Torquay

Torquay? You mean the sea-side town on the south coast of England famous for fish and chips and surfing? No! I mean the sea-side town on the coast south of Melbourne famous for fish and chips and surfing.
The early Australian settlers did not have much imagination when it came to naming their towns and geographic features. They liked to pick names that reminded them of home, even when they were in the middle of a heat ravaged alien landscape full of bizarre birds and poisonous spiders that looked nothing like home.

So that is why you can drive west out of Melbourne, through the Pentland Hills to get to Dunkeld and the Grampian Mountains. Or you might head South along the Mornington Penisula which takes you past Brighton, and Arthur's Seat and you end up in Blairgowrie. Heading East you drive out through Blackburn and Croydon. If you explore the inner suburbs you'll find yourself in Tottenham or Kensington or Kew or Windsor. And where we live in Essendon is right next to the suburbs of Niddrie and Aberfeldie and Strathmore; there's Napier Street, Salmon Avenue, Balmoral Street, Ballater Street, McCracken Street and so on and so forth. It's just like home - except for the snakes and the sharks and the kangaroos. Anyway, you get the idea.

The Australian Torquay then, is located about an hour and a half drive south-west from Melbourne, round the West side of Port Philip Bay and past the Bellarine Peninsula.

Can you find Torquay? It is south of Geelong
nb that is pronounced Jelong, they laugh at you if you say gee long

One of the reasons we went to Torquay for our little holiday is that Julia came here with her family for their Summer holidays for 20 years or so. It is a popular beach holiday destination for Victorians. It has a couple of long sandy beaches, a caravan park, a busy high street, lots of accommodation, good surfing and fish and chips. It is famous for being one of the birth places of Australian surfing. The Rip Curl brand began here back in the 1970s. It is just along the coast from the very famous Bells Beach which is where they hold a lot of the big international surfing competitions. We arrived on Monday and stayed for 2 nights in an apartment right down near the beach. This was Isla's first proper holiday with us and she did brilliant. She did lots of sleeping, playing, smiling and speaking (she can now say 'awoo' and 'ga', I don't know what the meaning of either of those words is). The weather wasn't great but we still got out to walk along the beach and on Tuesday I went surfing with my dad.

I've only surfed once before, and that was at Torquay, over a year ago, when the sun was beaming down and sea was as flat as a pancake with only the odd tiny swell to try and catch. That was my first and only lesson (Julia was surfing that day too!) and I even managed to stand up on the board a few times. This time round my surfing experience was quite different. The sky was overcast, the sea was cold and the waves were big. Or at least they seemed very big to me and they came in thick and fast. I fought my way through the breaking waves till I got to chest deep water and waited for the 'right' wave. Then I clambered onto my flimsy foam board and hoped for the best. The giant swell picked me up and threw me forward across the ocean as I clung on for dear life. If I could keep with the wave for at least 3 seconds I would try to stand up and this is where things really went wrong. I was moving too fast and the board was too slippy. I'd skid off the side of it and be eaten up by the surging water. Then I'd surface again just in time to see another massive wave bear down on me. There was only enough time to get out 'Oh Shi-" before that wave too slammed down on me. My sinuses have never been so clean.

Amazingly I did manage to stand up about a half dozen times but for no longer than a few seconds. My dad didn't fare any better and he resorted to skimming along on his belly in the shallow surf that was about 2 feet deep to prove that he really could 'catch a wave'.
Going surfing is like having the crap kicked out of you by the ocean for an hour and a half. We had a really great afternoon!

me
the picture does not capture the terrible savagery of the cruel sea

Our holiday with my parents is now coming to an end but we have managed to do a lot in the 2 weeks we've had and my parents have experienced most of the important elements of Australian life from Barbecues to Surfing. My dad has enjoyed going to one of the many local swimming pools each day and taking long cycles round this area of Melbourne. My mum has enjoyed getting to spend lots of quality time with Isla and Isla has given her lots of smiles and cuddles in return.

After our trips into the center of Melbourne and then Victoria Market last week, we spent the rest of the week catching up with Julia's family in and around Melbourne. We drove up to Ballarat last Friday and had lunch with Larry and Ange, and on Sunday we had a family gathering here in Essendon. We had planned to have a barbecue in the park that day but it turned out to be far too hot. It was another weekend of temperatures above 35C. That was a bit of a shock for my mum and dad but they adapted well. My dad did the usual Pommy thing of ignoring the heat to begin with and tried to carry on his cycling and walking as normal but he soon discovered that all you can do on a day that hot is to stay in with the curtains drawn and the air conditioning on. We took my mum and dad into the center of Melbourne on Saturday night, while Julia's sister, Simone, baby-sat for us. We went to the big tourist area of Lygon Street where it was incredibly hot and busy and had a fairly average pizza. I don't think my parents are in a hurry to go back there.
A storm came in on Sunday night and the weather broke just before our trip to Torquay. By then we were glad for a cool down. Since then the weather has been relatively cool (around 22C), cloudy and rainy.

I think my parents have really enjoyed their Aussie holidays despite the long flight and the jet lag and I will be sad to see them go. Also we have proved that relatives CAN live together for 2 weeks without killing each other and that is an amazing achievement in its own right.