13D Australia Summer Trip: Bronte, Sydney Coastal Walk
One of the best things about the city of Sydney is that the city has turned out to be a joy for people who love walking. Sydney has many walking trails to offer and each walking tracks provides different kind of entertainment because it has its own unique points to offer. There are so many walking tracks that you can walk on in Sydney but a lot of websites has listed down 10 most popular walking tracks: (1) Bondi to Coogee Walk (2) Grand Canyon Walk (3) Barrenjoey Lighthouse Walk (4) Watsons Bay Walk (5) Narrabeen Lagoon Trail (6) Cremorne Point Walk (7) Rose Bay to Watsons Bay (8) Federation Cliff Walk (9) Spit Bridge to Manly Walk and (10) Katoomba Falls Walk.
The difficulty level for the above walking tracks varies from one track to another. But if you are a noob in walking and are only interested for an easy walk with a breathtaking view, I would recommend taking the Bondi to Coogee Walk, which is also known as Sydney Coastal Walk. As what the name implies, Sydney Coastal Walk offers you a view of beaches, parks, creek and of course the calming deep blue sea. I did not start the walk from Bondi Beach nor from Coogee. In fact, Lee has suggested to make Bronte as the starting point because otherwise, we might have to rush off our walk to reach Bondi by dinner time. In order to reach Bronte, you have to first make your way to Bondi Junction Station. From Bondi Junction Station, you can proceed to the Bondi Junction bus terminal and take bus no. 378. The bus will make its way through a quiet neighbourhood area and it may not be really clear on where and when to alight from the bus, which is exactly our situation. If you think you will be stuck in the same situation as us, you should turn on your Google Map and alighted at the nearest bus stop to Bronte Park.
Time Out has described Bronte Park as barbie spots, a term which I had initially no idea what it's referring to. Turns out that means that Bronte Park is relatable to plenty of hotplates (and bbq pits too); and lots of green space for that essential game of cricket (but some people are playing football/ volleyball instead of cricket when I visited Bronte Park). The park is also the perfect spot for walking dogs. Hmm, I better be careful of dog poos then.
Bronte Beach is just located a 15 minutes walk away from Bronte Park. The park gets busy on perfect summer days, so if you want to have a picnic here, you have to get here early I suppose. It was not that crowded when we visited the park on a Friday afternoon though. Despite that there are several families playing on Bronte Beach that day, I noticed that there were no kids spotted playing in the water. I heard stories that Australian waters are not that safe especially when the warning sign is put up. Better be safe than sorry I guess.
However, there are alternative is you really really would like to play in the water. Bronte is after all considered beach gem in Sydney and one of the reasons of why it is called a gem is because due to the rock formation near the beach, there are spots which are enclosed by the rock, and hence, forming a natural swimming pool. The water current tend to be calmer at these natural swimming pools and the depth is not that deep either, so you can swim safely inside these natural swimming pools.
A few distance away from the natural swimming pools, you will see Bronte Baths, an ocean pool constructed in the year 1887. Before the baths were built, the place was originally known as the "bogey hole at South Nelson Bay'. Apparently the Australian call natural swimming hole a "bogey hole". Bronte Baths is also known as the Bond Ocean Pool after lifesaving pioneer, Major Bond. The ocean swimming bath is decent enough for serious swimmers and yet, there are shallower end which is safe enough for kids to swim inside.
The best thing about the bath? It's totally free.