Coogee To Bondi Coastal Walk

Hello peeps, hope you are well and for those of you in the UK enjoying the scorching temperatures. That reminds me, I was reading a the local paper in the pub yesterday and inside was an article about the soaring temperatures in the UK for this time of year, they had a picture of a packed beach, which beach? Brighton?!?!?!?! of all the beaches to choose to get a picture of, they get Brighton pebble beach, mind you, the pebbles didn't seem to be bothering probably the whole of London from sunbathing on it. I must admit i am slightly jealous, though the sun has managed to force its way through the last few afternoons it definitely hasn't been sunbathing or swimming in the sea weather, never mind i have still managed to have 2 good days.

So I haven't written since end of last week, mainly because I didn't really get up to much over the weekend, the weather was very poor, cold and raining. I did however manage to stumble across a Latin festival down in Darling Harbour. All last week i had been trying to work out how to get down to Melbourne, at the time i had 3 choices, take the Greyhound bus, which would drive straight through to Melbourne and would be around 12hrs, however I thought this was a little boring as there are few things between Sydney and Melbourne, not much to be honest but the capital city being one, Lakes Entrance and Bateman's Bay, as well as the Australia's highest peak. On this, I thought perhaps hiring a car for 3-4 days, after looking at prices i nipped this in the bud and it would be a last resort. Lorna then advised me of company's that offer 'relocation rentals'. These are vehicles which have been driven one way from certain locations and now need driving back. Due to the vast distances between main cities, company's offer $1 a day hire and sometimes pay for petrol. This sounded perfect and cheap, I found a couple of sites and a couple of potentials for when i wanted to leave, I gave them a call, but they had already been snapped up, which is no surprise even in off season. I kept looking all week for new arrivals but TNA. In the mean time i advertised myself on Gumtree, and before you comment, no I don't mean i was pimping myself out, though that could have got my hire car money!! I placed an advert on the 'rideshare' section saying i was going down to Melbourne on a certain day and if anyone had a spare seat, I would split petrol and share driving, i also looked if anyone was offering lifts, again nothing fitted in with my dates. By Friday it was looking like the Greyhound until i came across a short tour on OZ experience called 'Alpine Pass', a 3 day 2 night tour from Sydney to Melbourne. The tour goes through Canberra, Lakes Entrance and also to the top of Mt Kosciuszko which as I mentioned before is the highest peak in Australia. I decided to head down to 'OZ Experience' shop just near 'Central' on George street in the city. I spoke to a helpful Irish guy and checked first how many where already booked on, 8 was the magic number, that would do for me. It did however set me back $345 but considering I was going to get a car with petrol and accommodation, it would have been around the same, of course the Greyhound would have only been $60 dollars but this way I get to see more and get to meet some peeps, even perhaps the future Mrs Ruffy!! OK, OK, might be pushing it there. All booked up and paid, I would be leaving on Wednesday 5th (tomorrow) at 7am from Central. 

After booking, I headed towards Darling Harbour, this is where I came across the Latin Festival, they had a live stage set up, along with a good 20 or so food vendors selling various South American traditional cuisines and of course a beer tent. The event was on all weekend and was free, bonus. I headed for the beer tent, grabbed a Coopers beer (not free, unfortunately) and sat back and watched the show. It was busy and wasnt able to get any good pic's from my position but the show was great with all kinds of South American dancing and music. I stayed a few hours and headed back to Randwick. That night and Sunday was pretty much chilling days, though myself and Ed did wonder down into the city, caught a bit more of the Latin Festival, until it rained and then walked around the CBD. We finished with a couple of beers in an Irish bar, which was a bad idea, Ireland were playing in the rugby world cup that night and it was rammed to the rafters, which is actually is the norm whether rugby is on or not, for those of you that didn't know OZ and especially Sydney there is a large Irish contingency either living, working and or travelling. We headed back after a couple and chilled out. 

Monday was a bank holiday in OZ, so Ed and Lorna were off work, they had mentioned to me about a nice coastal walk from Coogee beach round to Bondi, around 6km. They weren't up for it but i was up for a casual stroll along the coast to take in some scenery and fresh air.. that was the plan anyway. The walk covered the east coast beaches of Sydney, including Bronte, Cloverly and Tamarana. The weather wasn't great in the morning so i waited it out till lunch, it had got a bit brighter around 1 so had some lunch and headed down to Coogee about 20min walk in itself. I found the coastal path just left of  Coogee beach. The sun was now out and even with the breeze off the Tasman sea it was quite warm. From the start there were some great views, I had brought my camera and started snapping away. Within ten minutes the camera had died, i hadn't even gone 1/2km, Captain Unco was back, i hadn't checked the battery before leaving and not only that, if you remember after my last battery incident last week i hadn't even packed the spare!! At this point anyone within a 50m radius must have thought I was some sort of weirdo as I let out a few choice words a bit louder than I thought. I had come too far to walk back and then set off again, I slung my camera in my backpack and did what any normal human being would and ran the rest of the way. It was a lot hillier than i thought, up and down, up and down. Despite this, it was a great route, the views and scenery was gorgeous. The Tasman sea was fierce and the surf was big, this created some spectacular spray when it hit the coastal rocks. I arrived at Bondi after about 55mins.I grabbed a seafood salad and a bottle of water and caught the bus back. Back at Ed and Lorna's I was gutted about my camera dying, feeling pretty good even after the hilly run i decided that it was only right I went back and did the walk again tomorrow.

Next morning (today) I woke early and still feeling pretty good decided that i was definitely going to do Coogee to Bondi again. The weather was cold and cloudy, I waited out till lunch as i knew the past few days the sun had come out early afternoon. I was right. I headed off just after midday and grabbed some lunch before heading down to Coogee. Today's walk was definitely a lot more on the casual side, the camera was charged and I had brought the spare just in case. It would take around 3.5hrs, as yesterday the sea was fierce and waves big, I took around 300 pic's having the settings on multi shot to catch the waves crashing over the coastal rocks and spraying many metres in the air. I was in my element, my iPOD on, camera in hand, the sun beaming and little to no sea breeze, It was a perfect day. I realised that at points i found myself staring at the sea and smiling, I find the sea mesmerizing, it has a calming effect on me, so soothing and peaceful, being near the sea, in it or just staring at it, I seem to be at my happiest by the sea. I arrived in Bondi, grabbed a mango and strawberry smoothie, sat on the famous Bondi beach, watched the surfers as high tide hit and soaked up the late afternoon sun. It had been a perfect end to my time in Sydney.

Tomorrow I jump aboard the OZ experience bus for my 3 day trip down to Melbourne. I arrive Friday where I'll be staying with my friends the Axe's for just over a week, I will also get chance to catch up with my India companions Kate and Warren, as they are also both from Melbourne, which will be cool.

Take care people, hope you like the couple of pic's I added. I'll add more to FB in the future.