Coogee-Bondi Coastal Walk

The Bondi-Coogee Coastal Walk is pretty well known to Sydney-siders. When S & I had a Friday off recently we decided to give it a go, but in the opposite direction, because I had my eye on a vegan pie for lunch at Funky Pies in Bondi.

So, we got up early & got the bus to Coogee. It's my favourite Sydney beach, even under a grey sky.

After seeing so many Italian beaches that consisted of nothing more than a thin strip of pebbles, this sweep of white sand was quite beautiful to look at.

The walk is very easy - hugging the sandstone cliffs along the coast pretty much the whole way.

Sydney is so built up, it's easy to forget there are still places you can appreciate what it was like hundreds of years ago. Well, at least you could if you squinted & ignored the buildings along the rough coastline.

Shortly after leaving Coogee we reached Gordon's Bay - a pretty spot that seems to attract lots of fisherman.

Look - I captured another flying bird!

The next beach is Clovelly. It's quite small, but does have a lovely, free, ocean pool.

The Clovelly Bowling Club surely has the best view of any club in Australia.

And of course the Waverley Cemetary offers an eternal ocean view to a select few.

It really is a beautiful coastline, I can't believe I have never walked the whole thing.

Next beach on the list is Bronte.

Quickly followed by Tamarama.

And of course, finishing off with the (in)famous Bondi - probably my least favourite Sydney beach, despite (or perhaps, because of) the hype.

This walk was fantastic - I recommend you try it on a weekday outside of summer to avoid the crowds. It's not only a favourite spot for tourists, but for locals as well.

The Stats
Distance: 6km
Time: About 1.5hrs (but you could easily make it 1/2 a day if you wanted to wander off the track for a coffee in each suburb, or for a swim in warmer weather)
Difficulty: Easy-Medium - just for some of the steeper sections of steps towards the Bondi end of the walk.

Exploring the Blue Mountains

Sadly, I'm back in Australia after an amazing 4 and a bit weeks in Italy... but happily I'm still out exploring.

I've been to the Blue Mountains quite a few times over the years, but this was the first time I've actually been up with the intention of bushwalking. After dropping our bags at the hotel, S & I headed out to explore some local spots. We started with a short walk to the Sublime Point Lookout, with its stunning views over the Jamison Valley.

The weekend we visited was the end of the Leura Gardens Festival. Sadly, we didn't have time to visit any of the open gardens, but this hedge creature caught our attention. I was thinking dinosaur, S went with whale.

After a short break for lunch & checking into the hotel, we headed out again later in the afternoon. This time we were heading for Gordon Falls & the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. There are steep metal stairs on most of the walks around this area.

The valley doing a really good impersonation of a smoke machine.

The dense fog gave the valley a really eerie feeling.

The Cliff Walk had been closed as recently as a few days before we got there due to a bushfire.

A couple of magpies singing on the edge of the cliff.

Just after this the skies opened & we spent the next hour or so getting progressively wetter as we made our way back to the next track up to the road and back to the hotel. I had a rain jacket, but no rain pants, so I was pretty cold & miserable until I was able to have a hot shower & change into some warm, dry clothes.

That evening, we headed into Katoomba for dinner and afterwards, stopped off at The Carrington for a drink.

Next morning, we headed out for a wander around Leura. It's such an atmospheric village, but I think this street wins the prize for being impossibly pretty.

Under much clearer skies we tackled another section of the Prince Henry Cliff Walk, this time heading to Leura Cascades. One of my favourite things is seeing the shadows that clouds cast on the bush below.

Bridal Veil Falls from the Bridal View Lookout.

S doing his photographer thing at the bottom of Leura Cascades.

After the Cascades we decided to head down the valley further to the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls. My walking downhill sensor was on high alert, but there wasn't much I could do about it - I wanted to see the falls.

They were so beautiful, even the climb back up didn't phase me.

There was so much we didn't get to explore of the Mountains because of bad weather and not having a car. I can't wait to get back up there to do some longer walks.

Bushwalk 7 - Woy Woy Rd to Patonga Drive

I'm off to Italy in an hour, and so we have reached the final walk in this part of my journey - Woy Woy Rd to Patonga Dr (we roughly followed the walk that I have linked to in the opposite direction, but finishing at Patonga Drive & without the side-trip to Kariong Brook Falls).

