THE FIRST SWIM

I arrived in Perth on Saturday 11 January to late for a swim but Susan and I managed to get to the beach on Sunday 12 January after a walk along the Swan River with Gabrielle and Masie, a trip to Welshpool to pick up Susan's car, and shopping excursions to Bunnings and Spotlight to buy everything from pillows to a bucket, powerboards to brooms.

Our first swim was at South Beach in Fremantle, close to where Susan was staying. It's not our usual beach. We grew up going to City Beach which I hated. All I remember isa long schelp over the hot sand only to be dumped by the waves. In a way it's amazing that I got over my dislike of this beach only to fall in love with the ocean again when we moved to Cottesloe as teenagers.

Ann & Susan getting ready for the beach - 1960s

Peter's Pool, a reef-sheltered patch of water between Cottesloe and North Cottesloe beaches became our spot. It's a beach where we're rescued people caught in rips. It's a beach where we've mistaken dolphins for sharks because there weren't prescription goggles in the old days. And it's a beach full of fond memories of warm sand and cool water. 

Peter's Pool looking left towards Cottesloe Beach

Peter's Pool is just below the Cottesloe Tennis Club which our father Alan helped build out of sandunes in the 1930s. It's also probably the place where my favourite photo of Betty and Alan was taken in the 1950s. 


But for all those memories, we just went to nearest beach for our first swim. It was also the chance to use my birthday present from Susan and Sebastian for the first time - a GoPro, so I can keep taking feet photos. 



Susan at South Beach - 2025

The next day we visited Cottesloe Beach, another favourite, and one of the few beaches with a shark net. Not that that had stopped a 2 metre bronze whaler from breaching the net just a few days earlier. But nothing was going to stop us swimming at this iconic beach. 


Cottesloe Beach - 2020

Cottesloe Beach - 2025

Our last swim in Melbourne was at Port Melbourne beach a week or so earlier on Saturday 4 January. While this beach has a 4.5 rating on Google Maps, the reviews are mainly for the pleasant walk or the sunset and not for the actual swimming experience. It is a classic bay beach: shallow, greeny-grey water, and with an unknown amount of pollution from the nearby port but it was our closest beach so we went year after year. It's benefits are that it's not an exposed Southern Ocean beach with pounding waves and although you might meet a sting ray or a jellyfish you're unlikely to meet a shark. Will I miss this beach? Yes, because any beach is better than none. No, because Perth beaches are brighter, whiter, green/bluer and sunnier.

Port Melbourne Beach - 2022



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