Bondi Beach


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Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney
January 28th 2013
Published: February 4th 2013
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As I had suspected my trip to the Blue Mountains was cancelled due to the weather, with another one not scheduled until next week now. This was rather disappointing, but I guess the views aren’t going to be amazing if you can’t see beyond your nose! Again, undeterred by the weather I head down to circular quay (today in my full blown waterproof) and catch the bus to Bondi Beach – much to the amusement of the guy in the ticket office. On the bus the weather gets worse and worse, and when I exit the rain is now at torrential. Bondi is a lovely long beach, and the waves were really pounding, with the rain making them break beautifully. Needless to say there must have been around 100 surfers out along the beach, I stood at watched for a while but none of them were amazing surfers. Knarley waves really helps differentiate the surfers from the good surfers!

My mind briefly flickered through whether this walk was a good idea considering the weather, but I dismissed it and set off on my walk round the headland on my quest for coogee beach. The path was a lovely board walk or concrete the whole way so there was no risk of me slipping off the side of the cliff in the mud or anything. It appears that in torrential rain the population of bondi either do one of two things: go surfing or go running. I was passed by what must have been 50 runners, it was like there was a race on – maybe secretly I was born from Bondi blood! And as the rain grew heavier, well maybe it stayed the same but felt heavier, the number of runners didn’t dwindle, however the layers of clothing the men were wearing did. There were a lot of six packs and very toned torsos on show and I decided that as they were parading them round, it was perfectly fine gaze ….so I absorbed the view especially for you Deb and Jan! It certainly made walking through the rain a little more fun. Anyhows, runners aside, the views and the sounds of the sea pounding the rocks was amazing and very calming. I walked took me round the headland to Tamarara beach,on the way passing a gym with an large outdoor sea water swimming pool on the rocks, which was currently being refilled by the sea crashing onto the rocks and water flooding in! From Tamarara it was a short walk to Bronte beach, and then a long stretch of beautiful headland round to Clovelly beach. Just off the headland at Clovelly, about half a kilometre out from the beach were a pod of around 10 surfers. They had walked over the rocks and paddle from there behind the breaking waves. There waves were absolutely massive, around 6ft and pounding in, this was where the really good surfers were – I later found out there apparently there were some professional surfers out there. I stood and watched for a while but getting battered by the wind and the water seeping further through my waterproof and shows I continued on to Coogee. Just before reaching Coogee I walked past another swimming pool area of sea water, which looked more like a mini sea with waves flowing in and out, and then up some steps and a path which had turned into a waterfall and river. I finally reached Coogee beach. It looks lovely, but with the sun deeply hidden behind the cloud and the bracing weather I absorbed the view, took a photo, ate a cereal bar to power me through the return and headed back.

As I had already absorbed the scenery I put my head down and powered back, stopping again briefly to watch the surfers for a little longer and admire the skills. Once back at Bondi I located the bus stop and times for my return as I was already drenched to the core and contemplated the return journey in my current shorts which were beyond soaked. I meandered into a few of the nice shops on the beach, and handly found some very nice shorts, which weren’t too expensive so made a purchase. I then treated myself to so homemade wedges and hot chocolate in the beachside bar, changed into my new shorts and settled in the warm and dry for a while getting stuck into the latest book on my kindle and catching up on some emails.

I caught the bus home in my nice dry shorts, and power walked back to the hostel. After sorting my bag out and hanging everything up in a spare spot in the dorm – from the end of my bunk bed and the curtain pole, as had the others from the dorm who had dared to venture out. After a lovely hot shower, fully dry clothes and some pasta for dinner, I organised my case for checking out tomorrow and settled down for had a lovely night’s sleep – well apart from the light being on until 4am as usual, though I am now used to this by now.


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6th February 2013

Bondi Beach
Your discriptions of the scenery were fantastic, especially of the men which left a pleasant smile on my face and a lovely distraction from the day to day things.

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