The Queen of Beaches... Henley

My mum, @minismallholding, has already done a post on our outing to Henley but I'd like to do another. This one will be about the crazy and wonderful things my generation does. Stopping to admire the artwork isn't at the top of our list. The greatest honour for all our age is to do stupid things that will probably end up with us on Shit Adelaide... but not in a good way.

On January the 3rd, when I had finally recovered from my cold, we headed off to Henley Beach at around 10am. We brought drinks and snacks, and were fully prepared for a day of sunbathing and swimming. On the way we stopped at Soonta (the best place in the world, and no I'm not biased) and got some food to hopefully last us the day. We also swung by Coles to grab the most wonderful Kettle chips and a bunch more drinks.

When we arrived we faced the hardest part of any beach trip: the walk to the jetty. Parking is usually quite far, and if you aren't smart enough to bring shelter (which we most decidedly are not), then you'll have to brave the scorching 10-whole-minute walk to the natural shade of the jetty. But. We finally arrived. We set down our waterproof picnic mat on one of the few spaces left and began our wonderful day.

My little sister and I, after eating, went straight to jetty jumping. Some magic fairy had installed steps leading up the side of the jetty. It was almost as if they wanted us to be safer. We used to have to swim to shore and run back up the jetty (which took a long time let me tell you), or if you were brave enough you'd climb the spiky barnacled jetty legs back up. I wasn't able to convince Izzy to jump off the actual jetty with me (she only jumped off the lower step platform), but we had plenty of fun nevertheless. It was very crowded though, which had the beautiful effect of peer pressure and amazing things started to happen.

One young man climbed up onto the slippery railings, while another climbed up him and stood on his head, using it as a step to get onto the roof. With everyone amazed and with a new leader, that leader jumped from the highest point into the sea. Then we all got bored and went back to whatever we were doing before.

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As the day went by, we learned that the UV was likely a lot higher than we had anticipated. I was burnt. That wasn't going to stop me though. I decided that the day needed a little more pizazz, so I invited my two good friends to come and do some more jetty jumping with us. They arrived at around 6:30, when the sun wasn't quite so bad, and up onto the jetty we went.

It was still very crowded, and some genius soul had gotten a ladder and tied it to one of the posts so people could now climb onto the roof. It looked very stable. At least they weren't using someone's head anymore.

People were going crazy. Bellyflopping off the roof, riding those yellow ofo bikes up and down the jetty, riding the yellow ofo bikes while dragging an Adelaide Airport trolley up and down the jetty. It was wonderful. Finally I had an idea. I should do something stupid too. And so comes the bet.

I told my three companions (sibling, friend, and friend) that if all three of them jumped from the jetty at the very top (not the roof, I'm not cruel), then I would cut myself a fringe. I knew they wouldn't do it, and I wasn't going to pressure them into doing it. Doesn't mean I wasn't going to have some fun though.

I now have a fringe.

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So all in all it was a wonderful day. I had fun with current friends, and we had fun with strangers. It's lovely how everyone encourages each other and is so supportive.

So that my friends, is the best beach in the world. Henley Beach. The beach in Henley.

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Photos stolen from my mum