Beaches

Slightly cooler weather today, and no rain, so I was out and about, pounding the footpaths of the eastern suburbs. My mission was to survey my coming annual 42.2km marathon walk, and the route took me past many of Sydney's most popular beaches - all doing a roaring trade. Here's Bondi Beach.












And Tamarama

 The next one is Bronte

Then there's the amazing concrete part of Clovelly Beach

I ended up at Coogee today. I still need to find another five or six kilometres for my big walk, and that will entail another beach or three.

Bondi to Coogee coastal walk

There's a nice easy six kilometre walk that links several of the best known beaches in the land. It's the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk, and I re-acquainted myself with it yesterday.

I tend to do the annual pilgrimage to the 'Sculptures by the Sea' exhibition every October. The walk from Bondi to Tamarama is very slow then, with the teeming hordes of sculpture watchers. Yesterday was much more relaxed.

Bondi Beach

Bondi Icebergs Club

Tamarama Beach. Closed yesterday, like many others, due to the wild surf resulting from Fiji's Cyclone Winston - the southern hemisphere's most powerful on record, it's been called.

Bronte Beach, 'birthplace of surf lifesaving clubs'.

Those photogenic Sydney sandstone cliffs

Waverley Cemetery, home to a few famous historical figures,including poet Henry Lawson. They've built a bypass recently, to divert the majority of coastal walkers along the cliff top at the front.

Clovelly Beach,  sand at one end, but Depression era flat concrete sunbaking decks either side.

Boardwalk above Gordons Bay

Gordons Bay

Approaching Coogee Beach you pass the shrine to the Virgin Mary, at the site of all the miraculous sightings of her on sunny afternoons since 2003.

Coogee Beach



   
 Looking north to Bronte, Tamarama, and Bondi

Extreme postcodes: 2026

What's the suburb with the highest average house price? Not necessarily with the highest individually priced houses (they're all enormous mansions on the harbour). But the highest overall average for an entire suburb?

The winner is: Tamarama. A tiny oceanside suburb, just south of Bondi, where every other house has a multi-million dollar view. As in $5 million, $10 million, or $15 million sometimes. No wonder it's sometimes called 'Glamourama'.

Even this modest looking place away from the sea in Fletcher St is estimated to be approaching $3 million.

When I called in the other day, Tamarama wasn't exactly putting on it's best face. The sky was dark, the sea was ferocious, and the beach - normally home to beautiful locals and hipster travellers - was closed. Rain bands came through every few minutes, and after grabbing my pictures, I hastily retreated.

It still looked a little bit appealing though, and I look forward to my next visit in a couple of months time, when 'Sculptures by the Sea' arrives for its annual extravaganza.

Sculptures by the Sea

October and November bring not only jacaranda flowers. There's also Sculptures by the Sea. Regular as clockwork these days, and just as scenic.

You have to make your way to Bondi Beach and walk the kilometre or two along the clifftop walkway to Tamarama, via Marks Park. You encounter over a hundred fabulous sculptures, all with a message to tell.

Not that you'll always figure out what the message is. The poster of the iceberg, "coming to a beach near you" is presumably a comment on global warming. Lots of washed up things, transparent boats, and tents on rafts, all implying to me a comment on asylum seekers and their plight. There's a collection of beehives, with miniature human dwelling units inside. There's a skeleton cycling up a narrow beam with a boulder strapped to his back, likely to fall off the end when he completes his mission. There's a pretty blue whirly thing on Tamarama Beach, entitled 'Look at Me'.

There's a big circular collection of red or yellow 'swim between the flags' flags. But the central zone is all red flags for danger.




All self-explanatory, I thought. But lots of the other works would have benefitted from me purchasing the catalogue, I guess. Next year I'll do that, and I'll find the time to spend a whole

day there, or at least time it so I avoid the enormous crowds, schoolkids especially. It's been quite a success story, the Sculptures by the Sea. Check it out.