Walking Sydney

The day started early.  We had a 5:45 date with the Sydney Harbour Bridge to do the Bridgewalk.  This is a tethered walk along the top of one of the most famous bridges in the world.  They don't allow you to take your camera (so no photos - sorry) for two obvious reasons: 1. to sell you pictures that they snap, and 2. to make it harder for criminals to get strategic views of a potential terrorist target.  The whole bridgewalk processes takes quite a while, since you have to gear up in special suits and harnesses and then get trained on walking on the bridge prior to making the trek.  Once you factor in gearing up, followed by almost and hour up and another hour back down, you have been at it for almost 3 hours.  Our tour guide, Mitch, was hilarious and kept us constantly entertained thru a walkie-talkie/radio system.  It was kinda scary walking exposed like that, but we all made it.  After making it back safe and sound, we purchased one good photo which is on a CD up in my room (free wifi in the lobby).  The Bridgewalk was memorable.  It was a crystal clear day and the Sydney Harbour is magnificent from that height.

Coojee has 1 million people on it.

Always time for a family selfie.

We had crepes for breakfast  before stopping by the hotel to get into our beach gear.  We don't have a car here in Sydney.  Just like Melbourne, we are dependent on the public transit system.  We wanted to get farther away from our hotel and the "old town"part of Sydney known as The Rocks, where we have had most of our meals.  So we purchased bus passes to a place called Coogee (pronounced Koo-Jee), which is a part of the Sydney metropolis to the South and East on the Pacific coast.  Coojee has a bustling beach and was to be the launch point for a nice hike.

The whole walk was like this.

Before we got too far into our planning of this trip, we purchased several books to help us out.  Two of them we brought with us to Australia.  And yet the hike we did today - from Coojee beach to Bondi beach - was in none of the literature.  The books on Australia have not impressed us, to be honest.  This hike, however, was the number one rated activity in Sydney according to TripAdvisor.  We have tried to leverage everything we can to maximize this trip and, so far, the apps and social media universe has outshined the paperback universe.  Too bad Rick Steves doesn't have a book for Australia…

The Pacific coast near Sydney is like a warm version of Monterey.  The big difference being that the Aussies have very neatly balanced the concepts of conservation and utilization for the beautiful land they have.  The same is true of the Sydney Harbor, I might add - the blend of parks, commercial, residential, natural and man-made is near perfect.

See, if you can, all the people laying on the rocks.
We probably saw 6 coves like this.

Half a dozen beaches just like this on this walk.

Even a cemetery is integrated into the coastline and the walking path.

A and G messing around.

This little walking path we took was integrated into the beautiful coastal views and leveraged roads and neighborhoods while winding you down to a dozen or so beaches/swimming coves.  It was close to 4 miles when all was said and done, and with several stops in order to enjoy God's beauty, we covered it in well over 3 hours.

Bondi pool.
Yup, those are ocean waves.

By the time we settled in at the famous Bondi Beach, which is a total madhouse, the sun was no longer at it's lab-rat-level-UV-index levels.  And with a stiff breeze off the ocean, it felt sublime.

We stayed on Bondi Beach until about 5:30 before we explored a bit around that area.  Not our favorite.  The Bondi area is world famous and, thusly, attracts the world.  I rarely heard English spoken.  And with so many non-Aussies in one place, you start to feel like you are no longer in Australia.  Bondi felt like a Mediterranean town to me (even tho I have never been to a town on the Mediterranean).  The people were a little more rowdy, a little louder, and seemed less happy.  Remember, the Aussie happy-thing is addicting, so we wanted out of Bondi after just a few blocks of exploration.

Furthermore, we decided we had had enough of eating out so we found a nice grocery store, purchased some salami and turkey (YES!), along with enough fruits and veggies to round out a healthy meal, and bussed our way back to the hotel for our first "home cooked" meal in a long while - sandwiches.  We pounded down some tasty food and looked for our beds.  A great, but long, day.

12 days is a long time.  Not complaining, that is for sure.  But we are looking forward to some of our comforts-of-home.  Not the least of which is Janna's home cooking.

The Bondi Beach madhouse.  

Little Shelby tuckered out.