A Week at the Beaches

Due to the threat of being moved to the morning shift, I decided to spend every morning at the beach. What a great decision that was. Each day I would wake up at about 9:00 or 9:30, make some breakfast, and head off to catch the bus to the beach around 10:00. The bus stop is only a short jaunt from my house, about three minutes. With the travel pass I have for work, the bus ride is essentially free (covered under my travel card). I would arrive to the beach at approximately 10:30 to 11:00 and spend the day lounging on the beach. At about 12:45 I would catch the bus back to my house, shower, eat, and leave the house by 14:10 for work at 15:00.

Monday and Tuesday I caught the 333 to Bondi Beach, Sydney’s classic beach. It stretches for about ½ a mile and is quite wide as well. On the top of the beach, you have a boardwalk with a pavilion and loads of little restaurants and surf shops. The beach is usually quite busy, although in the morning when I am there, people are tending to arrive as I am leaving. Backpackers, sun tanners (many attractive top-less sunbathers), and surfers are the usual clientele. The surf here is pretty large, sometimes 2 meters plus. Once in the water, you have a bit of shallow water with the occasional wave to get you wet. After walking out a ways you get to the larger surf. Depending on the day and time, I have been in waves that are quite strong, slamming me about. I think of these as circular waves, because the current makes you feel like you are being spun in circles. The nice thing about these waves is you are able to ride them. You lay flat, chest out, stick out one hand, paddle with your arm and feet and try to ride the wave to shore; a muted version of surfing and body boarding. This is quite an enjoyable experience.

Wednesday rolled around and I decided to go to Bronte Beach (the 378 also stops at the same place the 333 stops and I saw the top sign say Bronte Beach, so I enquired with some co-workers and they informed me it was just a bit longer of a ride than Bondi Beach). The ride was nice as the second part (past Bondi Junction) was new turf. There were a couple of nice little parks and a quaint neighbourhood. I rode the 378 until it terminated, literally right next to Bronte Beach. On one side of the stop was a park and the beach and on the other side is about 6 little restaurants, all sporting freshly squeezed juices and a wide variety of lunches (everything from fish n chips to Thai). I hopped off the bus and walked down to the beach. On my left hand side was a saltwater pool (a pool built into the side of cliffs that is filtered by seawater and periodically has waves splash over the side) filled with elderly, leather skinned swimmers; you could tell these were the beach bums back in the day. They were swimming, doing water aerobics, and continuing the leathering process to their skin. The beach itself was quite short; I could walk it in about four minutes compared to the 20 some it takes to walk Bondi. The beach was pretty steep as well and immediately met with massive surf. When your foot first hits the water it is basically submerged with a large wave; no happy introduction to the water exists. The current looked pretty strong and I was pretty hesitant to get in without anyone else swimming. After about 10 minutes of reading, a couple jumped in and I decided to follow. Once in the water and past the breaking waves, the water was immediately over my head. I really liked this because I could properly swim and roll with the waves. Every now and then a wave would break where I was tossed and turned a bit. I really enjoyed this beach; it was my favourite I had been to thus far. The park surrounding the beach was narrow and quite deep, reaching a ways inland and supposedly ending with a waterfall, though I did not have adequate time to see it and I doubt it is flowing due to the severe drought we are experiencing. I walked a bit through the little neighbourhood before catching my 12:35 bus back home.

Thursday rolled around and I decided to head to Tamarama Beach, just north of Bronte and South of Bondi. I again took the 378 and was dropped off at Bronte Beach. I decided to take a quick swim before walking on to Tamara. The 10 minute walk followed the cliffs and eventually led me to Tamarama, another quiet and somewhat secluded (compared to Bronte and Manly beach) beach. Tamarama is known for its strong rip tide and is popular among local surfers. Here the beach is very small, only a two minute walk. The depth of the beach is greater than its width. The surf did not crash until you were in the water for about 2 or 3 meters and the surf itself was not too large. The swimming was decent, though my favourite part of Tamarama was the surrounding cliffs and passages to the top. Crawling and navigating yourself amongst the cliffs, you are able to sit on the rocks as the waves crash over you. While sitting on these cliffs, you can see a small bay thick with surfers. I swam and lounged here, left at 12:25 and caught the 12:45 bus back home.

I had enjoyed Bronte so much that on Friday I returned. The surf was not as strong as the days prior and small jellyfish littered the steep shore. Seven or eight people were swimming so I joined them, figuring if jelly fish were indeed an issue the others would not be swimming. I read, swam quite a bit, and listened to my I-pod (yes, it is working. Emlyn at work fixed it for me). Eric called from Alice Springs as I was walking to catch the 12:45 bus back to my house.

Saturday was an absolutely spectacular day; the sun was out with no clouds competing for space and the temp was nearing 30. Emlyn and I had decided that we would venture to Manly Beach. Neither of us had been to Manly and felt we must go while the weather was still in our favour being Manly is one of Sydney’s staple beaches. To get there, we had to take a 30 minute ferry ride across the harbour to the North Shores area. Ferry rides are absolutely brilliant, chugging through the sail boats and passing lush forests and posh mansions with the wind blowing through your hair. Anyway, we made it to Manly, stopped at Coles for a bit of food and headed straight to the yellow and red flags for swimming. Jason from work happened to call us while we were on the ferry enquiring about the quickest way to Manly, so he met up with us, bringing his friend and her friend. We soaked up the sun and did quite a bit of swimming. Jason grew up in Portugal on the ocean and is quite a whiz at riding the waves and tried teaching Emlyn and myself. Unfortunately, our land locked youths could not be fixed in a short couple of hours. We were not the only thing swimming, a warm breeze was blowing off the ocean and blue bells were drifting to shore. Blue bells are small, bright blue jelly fish and have a nasty sting. The lifeguards were continuously announcing that “there is no cure and the sting is nasty. Once stung, remove the stinger, rinse with fresh water, and deal with the pain. There is no cure and the extraordinary pain can last from 30 to 60 minutes and there is NOTHING you can do about it.” We heard this announcement several times and also saw several people stung. Jason himself received a small sting on his knee, but nothing too major. After our third dip, Emlyn and I walked along the bay and went to the next beach. This was more of a family beach with no waves. We walked through the forested park next to it and saw some wicked looking spiders with large webs requiring us to duck underneath them. After a quick walk we returned to our towels on Manly. Beckoning on the horizon were some nasty storm clouds. At about 17:10 we packed our bags, returned to the wharf, and caught the 17:45 ferry. On our ride, the rain poured. None of us really minded as we had our beautiful day at the beach.