I enjoyed this walk, it started from the same point & had the same feeling of isolation as the Woy Woy Rd to Girrakool stretch. I was really tired though, and again needed to go to the toilet from the start (what is with that!), so was glad that the challenge level was much lower than previous tracks. My downhill radar was on high alert, but luckily there weren't too many strenuous climbs in this one.

The first part of the walk is a pretty straightforward hike towards Mount Wondabyne, which provides many convenient photo opportunities along the way.

This boardwalk came out of nowhere, but did frame the peak nicely.

Next to the boardwalk were these disused power poles. I was thinking to myself that it was a very isolated place to have power lines, but we soon came across the modern equivalent - huge steel structures, that are much more sensible, given the number of bushfires that pass through here.

This is the view over The Peninsula. We could see the rain falling in the distance and were hoping that it stayed on that side of us for the next couple of hours.

This walk also consisted of long stretches of sandstone - these were more vast though & I was grateful for the signs helping us navigate through them.

I was a bit lazy with the camera on this walk, but luckily the bro wasn't. Here is a beautiful view (complete with storm clouds) from the edge of the escarpment - you can just see the Dillons Fire Trail winding through the scrub below.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the Woy Woy Landfill site as we skirted around the edge of it. We could smell this for at least a kilometre before seeing it & I basically held my breath for the whole walk around it.

After passing the tip the track descended into a sandy rainforest habitat, before climbing back up to our finishing point at Patonga Drive.

You can continue across the road from here and down into Patonga for lunch, but luckily we chose to stop when we did, as the rain had closed in within 30min.

The Stats
Distance: About 12km
Time: 3hrs 30min
Difficulty: Medium (there are a couple of steep sections, but nothing too overwhelming - the terrain around the landfill site is probably the most difficult section)

Next stop - Italia!

The Great North Walk

I only have more one walk to report, so allow me to digress for a moment & talk about the Great North Walk (hereafter referred to as GNW).

As I mentioned previously, this is a 250km track (or, more accurately, series of tracks) between Sydney & Newcastle. For all I know, this kind of thing exists all over Australia, but, being somewhat of a bushwalking virgin, I'm really impressed with the whole scheme. The tracks are mostly well-maintained (or as well as can be expected, given the huge area covered), very well signposted & you're guaranteed fantastic views on pretty much every section.

I think the GNW could be turned into a real tourist attraction - maybe even approaching the scale of the NZ Great Walks if a series of huts were installed. For now, you at least have access to campsites & fresh water along the way.

Something you may not know about me is that I get a real kick out of good signage. I know, I know, you don't need to say anything. Luckily, I'm at the stage of my life now when I really don't care what people think of me anymore, so there. The best signage I have encountered on my travels to date was on the London underground. Having never visited the city before, I was easily able to navigate through multiple changes on day one without having to ask for any directions, which really put me at ease. I was also really impressed with the Paris Metro, but I only used it once, so don't feel qualified to comment. I think the worst signage occurs in carparks; Erina Fair shopping centre is a perfect example of a system of exit signs that lead nowhere.

I've been particularly impressed with the signage on the GNW, so herein begins a series of photos that non-fans of signage will not enjoy at all.

At the start of the track, and at major junctions, you'll get something obvious like this:

Mostly the directions come in the form of arrows like this:

and this:

Sometimes the signs will be nothing more than a paint-mark on the rock. The one below actually looks like an arrow, but many didn't. These mostly occurred on the huge tracts of sandstone, so make sure you keep an eye out because it's easy to get lost out there.

You'll also see lots of these scratchings in the rock. Usually, they'll be on an ascent or descent & will indicate the best place to climb up or step down, as well as providing extra grip on the often slippery stone.

The other thing you'll see are these Walkers Register posts. The others we saw were a more sensible design of a top-opening box mounted on the post. I'm not sure who designed this one, but they have obviously never had to use it. It unscrews from the bottom, so the first thing that happens is the book & pen fall into the mud as soon as you open it. Then, after you have done the right thing by filling out the register, you have the fun task of trying to balance the book & pen on the lid of the tube while you try & screw it back on. Very bad design & very frustrating to use.

