Along the Away

It was the beginning of 2014 that I set myself the challenge to walk all 37 coastal walks from the Coastal Walks Sydney book… I did 6! But luckily they’re not going anywhere, so I’m still ticking them off in 2015.

I just came off a BIG work project and after weeks without a day off I had five days stretching out in front of me. It’s the end of winter at the moment but Sydney was boasting that gorgeous feels-like-summer weather that often dazzles us at the end of the cold season. I was craving some outdoor time after too many long weeks in the office so the book came off the bookshelf and I did three coastal walks over the next five days.

First up was the Spit Bridge to Manly walk which is a very well known coastal walk in Sydney. Obviously it can be done in both directions, but I prefer doing it from south to north so that I end up at the beach – and judging from the people I passed it seems to be the most popular direction!

It is a truly beautiful walk, the water is alongside the track almost the whole time, except for a section that heads upwards. It’s fairly steep but nothing a reasonable level of fitness can’t handle. Where there’s a climb, there’s a view – and this one is amazing.

I was so happy to be back in my natural habitat under the sunshine, amongst the trees and beside the ocean. Nature is a great healer.

The walk is about 10km and according to the Coastal Walks Sydney book should take about 3.5 hours. Once again, similar to other walks I’ve done in the book, I took much less time to finish – about 2 hours and 40 minutes. I did that with plenty of stops along the way, probably about 20 minutes worth. I’m a pretty brisk walker once I get going!

There are a number of toilet blocks along the way and water bubblers/taps to refill your water bottle. I recommend filling up at every tap you see as they are not as frequent to chance that you’ll see one when you need it. When I did the walk in summer I struggled in the last 30 minutes with an empty water bottle, so this time I topped up at every chance.

Once I walked into Manly I wandered around looking for a brunch spot to refuel. I discovered a new cafe called Bare Naked Bowls on Market Lane. I was heading to the Swedish Fika Kitchen which is a fave, but Bare Naked Bowls caught my eye. I wandered in to look at the board and on recommendation from the waitress decided to try the Chia Bowl – it was delicious, as was the coffee.

Once nourished, it was time to relax! The glorious thing about coastal walks is that once the hard work is done there is a beach to relax on, which I did… for about three hours! I may have even fallen asleep on the sand. Considering how stunning the weather was I was surprised how quiet it was, I’ve never seen Manly beach this deserted – I guess that’s the perk of being there on a weekday when most people are at work.

In regards to transport, the walk is fairly easy to get to, coming from the lower north shore I drove to the Spit Bridge and parked in a side street just north of the bridge. There is a timed carpark there but it can be costly, I have always been lucky to get an untimed spot on the road. Once I was in Manly I got the bus back to the Spit. It was a bit tricky as I didn’t realise the footpath stops before the bridge on the north side where I got off the bus. I had to chance my luck across the road and then walk up the steps and around the suburban roads – all without a phone thanks to my battery dying. Next time I will get off south of the bridge where the foothpath extends… or else get the bus the whole way.

I’m interrupting the New Zealand travel post transmission (because let’s face it, that was so three months ago and I guess it’ll take me as long to catch up as it takes me to get through culling my photos) to share about a great camera class I went to this morning in Hyde Park (Sydney).

Just before I went to New Zealand I splurged a little more than intended on a new camera for myself. What started as a bold $500 budget to buy myself a high quality digital compact camera, became a research-heavy, peer-encouraged investment in the Sony Alpha 6000, a compact system aka mirrorless camera. It’s a hybrid type, with the convenience of a smaller size and intuitive viewfinder as per digital compacts and manual functions and lenses as per an SLR. I spent about AU$1000 on the camera, plus a couple of hundred more on a bargain for a fixed 50mm f1.8 lens. It doubled my budget, but I was happy based on the weeks of research and opinion-gathering I did. I love to travel and taking photos while away is a big part of that, it just felt like the right time for me to invest in a camera that I can continue to make lens investments into.

My camera arrived the week before my holiday. Yikes. So I read the instruction manual back-to-front, purchased a month’s subscription to Gary Fong’s Sony A6000 video tutorials and experimented with the various settings in my free time.

My trip photos were the result of a mix of auto setting, program setting and experimental forays into manual setting with lots of dial twiddling which resulted in 20 versions of each photo intended ‘to look at and compare later’ (which became mass deletion efforts). I was really happy with my purchase but I knew that to make it worth the investment I had to spend some decent energy learning how to use it properly.

