Late morning snorkel with Rob. After the recent heavy storms the
water was way too turbid to see anything, but my spring suit made it
pleasant enough. Some fairly large waves.
Snorkeling with Rob at Little Bay, the old Prince Henry Hospital
site now being turned into apartments. (We'd been to "Little Bay" before,
but that was in fact Long Bay.) Very clear, not too cold (in a springsuit),
some fish to see and loads of interesting rock formations. Lunch at Paris
Seafood at La Parouse in what turned out to be a pleasant autumn afternoon.
Midday snorkelling attempt at Gordons Bay. A bit too rough and turbid to
make out much, though the water was pleasant enough once in (at least in a
spring suit).
Early afternoon paddle at Gordons Bay. Quite warm out of the water today
too, at 24 degrees.
Morning snorkel at the north side of Gordons Bay with Sarah. I, wimpishly,
broke out the wetsuit for the first time this season (in Sydney). It wasn't
that necessary in the water but it did help immensely with the scoot in the
windy shade back to the car. Once again, loads of fish and the weather was
beautiful. It seems the blue gropers assemble just east of the ramp, out in
the mouth of the bay.
Very brief snorkel off the north-eastern rocks at Gordons Bay in the early
afternoon. The wind made the scamper up to the car pretty uncomfortable; the
wetsuit would block it much better than a dripping wifebeater. Loads of fish
again today, perhaps the most variation I've seen there yet.
After putting my parents on the plane to London-via-Singapore, I went for a
swim at Gordons Bay. Beautiful autumn weather presently, though I feel the
need to wear a wifebeater in the water now, it makes just enough of a
difference.
Mid-afternoon snorkel at Gordons Bay. Loads of fish, including a solitary
blue groper, thousands of the usual stripey little fellers, a school of
thin, long-nosed silver ones (swordfish?) swimming just under the
surface. The water was quite pleasant once in, though staying in is getting
harder. Time to get out the wetsuit, methinks.
Mid-afternoon swim at a flat-as-I've-ever-seen-it Coogee. It was quite
cool on the promenade while I was waiting for
Lev.
Early afternoon paddle at Gordons Bay. The beautiful weather continues.
Mid-afternoon dip at Gordons Bay. Quite warm in and out of the water, very
sunny and clear.
Early afternoon snorkel with
mrak and Deb at Balmoral. Absolutely
perfect day for it, apart from some fairly cloudy harbour water.
Late afternoon swim at Coogee. The days are getting quite short. Quite a
few people there, pleasant water and cold sand, classic dumpers.
Swim at Gordons Bay. Very pleasant weather for late April.
Mid-afternoon swim at Coogee.
Early-afternoon swim at Gordons Bay.
Quick morning dip with
mrak at Coogee, featuring some classic
shorebreaking dumpers.
Swim at a quite flat
Bondi with
mrak in the mid-afternoon.
Quick dip at an incredibly flat Coogee. The
tsunami
warning was a bit of a furphy.
Early-afternoon paddle at Gordons Bay. Some people were trying to sun bathe
in a fairly strong and not too warm easterly.
Quick early-afternoon swim with Jen at Gordons Bay.
Quick late-afternoon paddle at Gordons Bay. Ran into a blue bottle and
didn't last too much longer. (Just a mild sting across the back of the
knuckles.)
Mid-afternoon swim at a mostly-empty Coogee.
Very quick dip at Coogee in the late afternoon.
Late afternoon snorkel at Gordons Bay. Loads of fish, including a large blue
groper.
Early afternoon swim at Coogee.
Quick late-afternoon dip at Gordons Bay.
Quick dip with Jen at Clovelly in the late afternoon.
Mid-afternoon swim at Gordons Bay. Beautiful day, with the chill in the wind
signaling the end of summer (though there be another two or so months of
beach swimming left).
Mid-arvo swim at Gordons Bay with Jen. Loads of people snorkelling.
Shelly drove Iain, Vicki, Eoghn and I up to Cowan, where we proceeded to
take a wrong turn and needed to bushbash our way back to the pedestrian
bridge over the F3. The walk from there down to Jerusalem Bay was not too
hard, and it was a pretty spot for lunch and a swim. It's a semi-popular
spot to head to on a boat, and somewhat strangely goes from half a metre to
two metres very quickly.
