Category Archives: Sydney

Sydney’s Ocean Pools

12 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by in Australia, Sydney

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

I read about the swimming pools built into the edge of the ocean in the Sydney area but I wasn’t sure how to find them. We went to beachcomb between Manly Beach–one of the favorite Sydney beaches–and Shelly Beach, a tiny patch of sand beyond Manly. There is a lovely walk between the two beaches where we found the “Fairy Bower” pool built into a bend in the walkway.  I had to have a swim. It was high tide, and the waves did occasionally splash into the pool. The pool isn’t large or very deep, but has the advantage that there aren’t any jellyfish (very common along this coast), nor sharks.

Captivated by the Fairy Bower, a little online research revealed that there are lots of these pools, including one at the north end of Bondi Beach, the other must-see beach in Greater Sydney. It was a little cool for swimming that day, but I waded around. The Bondi pool has a wonderful mosaic along the side, and there is other artwork along the shore in this area including an impressive whale.

Bondi also appears to be known for the large surf-lifesaving presence on the beach. We were there on a weekend and it was very busy despite the overcat conditions. People were surfing and swimming but in addition were about thirty lifeguards. Two first aid stations were set up on the beach, a guard on a surfboard paddled among the surfers, and another on a jet ski trailed back and forth beyond the surfers. Some looked like they might be trainees, but even so it was a heavy presence. Closer to home I found Mahon Pool, a rock pool north of Maroubra Beach, just down the road from our current home. I went for a dip and it was as much fun as the others. Mahon Pool is cut into the rock, not poured concrete. The bottom is irregular and the cracks in walls and floor are home to snails and limpets, even a couple of tiny fish swam by me. These gorgeous pools, complete with bathrooms, changing rooms, and showers are free of charge so far. I’m going to visit as many as I can.

Botany Bay

08 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in Australia, Sydney

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

The north shore of Botany Bay is just a few kilometers from our home SE of downtown Sydney. We explored this historic area by driving around the perimeter. We stopped along the way to look for birds, walk along the shore, take a swim, and have a picnic.

This rock is said to be where Captain Cook’s crew stepped ashore in 1770, the first Europeans known to have landed in Australia (there were probably earlier unrecorded sailors). Cook’s stop led to Britain’s establishing their penal colony nearby, and the rest…is history. I’ve just finished reading, A Commonwealth of Thieves, by Thomas Keneally, describing the founding of Australia and the very early years. It’s remarkable that anyone survived the journey to Australia, and then survived living there in the early days where there was never enough food.

Botany Bay was the destination of the first fleet sailing to Australia, but it proved to be a less useful harbor than the inlet to the north, named Port Jackson, that is now Sydney Harbor. Botany Bay today is lined with huge wharves along the north side and with popular parks and beaches on the west and south. The water is relatively warm and shallow, and we saw everything you can imagine at the beach: sailing, windsurfing, motorboats, jet skis whizzing along, people fishing from boats and from the shore, swimmers, even a few parasailers in the distance. And dogs, lots of dogs accompanying families that set up their sunshades for a day at the beach. Beachcombing turned up a few interesting items, too.

 

Sydney from the Opera House

05 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by in Australia, Sydney

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

For us, the Opera House is the heart of Sydney. We made our first pilgrimage to this icon by bus to Circular Quay, then a stroll toward the point where rounding a row of apartments, the Opera House is revealed in all its glory. On a sunny day the roof tiles create a dazzling reflection.

We walked all around the building, noticing that it is three separate rooftops, not a single one as it often appears in photos. From one spot it looks like three giant-sized Spanish conquistadors helmets.From another angle, it looks like a spaceport, with at least one spaceship ready to take off.Close up, the Opera House is a busy place. Tourists walk around taking photos, runners avoid them as they circle the Opera House on the path. Women in black dresses walk in and out. Either Sydney is a lot like New York or the dress code for staff is “wear black.”

From the Opera House you can see tiny figures of the groups climbing high up the sides of the Harbor Bay Bridge. We walked around the edge of the ferry docks into the neighborhood called “The Rocks.” It is full of shopping and restaurants, and a lot of stairs. We ended up in the park beneath the huge bridge where plaques explain the process by which the fort located on this point was demolished and the bridge built. From a distance the Opera House looks quiet and peaceful, a ship at its mooring.In this age of celebrity architects, we couldn’t name the designer of this marvel, Jørn Utzen. After winning the design competition, new construction techniques had to be invented in order to build his design, methods that made later more free-form works by Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid possible. Construction was both expensive and political and Utzon resigned from the project part way through. He never returned, not for the opening or to receive any of the awards offered to him by subsequent Australian governments. “If you like a person’s work, you don’t give them an award, you give them something to build.” There are a lot of stories there. Here are a few:

From the Sydney Opera House website

 

First Stop in Sydney: the Beach

03 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by in Australia, Sydney

≈ Leave a comment

Our first day in Sydney was focused on settling into our new Airbnb and shopping, but the next effort was to explore the nearest beach. Maroubra Beach is just one km from our house, about 5 minutes by car. It has everything, sandy beach, interesting rock formations, good beachcombing, surfers, even a biology class combing the rocks. This is a lively zone.

We stopped in at the next beach to the south, Malabar Beach, for a follow up. In between beaches are cliffs and headlands. There are lots of walking trails and views out over the ocean–beautiful!