Sunset Beach Photo

by Cath Campbell
(Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia)

I know... there's no one in this family beach photo!

Nevertheless, it is indeed a family beach photo with wonderful memories attached.

If the camera had been turned around the other way, you would have seen one of my brothers and I with big silly grins on our faces.

It was 2004.

He lived in Canada, and decided to venture 'down under' for the Christmas and New Years season. I lived in New Zealand, so that was his first stop.

It was really special to me that he came all this way to visit. Although... he's not silly... the southern hemisphere is much warmer than the northern hemisphere at this time of year! Snowstorms or sunshine...mmmmm!?

After a few weeks exploring glaciers and fjords in the Southern Alps, we decided we should go somewhere different for New Years... somewhere even warmer!

We had three criteria:

- It had to be 'across the ditch' from New Zealand... yep... that's Australia.

- There needed to be a beach in the vicinity
- And... it must be somewhere that neither of us had ever been

If you know how big Australia is, how warm it is, and how many wonderful family beaches there are, you'll know this criteria didn't create a very short list.

The fact that it had to be somewhere neither of us had been began to whittle the eligible destinations down a little... but just a little.

On previous travels together, we had visited...

# the wind swept beaches of Adelaide
# the safe family beaches of sub tropical Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Through my independent travels I had ticked off quite a number of other beautiful beaches that Australia offers:

* Wine Glass Bay in Tasmania, an elegant sweeping arc of pristine sand.

Dozens of East coast beaches from the
* busy and popular Manly Beach in Sydney,
* to the isolated Finch Bay in Cooktown in northern Queensland (There weren't any people on the big beach at Cooktown... only thousands of tiny tiny tiny crabs that roll little balls of sand around to keep their underground tunnels passable.)

* Many of the Whitsunday Islands in the Great Barrier Reef including Champagne Bay. Champagne beach has the whitest finest sand that feels almost like powder instead of sand.

So, take those out of the equation and that only left the other 80,000 km's of Australia's coastal beaches to choose from!?!

We started to look at some of our other priorities.... neither of us had ever been to Western Australia so that sounded like fun, we both liked touring vineyards and since it was going to be New Years we thought a glass or two might be in order, and, we had a relative in Perth. Bingo!

West coast here we come.

The day this photo was taken had been a full and enjoyable day of adventure.

It started off by renting a convertible sports car, putting the top down, and... getting lost on the way to tour some inland wineries.

And that was before we had even tasted any wine!

Many miles and lots of laughs later, we found ourselves standing on this west coast stretch of beach.

It was time for a delicious evening meal of seafood overlooking the Indian Ocean. We settled back and savored one of the last sunsets of 2004.

Reply:
Marylyn(SuperNan)

Hi Cath,
And I bet when you hunted out that photo it brought back some wonderful, warm and fuzzy memories.
You have to love the times you share with your siblings, I know I still do.
I can feel you all there so it qualifies as an entry and thank you for sharing your precious memories with all of us.
Kindest regards,
Marylyn(SuperNan)