After some Googling, I found Andy Piggott’s photography class website and signed up with my housemate to do his three hour beginner class in Hyde Park. It was such an informative class and really worth doing. Obviously there is a lot to learn, but I definitely walked away with a better understanding of what the core components of manual photography are and how to start considering light, movement and framing using aperture, shutter speed and lens choice.

For example, with the twiddle of a button I saw how manipulating the exposure affects the image:

Included in the course fee was a coffee stop at the Hyde Park Barracks Cafe; we had lattes and delicious chocolate brownies while Andy covered a lot of theoretical components.

We were there for about 45 minutes which was a nice way to break up the time and be able to sit and learn without all the distractions in the park.

After our break we went back to the fountain to experiment with Shutter Speed. What a nifty thing that is; the projectile vomiting turtle in the fountain went from spewing frothy light beams…

…to water droplets just by changing my shutter speed.

We stopped in the shade to look at samples of the niftier things you can do with shutter speeds.

Next up was looking at depth of field which is manipulated through the aperture. Here my fence is in focus and the background is blurry:

Then the I brought the background into focus. Simple basic lessons I know, but important foundations.

Once the class wrapped up I decided to make the most of the glorious Sydney day and walk back to the north shore over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I was so happy to have my camera ansd whipped it out to take advantage. After all I learnt I was excited to put it into practice…. and took the photo on Program mode. Hahaha! But that’s OK because now I know when Program mode is suitable and when it’s not.

I absolutely recommend doing Andy’s class if you have a camera that you’re not sure what to do with. The class was fun and I learnt heaps. Andy also gave us a laminated cheat sheet and emailed us class notes and lots of links.

Hopefully you will see an improvement in the photos on this site in the near future ;-)

PS. My housemate and I couldn’t wait to try out the shutter speed light effects that Andy told us about. It works! Though I my poor spatial awareness rears its head – that’s supposed to say ‘Donna’ if you can’t tell.

Time for another Coastal Walk! To refresh your memory I have set myself the challenge to walk all 37 walks in the Coastal Walks Sydney book in 2014.  This walk is #18 in the book but #5 for me (confusing? yes.) Yikes, only 5, I better get a move on. I walked this one solo on an early Sunday morning, keen to get out into the beautiful day. I started on the track at Waverton, walking in the opposite direction as directed in the book, but it all turned out OK.

The walk is studded with plaques and information notices about the history of the area. North Sydney Council has a handy online reference to this  one of their ‘Plaques Walk‘. The amazing BP Park offers fabulous views of Sydney Harbour as a bonus, but the best part is the feel of the repurposed site. In the 1920’s BP established the site with massive storage tanks for fuel that would come in from the ships. It was decommissioned in the 1980’s and the North Sydney Council transformed the site into something the views deserved.

A framework of steel walkways navigates visitors through the sandstone and concrete, it has such a cool atmosphere.

Moving on, this ‘Coastal Walk’ took me away from the coast for a little while, crossing the train tracks and then back again.

Sawmillers Reserve sits right alongside the train line. It was the site of a sawmill in operation from 1880-1980.

It’s neatly paved and offers a large grassy area perfect for picnics and BBQs.

There are ruins left behind and a ship-wreckage nearby in the water! Full of surprises on this walk.

And here I arrived at McMahon’s Point for this glorious view. As the book points out, it’s the only point where you can stand across from the bridge for a view opposite it’s arch (though I stood a bit further around reserve when taking this photo).

In a shock turn of events, a long weekend in Sydney dawned clear and sunny, with a brilliant blue sky and toasty warm sun rays slicing through crisp fresh air. It seems like too often our recent public holiday long weekends have been dogged with cloud and rain, so this one was a treat, a perfect day to take on another coastal walk. My twin sis joined me on this one so we decided to pick one fairly local to the both of us – Mosman Bay to Taronga Zoo.

Although starting at the Mosman Bay ferry wharf, almost immediately the walk heads to the street (firstly going up up up) but once you’ve endured this bit of effort then the rest of the walk is a dream with plenty of pretty vistas.

