Blonde on a Road Trip

With new energy, almost certainly supplied by the antibiotics and sunshine, I felt more confident about doing a bit more walking today, and before this big trip I’d had my eye on doing the Bondi to Coogee walk. It’s not a particularly difficult walk and the ocean is on your left pretty much the whole way, so what’s not to like?!

You can even stop at the beaches along the way, and there are many of them!

I got the train to Bondi Junction and then a bus up towards the southern end of Bondi Beach.

Before starting my walk, I just wanted to experience sitting on Bondi, even if I didn’t brave the sea, which was throwing up waves fit more for surfers than swimmers.

But the day was only getting hotter, so after a while I packed up my things and set off towards Coogee, which is about 5km south along the coast.

One of the first things to the left of the path was the famous Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club, which uses ocean water that spills over the top and is safe from waves and sharks. It’s really popular within Sydney as a meeting place, and many groups and associations meet up there for morning or evening swims. There’s a really cool social aspect to it and you can just walk in and pay to use it. It’s not exclusive at all. And there’s even a sauna! But the real sauna was outside today, so no money exchanged hands here!

As I walked on, the view back over Bondi was pretty delicious, so I took a quick snap before commencing the rest of the hike.

Some of the rock formations along the way were pretty interesting!

Sadly, I got caught behind an American couple and their Australian friend (green t-shirt). How did I know they were American from a mile off? I just picked up on ever-so-subtle hints in their intonation and also their disgusting fascist-supporting t-shirt emblazoned with “Legends Never Die”.

As soon as I had the opportunity to overtake them, I took it. If anything, so I wouldn’t have to look at the orange buffoon’s face any longer.

But with the bad and ugly comes the good, which brought me to the next beach on the path – Tamarama Beach. A bit calmer and not too busy, but not much in the way of cafes and eateries.

I didn’t stop for more than a photo here, so onwards and upwards. Not that I was in a hurry, but it was getting hotter and I was getting increasingly eager to give the turquoise-blue water a go and rinse off a layer of sun cream.

Bronte Beach is lovely. In fact, on Sunday Steph had said it was her favourite and I can see why. The waves are pretty big, and exciting if you don’t mind jumping through them or with them, but the water is lovely and clear and it isn’t too busy. There are also lots of places offering takeaway and fish and chips, or you can sit down and have a salad or wrap or something, just back from the beach. I opted for a smoothie to keep me going, and sat down with it on the beach by the water. It wasn’t long before I could no longer resist the water and I walked in, navigating pauses between waves so I wouldn’t get absolutely tsunamied on my way in.

Once I’d dried off a bit, I packed up my things and got back to walking, as I was only about 2/3 of the way down my route to Coogee at this point.

Rather weirdly, there’s a cemetery looking out over the ocean which you end up sort of walking through/around as you hug the coastal path. Interesting location for a cemetery, I thought?!

The next oddity on the route was Clovelly Beach, which is a very long narrow sandy beach that continues on as a long narrow stretch of water, with concrete sunbathing areas on the side. Overall a weird vibe and it wasn’t for my liking, but seemed quite popular nonetheless.

Around the corner from Clovelly was Gordon’s Bay, which had boats laid out on metal racks, a bit like a massive boat barbecue, but I suspect they won’t be grilling them…

The turquoises, rich vegetation and clear water were reminiscent of the Costa Brava.

By this point, it was about 2:30pm and I was keen to sit down again and have a refreshing dip. Luckily, my final destination Coogee Beach slowly came into vision beyond the lovely Dunningham Park. There were options to take a more complicated bush trail, but once I could see the beach ahead, I couldn’t contemplate walking any direction other than straight towards it.

I found myself a spot on the beach, which was getting pretty busy, and lathered up on cream again before going in for a dip. The waves here were calmer than at Bronte, but it was certainly fun to ride the moderate ones that came in. The water was a bit less clear, but still very clear! I couldn’t complain! And there were impressive shower and toilet facilities behind the beach. In fact, most if not all beaches here have some form of shower and toilet facilities, usually adjoined to their Surf Life Saving Club, or SLSC. Australia knows what it’s doing when it comes to beach life!

I’m not saying I’m on full holiday mode or anything, but I did manage to fall asleep on the beach a few times… bliss!

To wake myself up and owing to my hunger and the hot weather, I decided an ice cream would be a good addition to my day now.

I found a place up the high street and was recommended the black sesame, which was very nice! And my second scoop was salted caramel, because obviously! Me being me!

I took it back to the beach with me in a race against time as it melted under the hot sun. Luckily not too much ice cream was spilt in the taking of that photo ^^

It was now 4pm and I’d said I’d meet Michael in the Royal Botanical Gardens by the Opera House at 5, so I needed to find a bus and get myself over there somehow. Grabbing a bottle of wine from the bottle shop (which curiously stocked several Yellow Tails and McGuigans) I set off towards the city. The bus dropped me right by the west side of the park, and Michael, Holly and Liam (his colleagues) were all sitting on a picnic blanket on Fig Tree Lawn.

During our drinks and nibbles picnic, we were joined by these crazy-looking crested pigeons. So crazy that we weren’t even sure they were pigeons, but a quick Google informs me that they are. To be fair, if something walks, talks and looks like a pigeon, chances are it’s a pigeon, unless it’s a collared dove.

Anyway…

Liam had to leave owing to his commitment to the gym, leaving me, Holly and Michael to decide where to go next. They suggested Opera Bar, and for some reason I didn’t expect it to be right next to the Opera House, but that’s exactly where it was.

The place was pretty packed and there was some nice ambient live music being played too. Although it was busy, the queues for the bar were never horrendous and the drinks weren’t astronomically expensive either, given the location!

We had a few more drinks here, then went for a cocktail at Palmer & Co. By this point, and still feeling like quite a lightweight, it was time for me to go home and hit the hay. I also hadn’t eaten dinner and I knew there was pizza waiting for me in the fridge… yum! A lovely accompaniment for my doxycycline tablet.