I hope you enjoyed my brief foray into signage and I promise I won't subject you to another post like this (well, not for at least another month).

When I get back from Italy I plan on tackling some of the southern (Lane Cove) & northern (Watagans) sections of the GNW, so stay tuned for reports of those.

I urge you to get out there & explore the GNW as soon as you can - it's truly worth the effort.

Bushwalk 6 - Woy Woy Rd to Girrakool

I head off to Italy on Monday (yay!), so we're nearing the end of my bushwalking adventures for now. Walk 6 was back on the Central Coast, following another section of the Great North Walk, this time from Woy Woy Rd (near Staples Lookout) to Girrakool.

I really enjoyed this walk - it's the first one we did where we couldn't hear any traffic noise. Once we got a few kms in, the only sounds were the wind & the birds. It was a little eerie, but mostly a wonderful feeling.

We started high up at a track just off Woy Woy Rd and quickly descended to Kariong Brook Falls. It was at about this point that I developed a fear of walking downhill. We all know the theory 'what goes up must come down'. Well, I've developed a new theory that applies to bushwalking -'What goes down must come up'. With every step further down into the valley, I just knew there would be another (more difficult) step back up the other side. I was right, but more about that later.

Here is my amateur shot of the Falls.

And here is the professional shot by the bro. Puts me to shame.

This is a pool next to the Falls - I just couldn't get over how clear & pure the water was - it looks like glass in this photo.

Most of this track consists of sandy trails, interspersed with large swathes of sandstone. Remember how I said the Patonga to Pearl Beach track was a great spot for death adders? Well, so is this - the leaf litter at the side of the track is perfect habitat. So just keep your wits about you.

Here is one of the sandstone sections. I loved these parts - very easy walking, which meant I could appreciate the views more.

Many of these walks, and particularly this one, caused me to reflect on the amount of habitat destruction that has occurred due to our love of sandstone. Sandstone quarrying in NSW has led to the Broad-Headed Snake becoming a threatened species, and I think it's a tragedy that our wildlife needs to suffer so that we can build a nice looking retaining-wall in the backyard. It's time we start to rethink our use of this precious resource.

One thing that has been really lovely on all the walks is the wildflowers. So here's some of them - I don't know the name of this first one.

A sparse-looking grevillea.

A very pretty banskia.

And a banskia cone - which immediately reminded me of May Gibbs' banksia men.

This walk was riddled with great views - here is one of Mooney Creek.

This sandstone had deep lines carved into the stone - presumably by water flowing over the rock. I was in awe of the patterns - just imagining the thousands of years it would have taken to occur.

I mentioned earlier that every step down would mean a step up again. I was right - as we had to reach the top of Scopas Peak. While the steps up were more difficult than the steps down, it wasn't as bad as previous climbs. Plus, the views at the top were inspiring. This is Mount Wondabyne from the Peak.

Looking down on this landscape I was struck again by the denseness of the bush - treetops were all I could see in every direction.

And here is another treat - a panoramic shot of me checking out the view from the Peak.

More sandstone patterns - this time hundreds of small holes. I imagine this would look amazing after rain.

After feeling so isolated for so long on this track, I was surprised to suddenly come across this view of the F3 freeway & Mooney Mooney bridge.

Once we got into Girrakool the landscape changed quite dramatically - we left behind the dry sandstone for a rainforest habitat. We also came across some more brush turkeys on the track - and here is one of their nests - this was almost as tall as me.

We rested in Rat Gully for a little while and I thought the arrangement of these sandstone boulders was quite fetching - nice one Mother Nature.

The Piles Creek walk in Girrakool passes through a few sandstone caves. I remember walking this track on school excursions as a child & back then, I was in awe of their size. I would walk underneath & gaze up at the patterns and feel so small. This time, I had to walk in a crouch to fit underneath the overhang. It made me feel old.

Another cave.

When you get to the end of the Piles Creek walk you're on the opposite side of the Creek to the carpark. I experienced a moment of terror as I contemplated wading through the rapids before I remembered these cute stepping stones which transported us safely (and dryly) across the Creek.

The Stats
Distance: About 13km
Time: 4hrs
Difficulty: Medium-Hard (particularly at the Girrakool end)