Pom explores

Sunday 23rd October 2016

I started with some brekky with my friend Iris, then left Manly with the 9.20am ferry. Although it is supposed to be spring, the weather was cold, even colder with the crazy wind. Even the pigeon waiting for the ferry too looked like he was freezing!

On the ferry, sitting upstairs on the outside deck at the dock, my favourite spot, I had lots of fun with the reflections. It looked like this man was talking to his twin brother while contemplating the view.

We arrived in Circular Quay and I couldn’t help taking my 5,435th picture of the Opera, this time with its duplicate twin. It almost looked like the structure was going on forever. Now imagine this structure going on for 10 kilometres, like the China Wall. Called the Opera Wall. Would be pretty cool!

Shortly after arriving, I got into the 333 bus, off to Bondi!

Cool Bondi Post Office.

And soon I was in Bondi. I walked to my friend’s Claire house and with her partner and her we had an amazing brekky. I felt treated like a queen. Thanks Claire! So yummy! Best bread, guacamole with feta, ham, chorizo, boiled egg boiled in 30 minutes, awesome cheese, it was an awesome brunch finishing on a touch of great marmelade on bread with a delicious chocolate. I regret not taking a picture! Although we don’t live too far from each other, just 1h30, we had not seen each other for 4 months!! It was awesome to catch-up. After that, Claire and Andrew were off to the Fish Market and dropped me at the beach. Here we were, at Bondi beach. The wind was so strong that there was no one on the sand!

I walked to the Northern end of the beach. At the beginning of my walk, I saw this dad and two sons about to ride again on this super cool bicycle!

I admired that these guys would even have tried to play beach volleyball that day. They were now packing up for a reason!

Bondi has awesome graffitis alongside the beach, some especially made for people to enjoy posing for the camera, like those cool butterfly wings.

Now…That’s a real photographer!! I saw her having fun, enjoying immensely the crazy wind and shooting some hair flying around and documenting the power of the wind.

The sea was going nuts. There was not a single surfer in the water, and I was even surprised that the swimming flags would be up. There were definitely more surf life savers on the beach than swimmers! And pretty nervous ones that something could happen. There are about 230-270 people who still drown in the water each year in Australia. Some probably on a day like this.

Reaching the Northern end of the beach.

See these rocks? Once upon a time, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, we swam from these rocks to the other side and back with Claire and three friends of her. That was on a very quiet day though!

I started my walk back to the Southern end to start my walk to Coogee. Hair were flying.

Heavy bins like these were falling.

People started being lifted by the wind too. Like if they were going to disappear in the sky like helium balloons do.

It almost felt like as soon as one swimmer was getting into the water, one more surf lifesaver would come onto the beach!

The lifesaver helicopter was patrolling back and forth too.

I started walking towards Bondi Iceberg pool. Pretty packed that day.

View of Bondi from there.

There was a sign describing ‘Black Sunday’, a day on the 6th February 1938 where 35,000 people were on the beach and three huge waves came and pulled away to the sea hundreds of people and the surf lifesavers had to rescue 250 people, 30 who required resuscitation and sadly 5 who died. It must have been a really tragic day here.

The Iceberg. There were 3 brave swimmers in there!

I started the Bondi to Coogee walk.

Zooming in.

It started with the ‘Sculpture by the sea’ festival which is on every year for 2 weeks and is celebrating this year the 20th birthday. It started Friday 20th October and ends on Sunday 6th November 2016. More info here: http://sculpturebythesea.com/gallery/

It was pretty busy!

Here are a few sculptures seen at the beginning of the walk. I found the yellow plastic triangles and signing pretty cool in itself too.

Everyone continued the walk along the sea, a really scenic walk in itself.

I love this ‘Nature’s Made’ sculpture by the sea. Best one ever!

Continuing the walk.

Beautiful view off the sea, especially with this wild ocean.

I somehow remember seeing those ants 2 years ago too. Mmmm.

Reached some stairs going up to Marks Park where most of the sculptures were. View from the stairs.

Here is a map of the coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama.

That first pyramid had a tree inside. One little boy looked at it and said: ‘Mum, some people have tree houses and here they made a house tree instead!’ 🙂

A couple of sculptures in Marks Park.

I left Marks Park and continued walking towards Tamarama. There were more sculptures on the way, including really beautiful knitted coral sea life which was one of my favourite piece of art I saw there.

Some view of the walk towards Tamarama.

Beautiful view towards the sea. This coastal walk is really stunning.

Beautiful flowers

Sculptures seen before arriving in Tamarama.

Sculptures seen on Tamarama beach. My favourites were the giant Havaianas thong, the time-capsule box and the rhino, especially the rhino, such a smart and funny idea.

A few days later, I was told most of these sculptures had been washed out to the sea by a huge tide and then retrieved but the giant thong was broken! I felt very privileged having had the chance to see them before that happened!!  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/wentworth-courier/sculptures-washed-into-the-sea-by-eight-metre-waves/news-story/8984fe2dff7d332bb266d901a5f2a915

Copyright Daily Telegraph shot

After Tamarama, I reached Bronte, then went through the Waverley Cemetery, through Clovelly, Gordons Bay and then to Coogee.

Bronte.

There is a really cool little train in Bronte, and I would think that the train driver is the most lucky train driver in the world, he seems to be having the most fun ever! 🙂

In Bronte, there was one guy who courageously (or crazily?) entered the sea with a bodyboard, hoping to catch a wave. He entered to the right, the current was so strong, he got deported to the left very quickly, caught a small wave and got out of the water.

After Bronte, I walked along the road, passed through the huge Waverley cemetery, saw a bit of Clovelly, Australians playing Australian bowling, saw Gordons Bay where apparently there is great snorkeling but not on a day like today and then reached Dunningham Reserve where I saw the Bali Memorial in memory of the 6 Australian rugby players and  who got killed in the terrorist Bali bombing in 2002. They were among 202 people killed which included 88 Australians.

Near the Bali Memorial were some candles and flowers for Mary. Apparently, people used to come here to see her apparition. Intriguing!

Arrived at one end of the Coogee beach.

I don’t know about the apparition of Mary, but I saw something in Coogee which was magical too. In a very specific spot, the seagulls were suddenly taking off and flying together in the air drought like if it was a Flight Training School. Then they stopped and then started again. It was really beautiful to watch.

Here is a little video:

A beautiful seagull standing still in flight.

I left the beach. In Coogee there is a huge grass area with barbies where people chill.

I took the bus around 6pm and turned on my phone again. I had turned it off for 5 hours as the battery was low and it was great to have been fully disconnected for a bit. And here I was in the bus again.

And soon on the ferry again too. It was the first time I saw the back deck upstairs closed!

Last light on the Mighty Opera.

Last ray of sun over Sydney City. See you tomorrow morning…for work!

Until the next exploring…