Reliving childhood memories with my family in Torquay

Torquay, Vic

Thursday 23rd March- Sunday 2nd April

After a shaky start (we were put on a site in between two school camps, right next to the toilet block, and we spent the night listening to teenagers swear whilst the walked right through our camp- under the awning- to the toilets), we moved sites and had a fantastic time in Torquay.

Mum and Dad spent a week with us, and we also had Kate, Matt, Logan, Jenna, Nikki and Micheal spend various amounts of time camping with us. Despite the cool, and sometimes wet weather, we had an absolutely incredible time catching up and reconnecting after not seeing each other for over a year.

Our time at Torquay was spent:

• Surfing (Logan, Emilia and Jackson did a surfing lesson and were catching waves like pros after only a short time in the water). Over the rest of the week they spent a few more hours perfecting their new found skill, including a great afternoon in Anglesea.
• Exploring the Geelong foreshore.
• Finding lots of bargains at the surf shops
• Walking along the beaches, exploring the rockpools and watching the surfers
• Visiting Bells Beach
• Jackson and I did a sunrise swim (it was so cold, but amazing)
• Boogie boarding and playing in the sand
• Learning about the history of surfing at the Surf Museum

I did a sunrise walk each morning, and watching lots of surfers inspired me to do a sunrise swim on the last morning.

Ready for their surf lesson.

Jackson catching one his first waves.

Emilia did just as well. It was so busy in the water, as there were several surf schools on, so the kids did incredible dodging all the other learners.

Jackson and Logan managed to catch one together.

We all walked to the mosaic sundial depicting traditional indigenous dreaming stories. It's a beautiful piece of art.

Exploring the rockpools on the point at the end of the surf beach - Jackson found this starfish.

Surfing at Anglesea

Taking a break from surfing to dig a big hole!

Designing their own surfboard at the Surf Museum.

We spent an afternoon at Bounce on one of the rainy days.

Although it was cold, the waves were great so the kids spent several hours boogie boarding with Dad and I. They didn't want to leave, even though we were all turning blue!!

We spent a day in Geelong, visiting the Botanical Gardens and exploring the foreshore. 

Ice-cream on the foreshore.

The kids enjoyed a ride on the restored 1890's carousel

Logan spent the whole ride looking up- working out the mechanics of the ride!

The huge tides of the last few years have been eroding the beach at Torquay so these big bags of rocks have been put there to try to stabilise the beach.

Ready for our sunset swim. Emilia wasn't keen to brave the cold water, so she was on photo duty instead.

Jackson and I are on the left - it was a magical, albeit cold, swim.

The sun was just peeking out from the clouds - stunning.

Watching the surfers at Bells Beach.

Jackson made me have a swim on the last morning so he could try out his new long sleeve wetsuit top - I didn't have a wetsuit so I froze!

We stayed in Geelong on the last night so we could leave early the next morning. That night we went out with Markus for pizza.