Final word about the Coogee-Bondi Walk

Another highlight of the 6km walk between the two beaches is Waverly Cemetery. The first burial there was in 1877, and most of the graves along the coastal edge are pretty old, but people can still be buried there today. I read they have some 50,000 gravesites and memorials on more than 40 acres. We just saw the very outskirts overlooking the water, but it seems like if you’re going to stay somewhere for Ever, then Waverly wouldn’t be a bad choice.

Summer, I Miss You

Our Coogee-to-Bondi walk made me long for a warm beach day again, but at this point, the only way to get in the water is in a wetsuit, like the surfers we watched at Bronte Beach.

Though I’m not ready for my semester abroad to come to an end, as it will in less than three weeks, at least I have summer back home to look forward to.


Side note: Bronte has the nicest looking rock pool of all the beaches I’ve seen here.

A Perfect Kite-Flying Day

Sydney has been going through another rainy spell, but Saturday offered some sunny respite. We took advantage by finally doing the popular walk from Coogee Beach along the coast to Bondi Beach. On the bus ride over, we drove past a hilly park I thought would be perfect for flying kites. I don’t remember ever flying a kite in my life so I don’t know much about it, but I imagined that would be a good location.


Coincidentally, on our walk later we spotted a few wind gliders and a kite in the sky near Bronte Beach. I’d wanted to ask the kite-flyer if I could take a turn, but then I saw it was just a little boy, and kids that age aren’t great sharers so I didn’t bother. I’ll just have to get my own kite and head to the park sometime.

Summer in Sydney

It’s no secret I love the New York Times. It’s a less known fact that the Times loves me. A prime example being the time the food section provided a pinup of supernatural brownies. This weekend the NYT did a travel feature on rock pools at Sydney beaches. How convenient.



Back in the day, aristocrats and convicts alike created baths by enclosing corners of the beach with rocks. The writer called them the “original infinity pools.” People swim in them for the scenery and feel of the ocean without the threat of sharks or rough surf. There are lap pools you usually have to pay for or be a member of to use, like Wylies Baths at the south end of Coogee, but I took a dip at Giles Baths, which was at the opposite edge and free.



The baths were first known as the Bogey Hole. From the 1850s and into the early 1900s, men swam at the north end of the beach, and women kept to the south.



Apparently five years ago some people thought they saw the Virgin Mary in shadows on the cliff and it became a pilgrimage site for a while. I didn’t see her, but I thought it was cool the clouds seemed to imitate the rocks.



That same year, the northern headland was renamed Dolphin Point to honor the six members of the Coogee Dolphins rugby team, who died in a bombing in Bali in 2002. A sculpture serves as a memorial for the 91 Australian victims in the attack.



Of course, I wouldn’t have known all this if it weren’t for the good ol’ Times.