The Beach

I hate the beach; I mean I really hate the beach. Too much sand, too much salt water and way too much sun. The reason for all the disgust I feel about the beach. When I was a kid, I was dumped by a big wave while we were on a family holiday, parents’ response you will be right stop crying. Did they have an arse full of sand no, did they feel like their teeth had been knocked down the back of their throat no. Then when I was 21, I went to Broome with friends who were both very big drinkers, after a long drive from where we worked, I went to sleep on Cable beach without my gear on, whilst the drinkers proceeded to get blatheringly pissed, they forgot all about me, by the time they remembered I had been laying on my stomach for hours and was the color of a freshly cooked crab. That reader is a whole other story.

So how did I find myself in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Working under the blistering sun and swimming in the stunning blue water. Love and a job offer that was hard to refuse. My then partner and I worked on a fruit farm where they also made apple juice, the farm was family owned and had been for many years. One of the daughters and her husband decided that now the children had left home it was time for a change, so they accepted a job in idyllic Coral Bay on the Ningaloo reef.  When they arrived, they found they needed some schleppers, that turned out to be us. So, we left the city and friends behind to set forth on a new life. All these years later I still do not understand why I agreed, given Coral Bay is a seaside resort with ocean and sand as far as the eye can see.

The days were long and hot, so hot in fact that we would start early knocking off at lunchtime sleep or swim, yes, swim, then start again in the cool of the late afternoon. I mentioned swim because though it was thoroughly distasteful and against my every instinct there was no other way to cool off. You see though there were taps and hoses available the water was salty and usually at a temperature of 52 because it rose from an underground artesian aquifer. So, no point running around under the sprinkler! To drink the water, it had to be put through a desalination plant which both caravan parks had, now I understand that the state water department has put in a bore and very large desal plant to cater for the whole town as it has grown. This left the beach, I grew to enjoy my time in the water, snorkeling over the lively reef with all its vivid colored fish and corals. Even the abundant underwater beauty did not disperse my distaste for the sun, sand and salty water though it did allow me to tolerate it all for a short time.