baby wayne

otis recently journeyed to apollo bay (on victoria's south-western coastline) to take his part in a family tradition. otis' paternal grandmother's family have been making an annual summer holiday to apollo bay since the late 1950s. of course, the exact beginning of this holiday tradition has become muddled over time, but my last participation was in 1987 after which time the power of disgruntled adolescence was too much.

we stayed for a week in an extremely odd house (the oven did not work and the fridge was more like a deep freeze) where the the three of us occupied a small bungalow. yuki was very happy to patrol a large yard but was very concerned by the presence of the friendly horse next door.

otis and the friendly horse

over the course of the week otis relaxed with his grandfather, the wife of his grandfather (reality grandmother), his great aunt kathie, his great grandmother and his great aunt robin. this involved the telling of many stories, the playing of many games and the rejection of a number of spoonfuls of yoghurt.

due to some hitherto mysterious weather pattern apollo bay is not subject to the warmth normally associated with summer so there was not a lot of time spent on the beach. we did make a couple of trips to fly the kite and to let yuki run around like an idiot. the beach itself was beautiful and we also happened upon some freak seaweed formations that we thought remarkable.

three of us on the beach

look up to see the kite high in the sky

mysterious seaweed formation

we did manage a couple of excursions out of apollo bay. we had a day trip with reality grandmother and otis' great grandmother to visit the otway fly treetop walk. set amongst the roof of the otway forest the walk features amazing views of the beauty of the trees. as a fan of the outdoors and the trees otis was very happy (and not just because we had the camera).

the three of us amongst the trees

our second day trip was to the twelve apostles - although we couldn't work out exactly how many apostles there are are now - which was quite breathtaking. there were a huge numbers of flies and our mocking laughter at the european tourists wearing mosquito nets on their heads was somewhat hasty. after admiring the geology we retreated from the heat and the flies to port campbell. we enjoyed a tasty lunch whilst otis had his first turn in a high chair - it has been a long time since we have been out for a meal and both been able to eat at the same time.

kimberley, otis and two of the apostles

the three of us obscuring the view of the apostles

unaccompanied apostles

we left apollo bay on the day of the apollo bay show and the front of the house afforded us a view of the equestrian events taking place on the apollo bay recreation reserve.

otis had a lovely time by the sea and is looking forward to returning next year.