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From Ithaki Greece to Victoria Australia - An ithacagreece.com trip
 
November and December 2006
 

Athens

Up and Away

Ithaca Society

IPS Lunch

City Central

The Shop Drop

Landscapes

Coastline

Beaches

Country Victoria

Suburbs

Upside

Downside

   
Beaches

What can be said about Australian beaches. They're long stretches of golden and white sand hit upon by a little surf and sea, and pulled hither with the tide. A flush of a wave collapses the sand under your feet as the deep ocean pulls the shoreline back to its bosom. Baby oil and tan lines, Life Savers and Shark Watch. Beaches in Australia are beautiful, expansive and dangerously alluring. Rips and tides claim too many souls every year, but life without beach in Australia, just wouldn't be a life at all. In the off season, the beaches are left to the sea gulls and sand joggers, with the smell of the washed up seaweed set to air by a bracing wind. In summer, it's the smell of coconut oil and the sound of children playing in the ‘shallows'. Fish and Chips is the favourite seaside fare and soft-serve ice-cream from the van, always goes down well on a hot Summer day. Seaside huts colour the beachline in rainbow vibrancy and pseudo surfies wax their boards while they wait for the perfect wave that can only be found on an ocean beach, not here, bayside.

Portsea, Sorrento, Dromana, Rosebud, Frankston, Flinders, Hastings, Black Rock, Brighton, St. Kilda, Williamstown
 
 
Melbourne Beaches
The water is chilly. A full summer of 40C can't warm up the mass that edges toward the south pole. Tanned and muscle bound bodies lay limp on the hot sand, soaking up a dangerous sun to keep the tan to last all winter. Jet skis and power boats cut through the spill. There are kite fliers and paragliders shimmering in the distance with a misty sky as their backdrop. Girls pick up boys. Boys pick up girls. Council workers pick up everything else that's left behind. Before the day starts, some beaches are combed for needles, others just for aesthetics. Fisherman fish off the pier, most bayside beaches have one, while lovers walk the length back and forth hand in hand, hair blowing in the wind.
 
 
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It's a long ride home with sand in your pants. Most Melbournians live quite a distance from the bay side beaches. To save on the ride home, many take their home to the beach via a Caravan. They camp and spend weeks soaking up the summer life at their favourite beach along with the rest of the transitory summer community.

 
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