Those Walking Boots

I had the best opportunity yesterday to put my walking boots on as my buttercup car needed to spend the day at the mechanics in Manly.  One of the things I loved about Perth was discovering the wonders of the west while walking; you see so much more when you either walk or run rather than sitting in a car.

After leaving the buttercup I zigzagged along the streets of Manly and Balgowlah until I reached The Spit where I was going to start the 10km Manly Scenic Walk. I've done this walk several times but only over weekends where the traffic of people is quite enormous, yesterday it was the opposite very peaceful with few people along the way.

It's a beautiful walk where most of the time you hug the shoreline walking through bush with glimpses of the sparkling water but there are higher areas such as Dobroyd Point that gives you fantastic views of the harbour, The Heads and Manly to the left.

Before reaching Dobroyd Point there's a large rocky outcrop called Grotto Point where there are several ancient aboriginal engravings carved into the sandstone. It always makes me stop and think and wonder what stories this land could tell.

I was still walking through the bush when the aroma's of a BBQ started to waft my way,  it reminded me of the time last year climbing to the summit of Bluff Knoll where we could smell a BBQ and as we arrived at the summit there was a group cooking sausages on a portable BBQ. Yesterday a guy had sausages, onion and the billy on the fire, I don't know if it's legal to have an open fire in the National Park but it was on the beach and it looked fantastic and smelt even better.

Once I arrived at Manly I received a call to say my buttercup car is very sick and needs to stay overnight, so 'Onward Christian Soldiers' and I kept marching onwards to Collaroy - another 10kms.

The Spit opened regularly for the boats

View from Dobroyd Point

The BBQ

Path in Manly a reminder of the Little Penguins

Middle Harbour and more on the Sharks

I thought I knew Sydney but I'm quickly realising that in 30 years of only visiting, things have changed.
Back in the day Middle Harbour was a military area where the general public were excluded, but now it's part of Sydney Harbour National Park.

The other day I was invited to lunch at a restaurant called Burnt Orange and as I drove through Mosman towards the restaurant I realised that I was entering the old exclusion zone along Middle Head Road. It was breath taking, not only the view but also the amount of bush land that's so close to Sydney. I understand there are many walking paths around the national park, there's also several restaurants located in different areas through the park and the National Parks take guided tours through the old forts exploring the extensive tunnels, gun pits and the 'Tiger Cages' that were used to train soldiers by simulating prisoner of war conditions in Vietnam.

By the way I swam again with the 'sharks', I still can't see them but everyone tells me they're there, my fear is just as great and maybe even greater but I'm determined to overcome it. As evidence of sharks - Julie who coordinates the Bold and Beautiful swims each day with her camera and below is a photo of a baby shark on my first swim.

View from Middle Harbour - North and South Heads 

Sydney Harbour

Burnt Orange Restaurant

The Shark

Out Of My Comfort Zone

I don't know why but the date is always one day behind

I thought I'd share this immediately as I'm sure my memory will fade and it will hone in on the good points rather than a balanced view.

You might remember last year I talked about the Bold and Beautiful group that swim each morning in Manly from South Sterne to Shelly Beach (1.3km ocean swim). One of my sisters Annette regularly swims and has been gently encouraging me to come along and join them. If you know me you'll know that I'm a bit of a scardie cat and worry about what 'could happen', so to swim this morning was quiet a challenge.

I arrived around 6.40am for the 7 o'clock start, by 6.50am I was hoping Annette wouldn't arrive and I could enjoy a leisurely paddle instead, but alas Annette arrived and before I knew it I was being introduced to Julie who is the organiser, given a pink cap and then started to chat with other swimmers. One lovely lady, who probably didn't realise it was my first swim, proudly boasted that she saw 2 sharks yesterday. My thoughts went immediately to the dreadful events in WA where many people have lost their lives to sharks.

Annette and others tried to reassure me that they were only baby sharks and they won't hurt us as there's so many fish down there for them to eat and besides with so many swimmers we scare the sharks away.  I kept thinking if there are baby sharks then mother shark must be close by but before I knew it I was wadding out into the water with 50 other pink capped people trying to manoeuvre our way around the seaweed.

Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm not but my eye sight isn't that sharp and so I did see lots of dark objects and I thought a couple of 'baby' sharks (if I did they were small) and beautiful blue fish.  My imagination was going wild, thinking that the 'mother' shark will pick me out of the crowd and gobble me up and each time a piece of seaweed touched me I leaped out of the water. I was determined that once we arrived at Shelly Beach I'd be out of that water so fast and I wouldn't be back in, I'd walk back to Manly. But when we arrived I felt a sense of achievement and decided to swim back, this time I would count each stroke and stop my imagination misbehaving.

