Whitsundays Weekend

You might think that because we live by the ocean the idea of a beachside holiday would hold no sway for us. However, we just had the best long weekend mini-break ever, in the Whitsunday Islands just a couple of hours drive down the coast.

We took a boat out through the islands to snorkel on the Reef, we glimpsed humpback whales off the starboard bow, we got back to dry land and ate the most delicious sushi we've had in oh, say, 10 months and my favourite part, we got up in the morning and stepped straight into our still damp swimming togs to do it all over again.

I'm going to tell you more about it, I promise. I'm just too relaxed at the moment.


But let me just mention here how this morning, back at home, I was trying my best to extend that holiday feeling when I decided to start off my day with a swim in the ocean. After Hayden left for work, I put on my togs and went down to the beach. Feeling refreshed and relaxed and ready for some kind of challenge, I put my eye to a small buoy not all that far from the shore, and decided to try for a lap of it. Without any of my usual fuss I plunged straight into the water and began to swim.

Well, the swim out to it was easy and deliciously refreshing, but upon turning around to swim back the other way, I discovered that the tide was coming out. Oh. I swam harder and harder and was a tiny bit scared and started to wish that I had gone to the beach where the lifeguards are, and I stopped putting my face in the water and kept my eyes on the beach and eventually made it back into water shallow enough to stand up in, and then I walked up on the beach and flopped on my towel, breathing quite hard. I looked at my watch. My little adventure-swim had taken me exactly 11 minutes.