There were a few other people doing the walk but it wasn’t busy. There were more people (and four legged pals) enjoying the sunny afternoon at Little Sirius Cove. Is there any happier being in this world than a dog playing at a beach with other dogs? We stopped to watch a few having the time of their lives running and swimming together. I have a soft spot for Samoyeds (the big white fluffy ones with the permanent grins on their faces), they are such a joy to watch.

Just past Little Sirius Cove is Curlew Camp an artists’ camp that was established in 1890 by a guy called Rueben Brasch who lived there with his brothers and a number of other plein air artists. They lived there in tents painting outdoors and teaching art classes to support themselves. An artist called Arthur Steeton moved to the camp in 1891 when he was 24 years old. He recalled in an interview when he was 73 that they “had half a dozen tents between them and there was a dining tent, a dancing floor and even a small piano.”

There’s more interesting info in this Wikipedia article, I love reading about days gone past in Sydney. These quotes are by Julian Ashton who lived at the Balmoral artists’ camp at the same time:

“I saw Streeton fairly often at this time. He lived in a camp at Little Sirius Cove, Mosman, where he was joined later on by Tom Roberts. He used to do the marketing, and on arriving at the Musgrave Street wharf had to walk around the point and blow a whistle for the boat to come across from the camp. To see him returning on Saturday nights, laden with parcels of bread, beer and beef, and as merry the while as a boy at a picnic, was a delight. In those days the painters’ material wants were few, but their hopes were unbounded.” – Julian Ashton, 1890

“Around the tent climb the Begonia and Clematis and Sarsaparilla the rough winds broken for us by an exquisite fusion of tender gum-leaf. Honeysuckle (like the trees of the old asters). Cotton plants heath and a wild cherry (bright green at our tent door) and the beautiful flood beneath. All is splendid.”

“Tis now 11 O’clock. My tent stands like a quiet glowing lamp on the deep black hill – the sombre night all round – a southerly gale sweeps over the bay the boat bumps against the pier below. All alone in the camp tonight.” – Julian Ashton, April 1891

Seeing as the Sydney Harbour Bridge was not built until 1923, the view across the harbour would have looked so different to the artists in the late 19th century. It would have been dark and still at night, not the glittering, iconic skyline we see today.

There are spectacular 180 degree views at Little Sirius Point; you can sit on the ledge there and soak it all in.

And snap away too of course, such a picture perfect day :-)

The track was so beautiful; nothing beats being surrounded by nature on a gorgeous day.

A heart in the pavement :-)

The walk took us less than an hour one way, that was even with us chatting as we walked and stopping along the way. We had left our car at Mosman so we walked back again which took even less time. It was about 90 minutes return.

And being Good Friday we drove to Balmoral Beach to have fish and chips from ‘Bottom of the Sea’ – the crowd was crazy, we were order number 453 and they were still serving the 390’s when we joined the wait.

Ah well, it was worth it to sit in the sand for a warm Autumn evening’s feast :-)

What a spectacular part of Sydney foreshore this is! The Cremorne Point walk seemed perfect for a Sunday afternoon stroll as I read in the Coastal Walk book that it’s paved the whole way. I had been having a super lazy Sunday morning but the sight of the blue sky outside beckoned me to get out and do something – this was a good low-energy, high-reward compromise.

I drove over to Cremorne and parked on Milson Rd and walked along til I found an entry to the track. I couldn’t help but pine enviously at the view these houses have.

The afternoon was hazy, dreamy, beautiful.

And here it starts, a nice neat triangle route water-side most of the way.

Footpaths most of the way made it super easy.

Can we stop for a moment to admire this totally awesome sideways leaning tree?

The path is lined with grassy picnic worthy spots, I’d only been walking ten minutes but it was too tempting to stop and lay down under the trees for awhile.

Usually I take photos of this view from the other side – it looks just as good in reverse right?

A lighthouse sits pretty at the triangle tip.

A community garden lines the eastern side, there is a plaque there dedicated to the local residents who maintain it.

This walk took me about two hours including an hour laying under the trees time (ha, I told you it was a lazy Sunday kind of day!)

I awoke early one Saturday morning and decided on a whim that the day called for exploration – time to tick off another Coastal Walk.

I hadn’t heard of this walk before, and certainly wouldn’t have expected to find a coastal walk in what I vaguely consider the mid north shore, but after studying the map I now realise that the coastline extends inland quite a bit with a series of bays and inlets south of the northern beaches.

