This originally started as last week’s Five on Friday post , but life stepped in, so now I’m going to just post the details of our weekend at Lorne and keep the rest for later. For the record H and I left my parents place at Point Lonsdale last Thursday and my dad was admitted to hospital on Friday with pneumonia. He is back home and doing well. I traveled back down to Point Lonsdale yesterday when he was discharged from hospital on Monday to help them out. Mum and I both caught the virus that dad had so we are all down here coughing and spluttering together. Anyway, on to our weekend at Lorne …
Last week I left you on a cliff hanger … would the shark be back on Saturday causing the swim at Lorne to be cancelled? The answer was no. The swim went ahead as planned. I enjoyed a walk in the morning, then we went back to the house, had breakfast, made a picnic lunch and headed back down to the beach to support our friends swimming and carry their thongs back from the pier to our cabana. (The walk to the pier is on a gravel path which you could walk barefoot, but it is much more comfortable to have a friend go and collect your thongs when you go into the water)
While sitting on the beach waiting for our friends race I got a faint whiff of smoke, and shorting after we could see the a little patch of smoke in the sky. This gradually built up until it became pretty unpleasant on the beach. We didn’t end up staying for all the waves of the swimming because the smoke was too heavy. We packed up and sheltered in the house with the windows shut and the air conditioning on. Their were two fires in the Otways. Over the afternoon we kept an eye on the state emergency website as the bigger fires was about 50 km from Lorne and heading in our general direction.
Late afternoon the smoke cleared and we were able to have drinks and nibbles on the deck outside. By bedtime the fire hadn’t spread towards us so we felt confident going to sleep.
The next morning we all woke up and most of us went out for our long runs. I knew I wanted to do at least 10K, but more if I was feeling good. I was feeling good and ended up doing just over 17K. I would have kept going but I knew G was waiting for me to finish. The path along the beach at Lorne only gives about 8K in total of running so we went out along the Great Ocean Road towards Apollo Bay for a little way, which is fine early on a Sunday morning before the traffic builds up.
Then it was back to the house for breakfast, clean and pack up then we drove back to my parents’ place at Point Lonsdale for lunch. G took H home to Melbourne with him in the afternoon so she could pick up her car. Sunday was a quiet night with just Mum, Dad and I left in the house. After the fires on the weekend Lorne and neighbouring Wye River were hit with flash flooding in the middle of the week, with river through the caravan park and supermarket at Lorne and the Great Ocean Road closed in multiple spots so it’s been an eventful (in not a good way) summer for them.
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10 responses to “Lorne Long Weekend (Cont)”
Phew, what a weekend! That smoky sky looks quite ominous!
How did your friends go in the swim, did they all finish ok?
I had to laugh when you mentioned “thongs” – and had to look up what it means!
Well done on your long run! Upgrading from 10k to 17k (and even longer if it hadn’t been for waiting spouses) is a great sign! I love your route – it reminds me so much of mine in Cape Town.
I’m really glad your dad is home and doing better. Fingers crossed you and your mum shake off the virus quickly too.
Everyone was OK in the swim. They were mostly done before the smoke rolled in. My nephew was doing the Superfish race, which is the elite’s race at 2:30 pm, but I’m not sure how he found it because I didn’t hang around to find out.
I’ve been doing regular 20K runs, but I wasn’t sure how I’d go after our party weekend, hence my playing it by ear. The virus is a bit nasty but I don’t think we will have it go to our chests like dad.
Pneumonia is scary! I am glad your dad was discharged and can recover at home. It’s so hard to rest and recover in a hospital with all the vital checks and such! I hope you recover from the virus quickly.
Sheesh, what a week w/ wild fires + flooding! I have driven the Great Ocean Road!! It is one of my favorite things I did when I studied abroad in Australia. It was so stunning! We were there in April if I remember correctly so it was a bit chilly but so very beautiful.
Yes, he hates the hospital, but at least here he can go outside and sit in the garden or wander around. He insisted on going to the supermarket yesterday, I think because he was bored and had cabin fever.
The Great Ocean Road is stunning. I want to do the multi-day Great Ocean walk along the coast someday (not camping, getting a shuttle drop off each day). Not in summer though because of bushfires.
I hope your dad is doing okay! Pneumonia is no joke. Hopefully everyone is starting to feel better, at least.
Oh ugh on the fires. It is so upsetting. We get them here in the summer and it’s such a powerless feeling, the fires and smoke in the air.
Dad is doing pretty well, he got checked today and still has a bit of fluid in his lungs but will go back next week. Mum and I are still coughing a lot, it is a nasty bug, but I think unlikely we will have lung problems. We haven’t been too bad with fires in the last few years since the big fires in 2020, that was disastrous. Luckily most of the bushfires are out now except for a few in the Alpine National Park
Sharks, and floods, and smoke, oh my. l would’ve had a tough time getting in that water if there’d been a recent shark sighting. What a difference the photo looks like in the smokey view. I’m sorry to hear that your dad was hospitalized, but glad he’s home now.
There were lots of IRBs out on the day and kayaks patrolling so I think it was probably the safest people would have been. Sydney has been bad in the last week, they’ve had four bad shark attacks.
Argh, hope dad is feeling better and you both are doing good too.
Being sick is so annoying.
I had to google all the places to get a feel of what you are talking about. It is such a nice area you live in – the smoke obviously.
I am gradually getting better thanks Tobia, but still have a post viral cough and blocked nose.