Home and Away

Finally a decent night's sleep and over the jet lag at last. We are now up in Bilgola in the Northern Beaches area about an hours drive north of Sydney, staying with Richard's sister and husband, Ros and James, who have been living over here for just over a year.

Today they took us for a short drive up the road to Palm Beach. The sun was shining and unseasonaly warm, and we sat on the beach while Callum had lots of sword fights with Uncle James.

Palm Beach is where lots of the outside shots are filmed for the Aussies Soap "Home and Away" - which I confess I was addicited to for many years as a teenager. So it was great to see the beach, iconic lighthouse, cafe and the Surf Lifesaving Club, which actually has a sign on the beach side saying "Summer Bay Surf Lifesaving Club". I was going to post a picture of that, but thought it far too sad.

Well we wandered down the beach and had some lunch over looking the water, where we were lucky enough to watch a sea plane taking off (which Callum really enjoyed, rather unsurprisingly). But after lunch we did a hearty walk up the to the lighthouse at the top of the headland. You can see it in the photo below. It was a steep climb with some paved parts but mainly a rock strewn path. Callum was in his element and was racing to the top, confidently negotiating the rocks. All those gym lessons are finally paying off, as he did seem to have far better balance than most of us! At the top he ran up to the lighthouse and asked where the door was, and was very disappointed that you could not go inside. The maintenance access was a flat sheet metal door firmly padlocked shut, which Callum did not recognise as a door, so he said "but mummy how will the man get inside to turn it on". There followed a lengthy conversation about how lighthouses were important, how they get turned on and how if everyone could go inside it might break and the ships might crash. Finally he accepted the fact that not all lighthouses have men living inside to turn on the light if they see a ship! The climb back down was a bit slower but still displaying amazing mountain goat abilities and resolutely refusing any help, Callum made it back down a bit tired but feeling very elated with his achievements.

I don't think he has ever walked that far, and suffice to say he went to sleep very quickly. We, on the other hand, were treated to a delicious marinated beef and roasted vegetable supper followed by tart tartin, courtesy of Ros. We are certainly being spoilled. Tomorrow we are off to another beach to meet some Australians, which should be interesting with the Ashes, at time of posting, still to play for.