Walk 5 of my/our Big Walk: 18 June 2011

Definitely on a roll now, but not what I would call 'downhill', today was a walk with lots of ups and some pretty steep downs.

Me at the start

So, we started at the south end of Newport Beach, walked the length of the beach, confidently ignoring all the public access paths off the beach, as I was sure that the last very steep and windy path was out way out - until we got to the top, panting hard, to discover that this was a PRIVATE PATH and we had to go all the way back down again. Fortunately Ryan didn't complain, just quietly thought that I was stupid.

South end of Newport Beach with steep PRIVATE PATH hidden in the greenery on the right.

Locals who know about PRIVATE PATH (or maybe it's theirs?)

So then it was off to Bungan Beach proper, but not before we walked by the Bungan Head Castle, very ugly, a bit weird, but what a great view from the ramparts and parapets (whatever they are called).

Bungan Head castle

Balinese style house overlooking Bungan Beach

Wetsuited surfer having trouble getting out through the breakers

Bungan Beach looked just gorgeous, the late afternoon sun basking the beach and it's surrounds in a warm winter glow, and an almost deserted beach, and we soon discovered why - the beach is only accessed by either an extremely steep road, or an equally extremely steep sandy path. I now know why I've never been to this beach, and never heard of it as a recommended beach to go to - it's hard work.

Ryan and me in the afternoon sun.

Anyway, we did make it down to the beach, along a treacherous steep road with little roadlets off one side so that people could access their homes. No, as stunning as that Balinese house looks in the photo above, I just haven't got the knees to live at this beach! Ryan was fine of course - young cartilage!

















And this road access sign shows just how creative the surveyors and builders had to be to build at Bungan Beach.

And, so, once we puffed and panted to the top of Beach rd., we walked the kilometre or so back to the car (well, Ryan ran of course, since we were finally on the home run). But one more thing to discover - Barrenjoey rd between Bungan Beach and Newport Beach is an unofficial car sales yard. Almost every car parked along this stretch of road was for sale - it seems the sellers simply park their car there for the day, leave a for sale sign in the car window, and go off for a swim or shop or whatever, and I guess, hope the car sells itself!
Until next time - cheers!

No. 4 of my/our big coast walk: Avalon to Newport Beach via Bilgola: 14 May 2011

Looking north along Avalon Beach

Now all fired up and raring to go - our last walk was only one week ago! Taking advantage of gorgeous Sydney autumn weather and a few 'family free' weekends means that we (me and my walking buddy Ryan) can get back to our coast walks. And no, we didn't catch the bus up here this time......

Of course, Ryan manages a spot of weeding!

So we started at the southern end of Avalon, finding the correct paths without too much trouble. The highlight for me at least was discovering Bilgola Beach - quiet beach, good surf, easy to get to, well, once you know where it is, that is, and even has a little coffee shop, seems really family friendly and delightful. The steep path that we followed to get down to the beach wasn't reciprocated on the other side, it was a much more gentle path to get out at the southern end of the beach.

Ugly but nice banksia

Hibiscus

The highlight for Ryan, however, was finding a Kombi van in the Newport Beach car park. He's been besotted by Kombis ever since he saw one in the film, Cars. So of course I had to take several piccies of him in front of, behind and looking into the Kombi - hoping I didn't look too suspicious at the time!
We managed to find more off-road paths this walk so didn't have to contend with the traffic of the last walk.

THAT KOMBI, and Ryan.

Bus back to car park and hot chips on the way home - a good day

Essential bushwalking equipment.

 enjoying a peaceful walk along Bilgola Beach.....

Leg 3 of My Big Blogwalk: 7 May 2011

Little Head - end of last blog walk.

Whale Beach to Avalon Beach:

Hello, I'm back after a too long break from my walk. It's now May 2011 and about 6 months after the last post - embarrassing yes, but I have been thinking about it a lot..... So this time, Ryan (yes, he is still my almost willing partner in this venture) and I CAUGHT A BUS to the start of the walk, which was nice (well, he loved it and I was able to snooze), but it did mean that we spent A LOT OF TIME dealing with public transport than actually walking - but, good for the environment - it was just such longggggg journey.

So, we started where we left off, (almost). We could only bus to the southern end of Whale beach, and after thinking I would 'do the right thing' and start where we last stopped, I got bored wandering along a narrow road that certainly didn't resemble a 'coast walk'. So we doubled back (I've figured that I'd been to Whale Beach often enough that we didn't need to actually start at the the exact spot we left off last time - so that does mean that there's about a 1/2 k that I have missed - I'm fine with that - and Ryan too!) and once we turned around and wandered in a southerly direction, trying to avoid roads and find that elusive coastal walk, we made a wonderful discovery - Bangalley Head.

Ryan enjoying refreshments at Bangalley Head

It's between Whale Beach and Avalon and it is stunning, but we were at the southern end of the walk and there was no way I was going to convince Ryan to do the walk, we continued on and I'll do it sometime in the future. Didn't find any coast walk until we hit Avalon Beach, but did enjoy the gorgeous hibiscus along the way.
And then it was a while of waiting at the bus stop for the longish ride back home again, feeling rather virtuous that we did this walk using buses!
And yes, I will be driving to the beach for the next several Big Walks.

Here is Ryan at the end of Bangalley Head walk, on the right are cliffs and on the left, about half a dozen houses enjoying a simply magnificent view - and a great council-managed front lawn!

Obviously these guys didn't care about the little warning sign

Bangalley Head, what a view

Couldn't resist some of the gorgeous hibiscus along the way..... as well as the coastal bottle brush.

Ryan, checking out the beach, knowing that the end is near!

And then, finally, for both of us, we got to Avalon Beach. A year ago I did an ocean swim here so it was good to be back.

Ryan heading home.......

Ryan's favourite sign - and homeward bound (another 1 1/2 hours on the bus.....)

What I learnt from today: Suburban buses are slow, especially on Sundays; there are always new things to discover in your neighbourhood - Bangalley Head was a wonderful surprise; Sydney has great weather; coastal walk doesn't always mean 'along the coast'! Had a great day, after such a long break I can't wait to do it again.