The Harold Reid Reserve is named after a well respected town clerk who served the local area in many functions for over fifty years in the mid nineteen hundreds. It’s located in the suburb of Middlecove and consists of a circuit track around ‘The Sugarloaf’ headland.

I drove to Middlecove, parked my car at the end of Sugarloaf Cres and hit the trail.

Yeah! This was a good decision for 7am on a Saturday morning!

I think this may actually have become my favourite walk (but perhaps I will say this after each of them? Possible).

It has everything; well maintained tracks which still retain their natural bushy vibe (I don’t particularly like walking on man-made track structures when bush walking unless they make an impossible walk possible); signposts; spots to sit and admire the view; and friendly locals saying hello (two legged and plenty of four legged ones on leads).

And shadows. Always with the shadows.

I’m becoming truly obsessed with light. Early morning and dusk walks are my favourite, the light is ethereal, such a treat.

I love how this challenge has revealed more dimensions than just getting fit. Striking out on unknown tracks have awakened the explorer in me. And the artist as I snap photos and attempt to record the beauty before my eyes. And the worshipper as I experience overwhelming awe and gratitude.

On the west side there are mangroves, where the water ripples shades of blues and greens and browns, and the trees stick out of the water giving the distorted impression of a flood zone.

I found a rock to perch on and sat beside the tranquil scene.

Water rippled past. Fish appeared and vanished. Voices wafted from a nearby boat.

Laughter rang from a father and son kayaking north. The cicadas and crickets roared. The kookaburras let loose.

There is no doubt about it that the Australian bush has been embedding itself deep into my psyche all the more as the years past. I have always loved getting outside for a walk in nature, but lately more than ever I find great peace and connection being surrounded by it.

It’s my happy place :-)

Look at this bumpy tree branch, so strange, so beautiful! I hugged it – eek! I’m literally a tree hugger, goodness!

I followed the sun rays.

I drank in every view, resisting the urge to jump into the water.

Funny how the water changes colour so; the picture above and below were taken in the same spot.

Being at the water’s edge is good, but so is the climb up worth the effort.

Shadows, oh my heart…

The track circling the coastline of the headland eventually led me inland towards this roadway which mirrored the coastline loop on higher ground around The Sugarloaf.

Drape your shadows over me trees!

There’s always a reward waiting at the top.

Life on the edge. I’m not afraid of heights but I am extra cautious and move a hell of a lot slower when standing at the edge of extremely high things. I totally felt fine here until I heard the sound of paws behind me and a dog owner wildly calling two dogs to leave me alone. I turned slowly to see two Labradors bounding towards me all happy and joy! At any other moment than one where I’m perched on the edge of an extremely high rock ledge I would be all enthusiasm. Hello puppies! Let me hug you! But I could see only one scenario playing out in that situation. I froze and braced. But luckily the Labs took heed and slowed it down. The owner arrived looking a little frantic, I’m sure she also thought the two of them were going to pitch me off the edge!. But I survived, so all good.

I sat down after that. Just to be safe, yo.

Less of a threat is the log lizard that basks permanently in the sun at the lookout :-)

I followed the roadway around until I found the track to take me back to Sugarloaf Cres. The path featured this super cute mid-rock stairway which I just squeezed through.

And that was the end of the beautiful Harold Reid Reserve track – definitely one to do again (and again).

The very first coastal walk in my 2014 challenge was one nice and close to home – #27 Greenwich.

I went in the afternoon after work, starting at 6pm when the golden sun was throwing long shimmery pools of light across the water – oh how I love that time of day!

I walked to the walk (as strange as that sounds) from Wollstonecraft so that added an extra 20 mins to the walking route outlined in the book, which took me an hour just as it indicated it would. That was with some stops to sit and ponder as I suppose those lonely looking benches facing out at the water are calling for.

The water was in sight almost the whole way, and there’s much to watch.

It’s an easy walk; partly bush track, some roadside, a few steep stairs but all clearly identifiable and easily done in thongs/sandals or joggers.

I watched the ferry leaving Greenwich wharf.

And took every opportunity for sitting and pondering.

Sydney Harbour was in glorious form. There is no getting tired off this beautiful sight, especially with so many vantage spots to see it from.

I discovered Greenwich Baths – I will remember this on hot days when I fancy a quick swim but not the drive to the beach.

