Coogee Beach


After a traditional Australian breakfast of bacon, 2 eggs, a fried tomatoe, toast, and barbacue sauce I got my things ready to head to Coogee Beach. Although it was overcast I had a new book to read so I knew the trip would be worthwhile.

I hopped on the #370 bus just a block from The Wedge, paid the $3.90 faire, and in 30 minutes I was transported to an awesome beach. Coogee is south of the city like Bondi, but is not as crowded. I grabbed a sandwhich for lunch and after watching an over in the cricket match I went to the beach. For those that have no idea, an over is every 6 bowls (pitches), these are the kinds of things you learn when the Ashes are being played during your trip.













The waves were massive! Look at the size of the people about to be swallowed by this wave. This picture was taken right in front of the lifeguard station where about 10 guards were watching and waiting to pull out the next victim of the Pacific Ocean. As I arrived, not kidding, they had just got someone settled into an ambulance. I don't know what happened to him/her but i'm sure some salt water was swallowed. In the picture the two guys with red and yellow swim caps are lifeguards in for a swim.


I decided to swim in a slightly calmer part of the surf, still between the yellow and red flags. The water was numbingly chilly. After a quick dip and while I could still feel my toes I was out of the water for a beach stroll. There was an ocean pool just off to the right side of the beach for those who prefer non-waving crashing swims and a nice covered area at the rear of the sand to still enjoy watching the surf out of the sun.

After about three hours at the beach, it started to rain so I took the bus back to Newtown and after some dinner I'm here typing up a post while enjoying a Cooper's Stout Ale. I expect Cara, Claire, and Whit will get home tonight around ten with some good stories from their Hat Tourney weekend.

I'lll end this post with a few more pictures of Coogee Beach. - Mike

Royal National Park - The Coast Track

Cara, Claire, and Whit hitched a ride to Canberra this weekend to play in a Hat Tournament. At the last second I decided to stay back in Sydney because the weather just turned nice after 4 rainy days and I wanted to go to the beach.

Instead of the beach, I called Aussie Dave, Adrian's college buddy from Rice, and asked him for the details on the Coast Track, a 26 km trail south of Sydney. The trail begins in a coastal rain forest and ends along arid cliff-tops along the coast. It was amazing! I was on the trail by 8 am and was boarding my train back to Sydney by 6 pm. Along the way I saw a quaint beach town, wonderful beaches (North Era, Garie, Wattamolla, and Little and Big Marlie), amazing cliff-sides being bashed by the Pacific Ocean, and a lizard and echidna.

My first swimming break was at Garie Beach. The southern side of the beach had nasty looking waves and the middle of the cove was filled with fisherman fishing from the beach. The northern part of the cove was gentle so after a reading a bit of my book, fittingly a Dirk Pitt novel, I jumped in the water to cool off. It was much colder than the water we swam in at Manly Beach.

I put my shoes on and began to hike again. Just over the hill from Garie Beach the land turns into desert that resembles what you see in the Southwest. There was however a glimmering stream I hiked over on my way to my next swim break at CurraCurra, a very small private cove. After eating lunch and watching some skittish crabs I headed towards Wattamolla.

Wattamolla was paradise. There was a white sand beach, a gently ocean to swim in, and a separate shallow cove to swim and play in with a rope swim and an 8 meter cliff perfect for a jumping platform. It was packed because it is accessible by car, but the hordes of people did not take away from beauty. After exploring the beach and the cove I climbed the cliff for my jump. I watched severely people complete their jumps successfully so I assumed it was safe enough. I didn't check how deep it was under the cliff nor did I ask anyone...mistake. As my pencil-like body entered the water both my feet slammed straight into the bottom. Luckily the sandy bottom cushioned the blow so I came away injury free and ready to continue the hike.

It was about 2 pm when I began the last section of the hike. From Watamolla it was 12 km to Bundeena, the end of the trail. On the way I walked along 100 meter cliffs and Little and Big Marley Beach. There was one point along the cliffs where an edge was pure white. It looked like stacks of tofu. The last part of the hike was tough as I was getting tired and thirsty. I passed a lot of people along the way so I was never in trouble if I really needed water.

