Journeys | Life is not a Beach

This is my last 2013 weekend in Australia and today, a warm almost sunny day, I have decided to take a break from my study and go to Torquay beach, one of my favorite places in Oz. It is the first time I go there by myself by public transportation and took about two-hours to a destination which can be reached in twenty minutes by car. Getting off the bus I walked toward Zeally bay, reached the beach and there I practiced my usual ritualistic hatha yoga routine "Finding the Axis Mundi". Then I went swimming and was surprised by the water not being as clear as usual. After only one and half hour of time spent on the beach I ventured back to the bus stop for my other two-hour-instead-of-twenty-minutes return. I got off at the Belmont stop, missed the bus back to Waurn Ponds and decided foolishly to walk back (a 5km walk in urban sprawl and highway). It was hot and after only two kilometers I was exhausted, and ankle started hurting. But once again I found an angel who gave me a ride to my current Australian "home"; this time the angel took shape in a Chinese family: a Deakin PhD student with his wife and lovely baby girl.

The day overall whereabouts

Walking and swimming in Torquay

A sprawl walk in Belmont toward my current residence

(yoga) on the beach

It is almost a summer day, 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and Torquay beach offers a few hours of solace. I forget about the PhD and other usual problems; even the pain in my leg seems to disappear. A yoga practice by the ocean is for one of the blissed moments in life; the clear calm (cold) waters of the Southern Ocean are quite attractive, especially after getting used to the cold and grey Atlantic. Returning to the car, my left leg was hurting again and the ankle became very swollen.

My "Axis Mundi" sequence: tadasana, backbend, sirsasana and variation, adho mukha svanasana

Point Danger: Earth and Water

An energizing swim in cold waters

The last backbend on the beach: chakrasana

More Tales from the Great Ocean Road: Torquay

As the warm weather is about to disappear for the third week in a row I paid my homage to the majestic Southern Ocean, which last Sunday was not roaring as usually. The almost absent surf lured me to finally immerse in the not too cold —at least in comparison with the Atlantic waters of the north-east coast— water of Torquay beach.

 Cypresses bent by the wind at Torquay beach parking lot

 The Surf beach

 Spring Creek

 Point Torquay

 On the beach and in the water

 Walking through and viewing from Point Danger

 Finally the "built environment": Rip Curl store and the legendary surfers from the Rip Curl competition at Bells Beach

 A taste of India in Deborah's universe

 

The sun at the meridian crossing Deborah's trellis

On the Great Ocean Road Again | Waves Watching

 Aireys Inlet and Lighthouse

Where the river meets the ocean: Anglesea River and Bass Strait

 Surf watching at Torquay