Sunday, December 18, 2011

Birthday Camping at Cave Beach

Welcome to Cave Beach

To celebrate Amy's and My birthdays, we ventured down to Jervis Bay where we explored Cave Beach Campground and the surrounding beautiful, deserted beaches.


Amy and I set out early Friday with the rest of our party arriving Friday evening with a fire going and a Tyrannosaurs birthday cake waiting to be devoured.  The cake had to be defended from the kangaroos and possums roaming the campground but once it was made extinct we laid back and enjoyed the fire.  Smores soon followed.

Dino cake RAWRRRRRR!!!
Panoramic view of Cave Beach, click to expand

The Cave of Cave Beach

Saturday we woke up to sunshine and juevos rancheros a la Amy.  We took the short walk to Cave beach to enjoy the sunshine and waves.  The sun played hide and seek with us till early afternoon when it turned on full sunburn-inducing overdrive.
A well deserved break after bodysurfing
Cave Beach again
James relaxing as hard as he can

The waves were halfway decent and our mate John spent the whole day in the water on his surfboard, taking breaks here and there to have a beer or sandwich with us on the beach.  At times, he was literally the only person surfing on the beach.  A far cry from the relatively busy breaks of Manly.  Amy also tried out her new bodyboard and she was smiles from ear to ear.

Ahhhh....summer
Amy in a wave

That evening we settled in for a barbecue by way of Jeroen and Ramonda as well as having Simone join us with food reinforcements.  Kangaroos were everywhere in the afternoon and some came right up to check us out.

A curious kangaroo
Chris performing a mind-meld
MMMM.....bbq

On Sunday, Chris and Delia took a walk with their 3 month old (baby's 1st camping trip) and discovered a brand new beach, totally deserted.  After some chocolate-chip banana pancakes, we ventured out to it to find it sparsely populated with people but densely packed with beautiful waves.  We proceeded to play in the water till exhaustion and sunburn set in and then packed up for the trip home.

Amy bushwacking to a new beach

Worth the walk




Momma Roo with a Joey in the pouch
All by ourselves

I call this side of the beach!
Ryan's Swamp, near the campground
 We are greatly looking forward to going back in a couple weeks as part of the whirlwind tour when Oakley and Amy come out to visit!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Santa Crawl 2011



Santa can still watch you with his hands full

This past weekend we took part in the annual Manly Santa Pub Crawl in order to prepare us for the coming holiday.  We started off at the Steyne Hotel where we cavorted with reindeer, angels, elves, and wisemen.  There was even some caroling, which you can catch the end of in the embedded video.

Cool, festive partygoers on the balcony



Rise up my people, our time has arrived!


Smiling too much to have been nice all year

Next it was on to the newly renovated New Brighton Hotel for some balcony views onto the beach and more great costumes.

Lastly we ventured on to 4 Pines for some burgers and a nightcap, before returning to the North Pole to crack the whip on those lazy elves.


A pack of Santas

MMM..better than milk to go with those cookies, kids

Merry Xmas!!!

All I want for Xmas is you


Everyone was in a cheerful Xmas spirit and many a glass was raised.

I went as.....Santa and Amy dressed as a very festive Xmas tree, complete with LED lights and a star on top.

James and Debs joined us as Mr and Mrs Claus, respectively.

The view from the New Brighton

 

Ho Ho Ho!!!