Welcome to 2012! Geelong was quite sedate on New Years Eve compared to some places I have been. Robin (Ben's wife), Ben and I had a quiet night and just took a walk along the esplanade where families and well behaved people enjoyed a fair and some quiet drinks.
Ben doing a "laughing clown impersonation
The pier has some restaurants and a nightclub on it but they were booked for a private function.
Some people were just fishing, ignoring the arbitrary date that signaled a new year. We got home before midnight, switched on the news in the hope of seeing some fireworks and were instead treated
to a top 10 of horrors that had happened in 2011. Great way to bring in 2012 guys.
New years day is traditionally a rest day in the Australian championship so
we decided to do some tourism. As it was a hot sunny morning the beach seemed like a good idea. Our first stop was in the seaside resort town of Torquay. We wandered around a little to check out the shops and then headed down the beach. Not finding any parking despite driving around a while we headed out of town. Not far away is the famous Bells Beach.
The car park was only half full and the water was perfect. A nice place to celebrate Robin's birthday. Ben must consider himself lucky. We men are notoriously bad at remembering important dates.
Now to something else I really appreciate in Australia. We have public facilities everywhere. Not only are they ubiquitous and generally clean but in this case also artistic. A Doubleroo thumbs up to the council responsible for Bells Beach.
As you can see the beach was also not overcrowded. In Geelong and Torquay it was.
From Bells one can take the tourist drive back to Geelong via Barwon Heads. We stopped for Fisherman's Baskets ( Fish, Prawns, Scallops, Calamari and Chips) and took in the sights.
Even the sidewalks are decorated. Tipping my hat again.
Many families enjoyed the great summer weather by the inlet.
As did your humble author :-)
Back to chess tomorrow folks, hope you enjoyed this break in games and if you have not been in this area of Australia or Australia at all yet I can thoroughly. Recommend it. Check out the "Great Ocean road" and convince yourself.
Seeya tomorrow :-)
Gee, that Ingram couple look like a winning team. I imagine their offspring must be intelligent and attractive. P.S. I thought Robin was a boy's name?
ReplyDeleteCelebrating New Year at the beach may be quite different, but it is still loads of fun! You can skip the noisy parties, and just have a relaxing trip at the beach. What makes the trip better is that the shoreline and facilities are clearly well-maintained. It takes disciplined beach goers to achieve this, as well as a hard working beach cleanup crew.
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