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Bondi to Coogee Walk: Sydney on Display

By: Garry Searle

The Bondi to Coogee Walk extends for about 6-kilometers from Bondi South to Coogee in Sydneys eastern suburbs. It takes about 2-hours from Bondi to Coogee, that is just a steady pace walking, at a reasonable pace without too many stops. Most people, like to just draw that out a little bit. There are a stack of places that you can stop, places for a swim, for a coffee, for drinks, something to eat along the way, so if you prefer you can draw it out and take up to half a day or longer if you like.

I prefer to make the walk twice, say if you started at Bondi, walk all the way to Coogee, stop there for lunch or a quiet drink in one of the restaurants or cafes there, then turn around and walk back in the afternoon. This can make a very pleasant habit.

The Bondi to Coogee Walk is very easygoing, and, you don not need too many intensive preparations. The walk is well sign posted, its pathways all the way, so you can not really get lost. There are plenty of places to stop for food and drink along the way. The going is pretty straightforward, there is some uphill and there is some downhill, but nothing too strenuous for your average person of reasonable fitness.

What are you likely to see if you travel the Bondi to Coogee Walk? Well, if you start at Bondi, you will walk past the Bondi Icebergs, and pass to the south up onto Mackenzies Point. This is a point that looks over to the North, so you can see North and South Bondi, to the south you can look all the way down to Maroubra Beach in the distance. There are some pretty spectacular views, and if you have a look around up there at Mackenzies Point, there are actually some old aboriginal carvings of a whale.

It takes some looking around or asking around, but these are amongst the first Aboriginal carvings that were reported in Australia.

If you keep walking south and you enter a gradual downhill, and the very beach first that you will come down to is called Tamarama. This beach is also known as Glamarama because of the large abundance of movie stars and the rich and famous that like to hang around there. This is a very small beach, used mostly by locals, and the well to do.

Tamarama has a little bit of surf there and at times it can be a little bit rough and dangerous. Tamarama is a patrolled beach in a nice spot.

If you keep walking south past Tamarama, you are up a gentle rise, over the crest and down into a beautiful beach called Bronte Beach. This is my favorite of the beaches that you will likely encounter on the Bondi to Coogee Walk. Bronte is a very picturesque beach. It is nowhere near as big as Bondi, but its got a very large grassed area immediately behind it on the promenade. It has a particularly large surf, but again, it is well patrolled and if you swim between the flags, you should not have too many problems.

Bronte Beach has a large cafe strip as well, there are some great cafes up there along the southern side. It is a great spot to stop for breakfast or coffee, if you are that way inclined.

Once you finish through Bronte, you will keep walking south and you will notice only the side that the rock has been carved away to make way for the road. The walls are 15 to 20 feet high on either side. That is where the trams used to be back at the turn of the century. That rock was moved away so the tram line could run to Bronte Beach.

Waverley Cemetery has got to be the cemetery on the most expensive real estate in Sydney. It is a really dramatic coastline, and the views are amazing, so just looking along the ocean you will see this very large cemetery over quite a few acres, on your right hand side. Waverley cemetery is home to a lot very famous Australian People like Henry Lawson, a famous Australian Poet, Victor Trumper, who played a fair bit of Cricket and was batsman of some renown, Lawrence Hargrave, Henry Kendall, and many others have found their final resting places at Waverley Cemetery.

Past Waverley Cemetery is Clovelly, which is a small but very sheltered beach. There is not much to surf there at all, so if you are into much more of a calm paddle then Clovelly is the spot to stop for you. Stop for a bit of swim there, there is also an ocean pool as well, where you can get in and have a look.

After you cross the car park at Clovelly, you will walk up some reasonably steep stairs and from the top of the stairs, you walk down and into Gordons Bay. Gordons Bay is an interesting place. There is not really a spot for swimming, there is no beach, but it is a very popular snorkeling and scuba diving area.

There is an underwater nature trail, so if you like Scuba diving, Gordons Bay is actually a really good, convenient local spot in Sydney. You follow a chain around there, and it is a very good dive. The dive is fairly shallow and divers probably would not get much more than 12-meters in depth. This means from your average tank you will get around an hour on the bottom.

Finally if you walk down to Gordons Bay and crest you will come down into Coogee and Coogee Beach. This is a great spot, which you will approach from the north, down into Coogee Beach. There are lots of cafes, lots of restaurants, lots of hotels, good places to stop for a beer, something to eat and everything else you could desire. From Coogee you can turn around and walk back if you like, or you can get a Bus 353 back to Bondi Beach.

If you really want to do what the locals do, then get amongst the Coogee to Bondi Walk because it is a great walk and a great way to showcase some of the eastern beaches of Sydney.

Article Source: http://www.articlemanual.com

Garry Searle has lived in Sydney for 15 years. His podcast, The Sydney Visitor is the free authoritative guide to experiencing the sights and sound of Sydney, Australia. To instantly hear more inside information on visiting Sydney, Australia go to the www.sydneyvisitor.com .



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