A morning at the beach is enough for me

It's been quite some time since I spent a day at the beach because the UV is brutal these days. And unless you like the idea of being soaked in sunscreen all day, it's wise to give the beach a miss during the hottest part of the day.

That said @mazzle just mentioned he was off to the beach at around 7:30pm, which is usually a great time to visit the beach on a hot day, except it's still 39 C right now. WTF!

Now I operate best in the morning and this is what Williamstown Beach, Victoria looks like when I arrive.

As you can see there are only a few people around, and a few brave swimmers. The water in Melbourne is generally being feed from the Antarctic so you can imagine it's usually cold all year round, but once you're in, your body numbs enough to lessen the shock.

So I do my thing, and usually, try to get off the beach when the UV reading starts to reach, very high.

But to my surprise not everyone thinks this way as this is what the beach looks like when I leave. And more people are arriving by the minute.

Yes, apparently it's still a tradition to bake yourself in the sun during 'Very High' and 'Extreme' UV index readings which means you'll burn in less than 15 minutes if unprotected.

And what more these families are turning up to the beach at the hottest part of the day with small children in tow. Wow!

Now who I'm I to judge but, Wow!

Of course, not everyone with young kids is irresponsible, but on this particular day at around 1.2M deep  a couple of 5-6 year-old's pass me heading into deeper waters.

The little girl turn to me and says "I'm swimming well today"

And I'm frantically looking around to see where their parents were as they were both swimming in blow up rings and I imagine they couldn't swim a stroke.

There was zero movement on the beach, so I called out to the kids, made conversation and suggested they should turn back. A few minutes later I spotted a concerned mother wading into the water, shouting frantically.

But I'm sure not all parents are like that.

Not much else happened that day, and after speaking to man fishing on the rocks I also confirmed that you couldn't catch fish there as he'd been trying unsuccessfully for 2 months. "Just small fish" he said in broken English, "just small fish".

Anyway that's my morning at Williamstown Beach and I'm sure there's more to this story for those willing to brave the hot sun. But a morning at the beach is enough for me.

Oh and here's a nice picture of the Williamstown Surf Life Saving Club.

Williamstown Beach, you're on the map!

!steemitworldmap -37.867633 lat 144.888929 long Williamstown Beach d3scr