Give me Australian beaches any day

It is not that the beaches here aren’t nice; the water is cool and clear, the sand is raked clean daily and the facilities are impressive, it is the CROWDS, and it is not even summer or the holiday season yet!

There are thousands of people, all trying to claim a place on the sand. It is almost impossible to walk through, without flicking sand on someone.
There are groups of teenagers all armed with their MP3 players and mobile phones, groups of pale German/Swiss/English tourists who will perhaps regret their day at the beach tomorrow, as well as a lot of coconut oiled locals. There is hardly a hat in sight - the Cancer Council obviously hasn’t had much impact here.

The CROWD consists of all shapes and sizes and no one is shy. Topless bathing is very popular, even regrettably among the older, larger, and very old, very large group. It is very disconcerting for me, let alone Max (15 years) not knowing where to look or how to avoid such sights.

But when you finally muscle your way in between a few other towels, lie down, get out your book or close your eyes, you could almost image you are somewhere else … except for the general chatter of voices, phones, people signally to lost others their location and vendors battling their way through the crowd selling ‘beer-cerveza-icecream-helado-water-agua?’ in every language.

There are chairs you can hire, windsurfers and small sail boats for the adventurous, fixed volleyball courts for the athletic, toilets, outdoors showers, cafes on the edge of the sand from which drift tempting seafood smells and the sound of enthusiastic diners.

No many people are in the water though – the waves are nothing to talk about and I only saw one lifeguard for the entire beach! Only very few (probably foreign beachgoers like us venture into the deeper, open water. Jeff’s feet even float and that is saying something. –it is very salty.