We Australians are reknowned for our love of the beach.
I may just possibly be the only exception in this wide brown land to that rule.
I loathe the sand sticking to me, the stinging bright sun, the blistering burn which I obtain from just half an hour in the sun and the salty wind. This loathing may derive from the fact that my father got skin cancer when I was 20 but even before that, I had learned the hard way that I couldn't get a tan. In those days, the only fake tan available was something in a tin called Sudden Tan. It produced an almost fluorescent yellow/orange glow a bit like a mango and stained your hands, zombie-like for days on end. It is hard to remember now, with so many warnings about the dangers of the sun, but when I grew up people were teased for having pale skin.
Anyway, to look at, and to walk on in the evening or very early morning, there is nothing better than a beach. And to see my daughter playing in the surf with such uninhibited delight a few weekends back did make me reevaluate my grumpy approach.
I may just possibly be the only exception in this wide brown land to that rule.
I loathe the sand sticking to me, the stinging bright sun, the blistering burn which I obtain from just half an hour in the sun and the salty wind. This loathing may derive from the fact that my father got skin cancer when I was 20 but even before that, I had learned the hard way that I couldn't get a tan. In those days, the only fake tan available was something in a tin called Sudden Tan. It produced an almost fluorescent yellow/orange glow a bit like a mango and stained your hands, zombie-like for days on end. It is hard to remember now, with so many warnings about the dangers of the sun, but when I grew up people were teased for having pale skin.
Anyway, to look at, and to walk on in the evening or very early morning, there is nothing better than a beach. And to see my daughter playing in the surf with such uninhibited delight a few weekends back did make me reevaluate my grumpy approach.
January and February is the time when all the beach houses go on sale.
Perhaps the market is not as bouyant as people may have hoped given that the GFC has not been as severe in Australia as other places. These places may prove the naysayers wrong.
Especially because in Victoria, with a shorter coastline, there is not such a great abundance of coastal beach homes as there is further north.
Here is my round up of the best I have seen.
A boathouse at Shelley Beach, Portsea (this sold for $455,000 over the weekend, to two families who 'wanted somewhere to store their beach gear').
And this is what you see from inside:
A house in Stonecutters Way, Portsea:
and with a pool - call me old fashioned but there is something wrong about pools at beach houses. Isn't that what the ocean is for?
A house at Lorne, on the west coast of Victoria:
and the view from that house:
A cliff top eyrie, in the same family for many years, at Shelley Beach, Portsea, known as Inverary:
This has something of the Cote D'Azur (nice not gold plated ) about it. And it was sold for $8.71 million on the weekend.
(All Images: from RT Edgar and Kay & Burton)
9 comments:
I'll take the house at Portsea and the $8.71 million one please Jane....and maybe the boathouse for the wonderful view !!
I have to say that I'm a pool girl. I was a competetive swimmer, so I love a nice swimming pool but, there's nothing nicer than a walk on the beach. I definitely don't like sand in my orifices !!!!I always think of Australians with wonderful tans...not like us English roses, but, you can't get paler than Nicole Kidman can you ? XXXX
Yes, in spite everything else Nicole Kidman has led the way for us blue eyed, pale skinned people here in Australia. Oh and of course Cate Blanchett, a real Melbourne girl. The sad truth is that a tan DOES make one look healthier!
I'll take any of them! Wow what gorgeous views.
What a beautiful place to live. The 8 million dollar spot is my favorite. We have lake houses here that don't compare.
xxoo
karen
I'll take any of those beach shacks thanks.
My mother had skin cancer when I was about 7 (she's still alive). So my memories of summer as a child are getting covered in sunscreen from top to toe in the bathroom before I even had my togs on - a method I still use today.
I do so love the beach. And I love a pool at a beach house. Always so lovely to jump in a pool to get the salt off your skin.
What a different life! Here our beaches are never too hot and we have no beach-gear to store. And certainly no pools. The water as leisure-industry culture is slowing making its way to us, but we're behind the times. And I'm quite anti-tan, unless it's a light one with a delicate sprinkling of freckles brought on while strolling to the folly in the garden. You, Nicole, and Cate are welcome here anytime!
I always hated the beach for the reasons you mention...and for all of the gear you're required to lug down across the hot sand. And then I went to Brazil...Ipanema first...they set up your chair and umbrella for you, delicious food is brought around by vendors...I just lay all day in my little patch of shade absolutely blissed out. That's the way to do it I think. And a gorgeous beach house certainly doesn't hurt...
I love Portsea and Lorne! Incredible homes you've posted....sigh.
Nice finds Jane. I like pools in beach houses, I need somewhere to get the sand off me.
Cheers
Engracia
Oh, those shacks are gorgeous! I have to disagree with you; I am living in London at the moment and the only thing I miss is the beach! Everything about it. I do, of course, lather on sunscreen!
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