Spending the long weekend on North Stradbroke Island with the edge of Cyclone Oswald on your front deck is not your usual summer beach holiday.
But staying in an apartment that overlooks the sight, smell and sense of the sea and the storm while keeping dry is just as good.
And, I did venture out for a swim.
There I was… with a single lifeguard sitting in his car and and a young lad with a boogie board on deserted wonderful Cylinder Beach.
So I walked past the messy stringy flotsam of Pandanus rimming the shoreline and plunged into the roaring empty sea.
The warm water wrapped my body, softened by the sharp teeming of the rain and the swirls of gusting winds. I felt alive and whole and oh so glad to be here.
At the best beach in the known universe.
Stormy, wonderful Cylinder beach
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