After I got to Bundeena it was a short ferry ride to Coronvilla where I picked up the train back to the city. After a dinner, beer, and shower I started to upload the 40 plus photos I took today. Here is the only down-part of my whole day. Somewhere in the process of saving them to Whit's computer I messed up and they didn't stick. Before I checked to see if they were there, I erased them from my camera. And just like that, the memories of the amazing day I had are going to be more difficult to remember. I'm a little heart-broken. I wish I had something to show you from my coastal adventure, but this post will have to do.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to take it easy and start on a new book at the beach.

love,
Mike

Sydney cont...

The last few days since New Year's Day have been quite eventful. We finally got of our bums and played tourists for a few days. It rained almost everyday this week however, which gave us a good excuse to sit around and read at The Wedge. Since I haven't introduced the characters/residence of The Wedge yet, they are: Nadine, Emily, Marcus, and Greg (and sometimes Ken)...4 (and sometimes 5) ultimate players who live in a three story triangle and have more than graciously allowed 4 more of us (Whit, Claire, Mike, and I) to take over their very triangular living room. I've had a hard time not overeating here, and I am blaming that on the fact that I'm always subliminally reminded of some kind of delicious triangular food (pie, pizza, cheese, gelato cone, croissants, etc.) while staying here. Can you blame me, really?

So anyway, The Wedge and its inhabitants have been good to us, and are pretty much the reason that we are able to stay in Sydney and explore, or just sit around and read, since we don't have to pay the outrageous hostel fees. We love The Wedge! I've been running around the city to stay in shape and have gotten to explore some pretty cool areas. I convinced Whit and Mike to run with me on Tuesday to the Harbor Bridge and Sydney's oldest neighborhood, The Rocks. We met up with Claire (who doesn't have running shoes) and walked around The Rocks before walking across the Harbor Bridge. It's very high, quite long, and the views are superb. We then walked around Circular Quay and the Opera House since Claire and Whit hadn't seen it up close yet. We hit up Chinatown and immediately lamented the fact that we had just eaten lunch, so vowed to come back another day to do nothing but eat.

Mike and I spent Thursday in the beach side suburb of Manly. My brother Andy's girlfriend Nadine has friends in Manly, and she was kind enough to give us their contact info and introduce us via email. Natalie and Daniel both work for Dell International and lived in Austin for 5 years...it was so nice to be able to talk about Austin with people who know it since we miss a lot of things there. They were amazing hosts. They allowed us to use their mountain bikes during the day and Natalie suggested a really beautiful bike ride that took us to a cliff side vista, Northhead Point. From there you could see the entrance to the Harbor, hundreds of sailboats, the city, Manly and other northern beaches, and the cliffs of the Pacific to the south. It was an incredible view, and a nice bike ride as well. The weather was perfect, so we spent the rest of the day sitting on the beach reading, throwing, and trying avoid man eating sharks in the crystal clear water. We then went back to Natalie and Daniel's house, an amazing condo right on the Harbor side beach. We showered, sat out on their balcony, and played cards until they got home. They made us a delicious dinner and filled our belly's with amazing wines and desserts. Their roommate Frederick is from Sweden, and Mike enjoyed talking with him about the possibility of getting a visa and living in this amazing city forever. They then walked us to the Ferry and showed us their local wildlife, a family of penguins that hang out in the wharf area! It was an incredible day and night...thanks to Natalie, Daniel, and Frederick for having us over and being so accommodating and fun!

The view from their deck in Manly...ridiculous!

The local wildlife...two baby penguins off the Manly Wharf.













The view from Northhead Point facing west towards the Harbor and city.









On a different note: Mike and I have been conducting a self funded study on whether a person can live healthily eating solely Thai and Indian food. While our mental state is good because delicious and spicy foods release dopamine and generally make us happy, the results on our intestinal tracks have been devastating. Today we searched far and wide to find some Mexican food, as we have both been going through some very nasty withdrawl. It wasn't Trudy's, but it did the job.



Yumm...queso!








We finally fulfilled our vow and went to Chinatown for lunch, and dessert, and another dessert today. =) Tomorrow morning, I head back to Canberra to play in the Discos Kalientes Hat Tournament with some local Sydney players. I'm meeting Claire and Whit there. Mike is planning on staying here in Sydney for the weekend and walking the 26 km. beach trail tomorrow that follows the east coast and being a beach bum.

We've planned out the next month until we leave for New Zealand and it's going to be an exciting 4 weeks! More details later.

Hope 2oo7 is treating you all well,
Cara