As the NPWS website says:
Jerusalem Bay Track (to Brooklyn)
11 km, 4.5 hours, difficult
This track covers a small section of the 250 kilometre Great North Walk,
which goes all the way from Sydney to Newcastle. Starting at Cowan station,
take the steep descent through thick scrub, across a creek, past the ruins
of Rhodes boatshed and on to the beautiful Jerusalem Bay. From here you can
grit your teeth and head towards Campbells Creek and Brooklyn (where you can
catch the train home from Hawkesbury River station). Expect spectacular
views.
The "grit your teeth" stage was pretty exhausting, but at the top we found
this section of the Great North Walk to be a fairly wide and easy
firetrail. Bloody hot day, not at all ideal for such an arduous trek.
Here
is a Google Map of the area. I'll see if I can plot a rough route and
annotate the map... apparently this requires JavaScript, which is going
to hurt. Mapstraction looks like it could save some trouble, if it
doesn't cause more.
Update: on André's advice I had a look at tinymap.net, which does the trick. I'm
too lazy to render this walk as polylines though.
Made my annual pilgrimage to Bondi in the early afternoon. Not too busy,
some nice enough surf to swim in but nothing large. Very pleasant.
Early afternoon swim at Coogee, before the thunder storm kicked in. Some
classic strong but not high dumpers, and a mix of accents in the surf.
Early evening swim at Clovelly, after a day without rain. Quite a bit of
leaf litter and rubbish near the sand.
Mid-afternoon dip with Jen at the Redleaf Pool at (the eastern bay of)
Double Bay. In no sense is it a proper sea pool such as one might find at Coogee; it's simply a bit of beach ringed by a (shark proof?) fence,
containing two pontoons. I reckon we saw a tiny little stingray (perhaps a
foot wide) just near the sand. The coffee shop there is top-notch, and
parking is free and plentiful.
Googling for "Red Leaf Pool" makes me think the place is perhaps most famous
for the public facilities it provides, listed in the National Public Toilet Map. I am
both surprised by the existence of the website itself and that there are
still free public facilities in Sydney at all. Perhaps this is what all the
pay-to-pee money goes towards.
After-dark dip with
Pete R. and Vicki at Clovelly. Very pleasant, a great
night for it.
Mid-afternoon dip with Jon at Coogee. Quite busy for a weekday
afternoon.
Getting lazy: first trip to Coogee in a few days. The weather has been
perfect, the will weak. Loads of seaweed today, not so many people. It's
starting to feel like summer is waning.
Afternoon paddle at Gordon's Bay. Loads of people, beautiful day for it. Coogee was packed.
Evening swim with Marc at Clovelly, quite pleasant.
Evening swim at Coogee. Large-ish surf (for Coogee) and lots of
seaweed. Very pleasant at that time of the day.
Drove down to the
Royal National Park with Vicki. I missed the Bundenna turn-off
so we ended up heading towards Stanwell Park and were waylaid at a
pleasant little café at Otford. Made our way back up to Audley
to the info centre to get a map, and thence to
Wattamolla for a
swim and a walk.
Mid-afternoon paddle at Gordon's Bay, very pleasant.
Mid-afternoon swim at Clovelly. It's been thunderstorming here recently, and
according
to the EPA that's the beach to swim at if one wants to avoid
blowback... around here at least. The really health conscious head up to the
Northern Beaches.
Evening swim at Coogee. Some people around, quite convivial.
Midday snorkel with Rob at Little Bay. Absolutely beautiful day,
loads of fish and a surprising number of people hanging out with their dogs
on the little beach there.
Late evening swim with Marc and friends at Clovelly.
Back in salt water, swimming in the blowback from the ocean outfall. Midday
swim at Gordon's Bay, quite pleasant with the storm clouds blowing in.
Tripped up to the insular peninsula for a late-afternoon walk and swim with
Vicky at Manly Dam. (We had plans to head up to Avalon but
Pete R. and
fam were indisposed after a night of coping with Jack's stomach upset.) It's
a beautiful area just off the main drag heading up to the peninsula
proper. Had dinner at the
Newport Arms afterwards, which was humming when
we got there and two-thirds empty when we left. Strange for a Saturday
night.
Late evening swim with
Pete R. at Coogee, after some dinner with the
fam and Beth's sister Vicky. Beautiful time for it, loads of people milling
around the streets.
