beach. Can’t tell you how much we’re liking Australia, despite my jokes (which are right back at you from all Aussies we meet btw!!). It’s just a pity its so far away.
Fantastic sunset tonight as it was so clear out and over the mountains. Had dinner as usual on the balcony, so warm and with the chirping crickets out there serenading us.