Alex and I spent most of our childhood holidays at a beach called Killcare, on the Central Coast. I grew up a short trip from about 5 different beaches, surrounded by Bouddi National Park but it was Killcare that I always called 'my beach.'
Soon after I started seeing Alex, I discovered that this place held special significance for him also. Before our wooing process ever begun. In fact the very first time I met him, we sat in Hyde Park, under his favourite tree and exclaimed in excitement about sharing this special thing in common. These were the days when MySpace was still a big part of our adolescent socialising and I uploaded a bunch of photos of the Killcare rockpool for Alex to look at. He used to holiday there with his family at a house they owned there and I probably built sandcastles or explored the rockpool parallel to him unawares of what the future may hold for us.
I didn't see Alex for about a year after that but I still consider it the beginning of our love. Since, we have visited Killcare beach together and taken yet more photos of the playground of our childhood summer's and the paradise we yearn for as we live inconveniently far from the sparkle and sentimentality of 'our beach.'
Killcare has been many things for me over the years. Picnics with the horse riding club as a child, or with family friends, or just family. A certain Meg Peg (who since moving a suburb from me in High School quickly became my best buddy) knows that many an afternoon during high school was spent at Killcare instead of studying, especially during the HSC. It was a place for therapy. I've been there at midnight kissing a boy, I've taken psychedelic drugs there, I've been abused by North Shore dickheads there, I've walked kilometres through the bush to get there, I've seen the developments pop up and change, I've collected sea shells and cut my foot open on oysters, I've walked many different dogs there and I've relaxed there with the one that I truly love- Alex.
The above photos are from one such expedition with Alex, back to our beach. I think the ones chosen here are all taken by Alex though. They were meant to be made into a pretty zine but the cost of good quality colour printing to do the photos justice was too much for us. I dug them out whilst exploring the external hard drive last week and have been getting nostalgic and impatient to get back to Killcare again.
