Austinmer, with no 'e'.

---

All down to them misspelling the railway station sign, apparently, a story that obviously instantly endeared me to the place. It's beautiful spot too: the beach is formed by a break in the cliffs and is lined with pine trees with the hills in the background. You drive down these on the way in - about a kilometre of mad gradients with fantastic views of the ocean on the way down when the trees don't get in the way. All very tantalising.

It's one of those beaches where there's always plenty going on. The sea was packed with surfers, the south end had paragliders and there was a man fishing off the rocks in the north. Couldn't resist a paddle of course, just wished I'd worn my swimmers so I could have got in properly. It was a big moment sticking my feet into the Pacific for the first time. Can't say that it was something I'd ever though I'd be able to say. The similarities with the North Sea weren't great it has to be said. In fact there weren't any. The main thing that hits you is the colour of it, or, more correctly, that it actually has colour and isn't the consistency of a slurry pit.

I want a surfboard more than ever now having spent the afternoon watching the lads out on the waves. Most of them were on body boards (think that's right), trying to do 360's, with not much success generally. There was one moment that summed the day up for me, when you could see a huge wave coming, see that the lad had lined it up perfectly and you just knew he was going to get the most almighty launch off it. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened and it explained the joy of surfing better than I'll ever be able to. You just knew moments like that were what he kept coming back for.

Had a little wander up to the rock pools at the northern end of the beach and back, sat in the sun for a bit, then it was sandcastle time, which I told Ange was for Asha, but was just as much for me as you can imagine. What we came up with was, well, rubbish. Needed our friendly little minx helping us out, because what we came up with was a miserable and highly embarrassing boob with stick effort. Very sorry, Asha.

Still, I enjoyed myself, so I don't care. Bet it gave the rest of the beach a laugh too.

Great day all in all. It'd been a hot week, so being able to cool off at the coast was a big relief. Looking forward to going back soon and checking out the beaches further north into the national park - they're supposed to be even better.

Just woken up to a 3:1 away win for City, so I'm a very happy bunny.

OTBC. God bless Glenn Roeder.

---

Photos

Austimer Beach.
the man with the kids in tow was fishing off the rocks later on. Caught something too.

Austimer Beach.
Somehow I managed to take a photo completely devoid of the interest surfers surfing would have leant it. I'm a fool. The waves were generally bigger than this one too.

The first paddle.
A woooooooooooooooooo moment.

Movemeber mo.
Looking very silly I think you'll agree. I've discovered you can have too much ginger hair. Someone should have told me earlier.

Got nothing to look proud about here.
In it's defence, it did have a moat. Sea looks nice in the background, though, so gaze longingly at that and forget the rest.

One very rubbish sandcastle.
Told you we needed your help, Ash.
The shame of it.
And stop laughing, Lynne.

Austimer Beach.
Looking north.

Austimer Beach.
Looking south.