It was a relaxing swim back until we were about 100 metres or so off shore; there was a rip and it was two strokes forward and one back. Thank goodness Annette and Maureen stayed with me as I did start to panic a bit mostly because my arms were getting weary and when I caught a wave I unfortunately got a cramp in my leg. Finally we arrived and it was with such relieve I could have kissed the sand but as well I had a great sense of achievement.

I'll be back next Friday but I'll be only swimming to Shelley Beach and not the return, I need to get used to this type of swimming plus I need some enjoyment for this challenge.

PS Afterwards everyone said "Did you see the sharks?"

Photo from last year

Narrabeen Lakes

It's very tempting and I know it's cheating to talk about somewhere I've been to in the past; with that in mind I'm keeping true to the title and sticking to things that I've done only in the previous week.

This morning instead of going to the gym I got out my push bike and decided to discover something new for me, which is Narrabeen Lakes.  Even though I spent my first 28 years in this area I've only driven past the lakes and so today I discovered that this is a special place where the bushland meets the water, where there's meandering footpath's through the reserve and where urban life meets the bush. 

I noticed play equipment for children, BBQ areas, a sailing club, caravan park, kakaking and I found out there's markets every 3rd Sunday of the month - so something for everyone to enjoy at Narrabeen Lakes.

  

This morning it was very peaceful with only a few others enjoying the scenery; as it was early I could hear many different species of birds including seeing the black swan that's native to Dee Why. There was one couple who were probably in their late 60's who I began chatting to about the black swans in Western Australia (WA) etc and they said they were locals, born and breed here. The husband said he'd never been to WA and probably would never go there as why would he want to when he lived in such a beautiful place - again insular peninsular!

The northern beaches maybe beautiful and people maybe happy just living here but I would suggest they are missing out on the joy of experiencing new adventures and challenges that go with travel.

On the south side of Narrabeen Lakes facing east

Black Swans

Meandering path

Facing west

Bilarong Sanctuary on the north side of Narrabeen Lakes

On the north side of the lake

Looking south

5 weeks later

Well we're here!!

It's been a world wind, crazy time but we've found a home and we're back 30 years later - it's that many years since we left the northern beaches in Sydney. I don't think anything on the Peninsular has really changed in that time, yes there maybe more apartment blocks but there were so many before you can hardly notice the extra one's.

It's still insular peninsular, the first week back someone said to me that they never go on holidays as why would you when you live in this most beautiful place - to me that say's it all.

The northern beaches is a place where everyday you can feel like your on holidays but in contrast to this is the inability or I should say difficulty in getting around (I miss the ease of Perth, no traffic and great public transport). As like 30 years ago the roads are still clogged with traffic, during the week it's just people trying to getting on with their lives and on weekends the influx of others wanting to enjoy the beaches.  Around here the only transport is the bus route which dominates the roads, I wish our forefathers had had the sense to have maintained and expanded the tram system that had been in place during the early 20th century rather than destroying it.  But I must say the bus system has improved somewhat over the last 30 years, as then a bus from Dee Why to Wynyard in the city took at least an hour, whereas the other day I got a bus from Collaroy to Wynyard and I was there in 35 minutes - now that's some improvement.

The northern beaches is a place of natural beauty with:
* Beaches framed by headlands, waves that don't dump each time they break and fantastic rock baths where the locals meet for a swim or bask in the sun to ensure their skin maintains that leathery brown look;
* Still waters for kayaking, wind surfing, sailing or just fishin and.
* Bush everywhere for walking and enjoying the natural beauty of it all.

We're still exploring and discovering what's on offer as things have changed a bit with pub's rarely having live music but now there is a great addition to Dee Why called Lizotte's Restaurant with fine food with a music mood. The other night we went to watch Eugene Hideaway Bridges who is an amazing blues and roots singer from the US, he was on the stage for a full 2 hours non stop, the music just oozed out of him and the guitar was an appendage.

I'm so glad we left the northern beaches as it opened my mind and gained so many experiences, working at Liverpool and Campbelltown allowed me to meet some wonderful people and understand the complexity of multicultural and multi socioeconomic environments.  We've lived in many beautiful places such as the Southern Highlands, Darlinghurst (yes it is beautiful in a different sense and there's lots of fun to be had) and Perth a big country town that is hot, hot, hot and that part I don't miss.

So onward forward for more discoveries.

Church Point

Church Point Cafe - lunch with Mum for her birthday

Eugene Hideaway Bridges

Queenscliff surf carnival