Currumbin Rock Pools

I’m not sure if I told you this, but Lily isn’t a huge fan of the beach.

She doesn’t mind the sand, the people, the friendly dogs who lollop over to say hello and sniff for sandwiches. The waves are the problem.

She’s a little fish at home in the pool and will leap into any creek with abandon. But beach life is not for her. (Yet, but I’m working on it.)

So in the meantime we’ve been looking for quiet watering holes, away from the Easter holiday hoards, for dips and paddles, splashes, and rock collecting and jumping, while Mummy wallows in the shallows.

We found just that at Currumbin Rock Pools.

We arrived early, not through any great planning but just because when you have a tiny tornado in the house, we find it makes sense to just get out and get going right after breakfast.

We had the place almost entirely to ourselves.

We spread out our marvellous picnic blanket…

…which was immediately abandoned and we didn’t use it once until we were ready to leave!

The water was almost glacially cold, so we took our time acclimatising.

We played in the shallows and said hello to our neighbours.

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We fished for imaginary suppers.

Which I ate with glee (fish, chips, ice-cream and tea, if you were wondering).

If you’re not Australian you’re probably horrified by the idea of us swimming here.

I don’t blame you. The way people talk about this place, you would think that just living here is a sentence to death by cruel and unusual punishment. We’re told that every body of water is teaming with crocodiles, the sea is packed with maneating sharks, the loos are full of spiders and the trees are dripping with snakes.

And yet, by lunchtime the only monsters infesting this creek are the toddler kind.

By the time the sun is high in the sky, the waters are filled with giggling, chattering and shrieking littles. Happy parents sprawled on the grass trading stories.

It feels incredibly safe and serene.

Buuuut that doesn’t stop your heart from falling into your stomach when something big and decidedly slimy brushes past your leg…

…quickly followed by a fit of the giggles when you realise it was just a log.

We watched turtles leaping off branches and birds fishing.

They soon left when crowds of boisterous teenagers arrived with their music and horseplay.

So we did too.

As we drove home along the winding roads, beneath the swaying tunnel of trees, Lily fell into one of those deep, contented sleeps you remember from your own childhood. You know the ones after a really great adventure?