Today we went down to the local beach (Red Head: named after me and our camping trip last Summer!) for a surf carnival. There didn't seem to be any floats with lots of waving children on them like carnivals at home just lots of kids running around with those speedos on wearing those round hats. Fair play to them though as it looked really tough with paddling on lifesaving boards, beach running and swimming all part of the event. Each beach has their own life saving club with youngsters who progress from Nippers (like Liam) up through the ranks to adults.
I had my first surf (now that the boards have arrived!) and enjoyed it although the water was rough rather than having large waves. Red Head is one of the more exposed beaches around Newcastle. Beth got in too... but no further than knee high to avoid being knocked over by the wash of the waves. The sand was so hot that it was burning our feet as we walked on it. We've had the two hottest days since we've been here, today is +40 degrees and the wind so warm, a bit like opening the oven and sticking your melon inside.... as the Aussies say "It's stinking hot!"
MONDAY UPDATE... in the local newspaper it said that many of the carnival events were cancelled due to the hot sand, 10 people were taken to hospital due to heat exhaustion and bizarely 3 to hospital with Hyperthermia due to the strangely cold water (14 degrees which is unseasonably cold by Australian standards) Being an Atlantic surfer I didn't really notice and had a good time in my shorts and rash vest! ;0)
The tower you see in the pictures is the shark tower (now not used!) and is a popular site for wedding couples, in fact there were two wedding groups there on Saturday! More often sharks are now spotted from the helicopters. Newspaper reports suggested that a 6 metre had been spotted last week in South Australia and swimmers were asked to leave the water... you'd only have to ask me once!
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