Sun light does brilliant things to the nature so that it changes all day every day, from one to the next and every time I notice something new. This tree’s branches caught my eye – so graceful.

The kookaburra found me along the way as it so often does (more on that another day); it perched high and proud against the brilliant sky, cackling that chorus so attuned with the close of the day.

I always inevitably become obsessed with shadows when on a walk – maybe that’s why they take me so long?

Look it’s me!

On the wander home, outside the local school, I looked down at my feet and found a D. I looked around and found the rest of the alphabet and then numbers 1-20, but it can be no coincidence that it was D that called to me right?

I had had a tumultuous day but the pent up energy and uneasiness I had carried home shed from me as I wandered along. Sometimes solitary walks are just right.

When we woke up on the last day of our Blue Mountains getaway we heard the patter of raindrops on the roof and saw a misty nothing out the windows. We were planning on driving to nearby Katoomba, to visit the part of the Blue Mountains National Park where Scenic World is located. It’s a commercially operated tourist park featuring a scenic railway, cableway, skyway and skywalk – four unique opportunities to see the national park in a different way from hiking it. But – in the rain and fog, was there much point?

We figured it would eventually clear so off we drove through the mist, the trees appearing one at a time a few metres ahead.

We got there early to qualify for the earlybird rate you get if you arrive before 9am, plus the added bonus of not having long queues for the attractions.

We hopped straight onto the Skyway which gave us really awesome views of… mist.

Ha! It looks a bit like a giant let down, but actually it was really beautiful. The mist wasn’t a constant sheet of nothing, it swirled upwards and around us, showing us sneak peeks of the mountains before shrouding us again. Having spent two gorgeous sunny days bushwalking it was really lovely to experience the mountains in their ethereal glory.

Our friendly Skyway guide pointed out to the left to let us know where the three sisters were situated… supposedly! He promised we’d see them… and after a few minutes as the Skyway car traveled across and up we saw them peeking out.

I have fond memories of visiting the Three Sisters as a kid when we had family visiting us from England, my maternal grandparents and my uncle; so being here with my sis had a cozy nostalgic feel.

After we got off the Skyway car we followed the path through the mist to find the Katoomba Cascades.

We could have walked back and caught the Skyway back to the Top Station but the track allowed us to walk there by foot so we carried on and stopped along the way to poke around and explore.

The next attraction was a ride on the Scenic Railway – the steepest passenger railway in the world I’ll have you know, it travels at 52 degrees! The railway has recently been upgraded and now offers a fully enclosed car with incline controls – you can tilt your car back 10 degrees to ride at 42 or tilt it forward 10 degrees to ride at 62. You can guess which one we did after a quick conference with the two guys we were sharing our car with (crank it forward baby!)

My sis and I were a little nostalgic for the older style cable car. After a quick call to my mum, I can confirm I was 3 years old the first time I rode it and 5 years old the other time. Back then it actually did feel quite risky traveling on it; you had to hold on for dear life because there was no cover – you did kinda feel like you could topple out. I asked Mum if she had any photos of us two little twinnies riding on it and she said “uh, no! I was holding on to my babies for dear life so they wouldn’t topple out“. Ha, thanks mum!

My uncle was not so lucky, he dropped his camera and it slid down on the floor of the train past everyone’s feet to the front – oops!

Anyway, while waiting in line we commiserated about everything being over-safety-proofed everything these days, ruining perfectly good risky fun. Then the train pulled up and on we got and up we looked. Oh good, not too safe then!

After we got off we watched the train head back up the 52 degrees to get the next lot of passengers. Then we saw a memorial to the last railway cars – see what I mean??

The version before that was even less comfortable – but that’s OK, the only passenger was coal from the coal mine.

Next up was the Scenic Walkway, a 2.4km elevated walkway through the rainforest – so beautiful!

We were given a sneak peak at Orphan Rock as the mist lifted:

I do appreciate how the walkways were built around the trees :-)

A Miners Cottage still stands here, offering a peek into the life of miners who lived and worked in the Katoomba Coal Mine during 1879-1945.

One final attraction remained, which luckily is located at the end of the walkway to take us out of here! We caught the Cableway back up to the top into the mist.

And that concludes the Blue Mountains Getaway – a wonderful four days in such a beautiful part of the world. I’m lucky to live close enough to make it a day trip which I vow to do as we drove back to the big smoke.