A Day at the Beach

So much for a lie in yesterday LOL - the girl's stomachs got the better of them so at 7.05am I heard, "miiisss" outside my door "is there any milk?" and thus the day began. Passed the required milk to them as we had cocoa pops and toast already sorted for breakfast and then I proceeded to have a bone warming hot shower. All going well with the girls, I went over to see if the workmate was up and to plan the day. Had thought we might go into Gton shopping initially but decided to go to the beach instead for a picnic lunch (winter is soooo hard over here)- so Dongarra it was, which is 1 1/2hrs south west for those looking on a map at home.

Our estimated time of departure was 9.30am and so by 10.30 we were driving out the gate LOL. We had the school minivan this time so we could fit the 10 of us all in the one vehicle. We took the Tardun-Pindar road which is gravel with a small sand trap for the unwary not much past the initial turnoff. Seemingly in the midst of nowhere (there is a lot of that about out here)we turned left on the road to Mingenew which was about an hours drive. Very little animal life out yesterday. Did see some manky looking sheep with their lambs in a paddock somewhere along the way. Most exciting was one paddock (think probably 100acres LOL) with wheat 8" high, though most paddocks (small counties)that had wheat were about 2" high in growth. It seemed the way to Mingenew was drier than the Gton - Tardun area - lots of red ground and saltbush along the way. We crossed the Urwin river about 5 times from memory - now more creek looking than I imagine it was during the rain. We were driving along one particular part of the road when the workmate and I both said at the same time, it reminded us of the scenery in a Western movie. There were hills in the distance on both sides of us that were plateau in appearance (flat), with us driving through the "valley". We would not have been surprised to see Red Indians hurtling down on their horses (I know it is Native American's now, but it was Red Indians when I watched Bonanza and Rawhide!!)

Mingenew is a blink of the eyelid - the 'town' was left and we turned right and 30 mins later got to Dongarra. First job was to find a bakery after we had done a quick scout out of the lookout overlooking the coast. After some helpful advice from a local as to the location of the bakery we bought fresh poppyseed and sesame seed buns, loaf of bread and a tea cake (Australian for Sally Lun cake). On the walk back to the car we espied an op shop which drew us in like a magnet LOL. I got no further than the book section and bought two, to fill in a gap between library visits. We drove on a bit further to an area alongside the tide in a marina type spot that had picnic tables set out under a roof (for shade), beside a playground and toilets. Again I must say, Aussi beaches are done well with public amenities (WA at least). A veritable feast of salami, luncheon and ham salad buns ensued with teacake and fruit to follow with lashings of orange juice (we take an eski of water/juice on all outings). This was followed by at least 20 mins on various playground equipment and a walk out onto one of the piers, followed by a walk to another one a bit further up that was more of a breakwater. Now I know by now you are thinking - oh my gosh, Lynn and all that walking. Well rest assured, I was not. At the playground they had this hollow ball type thing that you could fit 4 children in and whirl it about at speed. (Which they did, backwards and fwds). Consequently, one of the girls felt ill and said she could not walk. I waited with her while the others walked on. There was nothing for it but to sprawl on the grass and lie in the sun. I say grass, because this is the closest thing to normal (NZ)grass that I have seen. There did not appear to be any teeming insect population about it, and how good was it to be able to wear bare feet and just lie on the ground. What I did notice was this weird fillament thingie amongst the grass. At first I thought some samoyd dog had been scritching and shed multitudinous hairs about the place - but on closer inspection there were these white filament type strands in groups or two or three, coming up out of the grass, with little seed heads at the end of the filaments. Once I had established there seemed to be no danger attendent in any of the above, I just lay and soaked up the warmth - in May, nearly June, (you know, winter time heh, heh)and just enjoyed, whilst the girl beside me had to go and be sick in the tide (finally). When the others eventaully got back, we had a quick ice-block, loaded up the wagon and headed out of Dodge.

Dongarra was reasonably sized, maybe about as big as Waiuku shopping wise and the houses ranged from average to some very nice ones around towards the marina. Beaches (here) are still not unlike say Glenbrook Beach in the 60's/70's where you had people living there all year round in normal type houses mixed in with the odd bach type place. There seems to be little of the sort of housing you find in NZ along beach fronts these days - the million dollar apartments etc of the Mt and Auckland way. You could buy a place at Gton or Dongarra for around the $400,000 mark though they do go up to around $600,000 for the two story, newer built houses.

Got back here in time to make a salad and venture forth with the 'whanau' down to opposite my place and a fellow kiwi's home, for a barbeque dinner for the daughter's 13th birthday. All those on site with kids were there and between kids and at least 6 dogs it was a noisy and fun night. All the kids were on the 'oval' at one stage, playing spotlight in the dark -not a playstation or computer in sight. As well as the gas barbeque, there was a small campfire going so toasted marshemellows were part of the evening fare - (I am practising hard for Christmas camping LOL). AND - only one mosquito bite last night under my right ear lobe!! Drank a bottle of tonic water whilst around the campfire and had minimal repellent on (in the hurry to be ready)and think I got this bite in my sleep. Am almost scratch free today though will take another telfast just to make sure. We are going out on the farm later for another bush barbeque (going to make a damper loaf for lunch to go with the butter and jam LOL). I expect I will have to clean my house and room upstairs (decluttered my back pack on Friday night LOL to cope with the haute cuisine of the weekend). Update on the workmate's arm - still itchy yesterday but redness and swelling had gone down. General consensus seems to be that it may have been a wasp sting as a spider bite would leave a black mark around the puncture wound indicating dead flesh!!! Ointment and pressure bandage seems to be working. By the by - there were HEAPS of wasp nests in the trees on the way to the beach yesterday. They hang like small chinese lanterns in the gumtrees along the side of the road, some trees have up to 5 or more in them!! They also range in size from table-tennis ball to baseball size. Ick!!!

Happy Birthday to No 1 Daughter in Law - Hope you have a great day.