For the last full day of our holiday we headed back to Compton Beach. We’d had such an amazing time earlier in the week and the weather looked just perfect.
Having eaten breakfast and packed up our buckets and spades, we got to the beach nice and early. We were so early in fact that we arrived before the ice cream van had even appeared! For future reference (if you’re planning on visiting the beach), the ice cream van arrives at 10:20am. Ice cream for breakfast is therefore not an option.
We wandered further down the beach than last time and found the perfect spot – there were rocks on one side to stop others invading and plenty of interesting stones nearby for stacking, inspecting for fossils and adding to sandcastles. Speaking of sandcastles, we had very quickly created a sand-based fort next to our base of operation. There were a variety of sand colours within close proximity so we ended up with some stripy towers – brilliant.
The next order of the day was digging a great big hole. While I started the process (as I do love digging on the beach), the hole digging quickly turned into a whole family affair. It was soon deep enough for the kids to crouch down and effectively disappear from sight – quite impressive really.
The children couldn’t quite grasp why the hole kept on filling with water so a lot of time was spent frantically bailing the water out only to watch the hole inevitably refill within minutes. It was good honest fun though (and it kept them busy for a while)!
True to form, as soon as she had a chance Megan started collecting stones to turn into a stack. The stones on the beach were perfect – wide, flat and sturdy. She achieved an impressive nineteen stone stack in the end.
Genevieve and James made friends with some children next to us. They played very happily for a while, digging more holes, building more castles and generally running about on the beach.
As the tide moved out, Grandad Lawrie found some rock pools to investigate and then moved on to fossil hunting. Megan and I found some funky fossils too. We independently stumbled across some fossilised wood with chunks of iron pyrite (Fool’s Gold) encrusted on the surface and then both excitedly try to show the other person our discovery. Once we’d found the first couple of pieces we were then in the fossil zone and kept on finding more. Genevieve is covering dinosaurs at school next term so we gathered a mighty collection for her to take in (enough for all six classes in her year).
I went in sea for first time since Goa – I was an exceedingly happy chappy about that as I love bobbing up and down with the waves. I found a nice little sandy patch quite far out to sea (where it was still quite shallow) and messed about for ages. Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, but being in the sea is better.
As I came back to shore I convinced both the children to join me in a bit of paddling. Sadly James got caught by a rogue wave and ended up with a nose full of sea water. He was far from happy about the situation and needed an emergency consolatory cuddle from Daddy to make it better. I couldn’t convince him to go back in the sea after that though – once bitten, twice shy.
Genevieve, on the other hand, was more than happy to frolic amongst the waves with me. There was laughter, shrieking and giggling aplenty. Great fun!
Coming out of the sea I discovered a new problem that I’d not faced before. Grandma Lindsey had kindly prepared a Thermos of coffee for me, but all of the salt water caught in my moustache infected the lovely drink and make it rather unpleasant to drink. Maybe I need to invent an anti-salt water beverage drinking protector. Maybe.
I went for a lie down on the blanket while the others reverted to hole digging. Rather than continue in the deep hole we’d dug earlier, the kids found two wider but shallower ones abandoned on the beach. They were half full of water and proved to be great fun to jump in. I still think deep holes are more satisfying though.
The week-long battle with James and his obsession with throwing stones, water and sand continued. After yet another calm but firm explanation about why he needed to be careful and considerate of others, he finally understood what was OK and what wasn’t. As a result he got a lot better at throwing sand in sensible places and didn’t throw any more stones. Phew!
Once I’d woken up I continued excavating the deep hole we’d started earlier. Genevieve and James came to help and, while the resulting hole wasn’t quite big enough to hide me entirely, I think they did a pretty good job!
It was soon time to head back to the cottage. We were having a lovely time but we didn’t want to overdo it and risk a tired child meltdown, plus I needed a proper sleep rather than the semi-doze on the beach.
While I slept the others popped round to Fort Victoria to throw stones. Now that James understood when and how to throw stones appropriately it was a much calmer experience for everyone. Genevieve tried her hand at skimming and achieved three bounces. She was thrilled as it’s not easy to do. Being a stereotypical boy, James tried to find the biggest stone to throw in the sea. He struggled with some but took great pleasure watching the splashes when he succeeded.
The collection of interesting and special stones increased yet further – I was sure our suspension wouldn’t survive all of the extra weight on the drive home. Everyone searched for more fossils to bolster the collection from earlier. Grandad Lawrie may have found a dinosaur vertebrae (to be confirmed) and Genevieve found a fossil-dense stone she was really proud of. Although it was really hot, everyone had a lot of fun.
The kids tucked in to pizza for dinner accompanied by God songs from YouTube on the TV (as requested by the children). I discovered that the previous cottage inhabitant was still logged into YouTube. Out of interest I perused their recent history and found some dubious Polish dance music on their “previously watched” list. Eye opening (or should that be ear opening) stuff! As soon as the kids left the room, Grandad Lawrie asked for it to be turned off because it “offended him”. Hilarious!
With the children happy outside I volunteered to help the Grandparents set up facial recognition on their iPhones. We got there in the end but it was very funny to watch.
Megan took the kids for a scoot around the site to take photos for Grandad Stephen – he was keen to see how the site had changed since his last visit. James scuffed his knee so headed back to the cottage. Apparently I didn’t help by pointing out the blood – I honestly though I would make James feel brave, but instead there was an outpouring of tears. Whoops!
With the children calm in their bedrooms it was time for the adults to enjoy their pizzas and to reflect on an incredibly enjoyable week. But I didn’t let the reminiscing last for long as I remembered we had Ladder Golf in the car and I was very keen to give it a go.
There was some initial confusion about the construction of the ladder and then about the rules, but we got there in the end. It turned out to be an absolutely cracking game with tonnes of potential, but it’s probably best not played when it’s nearly dark and you’ve had a few too many shandies. Lesson learned!
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