chips on the beach (again)

Great to have friends here for a week. As always an opportunity to be a proper tourist again, interspersed with - as always with Z - plotting lots of future project together. Seemed to spend a lot of time in the Coogee Pavilion, but also took the ferry to Manley and did the fish-and-chips-on-the-beach-at-sunset-thing.

and finally..

And if you go all the way to Maroubra ( a beach I think of as a poor man's Bondi) there is one more saltwater pool, just as you get there. 

south coogee

If you walk south along the coastal path, rather than the much more usual Bondi to Coogee affair,  you ultimately reach Maroubra (although you have to do an unpleasant stretch of the Malabar Road to get there). But if you just do the first bit you can see all the fancy houses facing the sea on this side of Coogee Bay, and also this cute little, almost family-sized saltwater pool, worn out of the rocks. Pretty well vanishes, or at least gets quite dangerous, at spring high tides. 

wylies

And, then, almost next door, the amazing Wylies. I love this place, don't quite know why as you have to pay to sit on concrete amongst rocks rather than on sand; but it has a very immediate relationship with the ocean in all its various guises, and the generally eccentric regulars make it a great place for people-watching. 

women's pool

And then a women's only open air pool (you will have to come to Sydney - and be female - to see it properly).

back to work

As lots of people have noted, I have been better for some considerable time - and have done many enjoyable things - so need to get back to work on this blog (have been trying to use ongoing problems with bandwidth also as an excuse but, really, doesn't wash).

Just as crucially, the weather has moved decisively into autumn since my last post, which makes the catching up even more obvious. Nonetheless, I am going to continue my postings as originally planned: so please enjoy some photos of the one of the great glories of the Eastern Suburbs - its saltwater pools. I have shown St Giles already, so next the small one on the other, southern corner of Coogee Bay.

mobbed

Had given up my habit of watching the sun go down whilst eating fish, chips and salad on Coogee beach following gym sessions on Thursdays after being mobbed - and I mean seriously attacked - by seagulls on every occasion. (The photo here is of only one seagull because I was in the process of a forced leaving, with one hand on my food, one hand trying to frighten away the feathery hordes, and one around my camera...)

But it was such a beautiful evening tonight that I tried again. And although there was some keen interest from a couple of inquisitive gulls, the only other birdlife around was a bunch of small noisy miners - for yes that is their name - being given flying practice by their parents.


Note: As another blog notes, it is very easy to get noisy miners and indian mynas mixed up; so here is how to tell the difference.  

happy christmas everyone!

And - finally - meeting Santa himself, at the Coogee Carols last Saturday. Another surreal winter-in-summer experience. Not just weird because of all the red woolly Santa trappings (ho ho ho) and the snow/sleigh bells songs but also because not a choir, as I had perhaps stupidly expected, but a band and singer and (something I had forgotten how much I disliked) pop songs masquerading as carols. Bah humbug!

rough

Meanwhile, the ocean at Coogee  is not behaving as normal. The small island in the middle of the bay usually acts as a kind of breakwater, making the incoming waves friendly and unsurfable. But with a seemingly endless stream of tropical-style storms, the waves are up - crashing into the beach with a previously unseen fury. Surfers have arrived and the usually protected Giles baths is foamy and turbulent. Additional fun for all. 

swimmingly

And talking of 40 degree days. Another of those weekend mass events (with associated, multiple, open-air parties) that turn Coogee into a place packed with nearly naked and often wet people, hundreds happy to swim a kilometre out and around wedding cake island, hundreds jammed on the beach happy to cheer them on – and all of us suddenly buried in a damp sea fog, rolling in off the sea as the high temperature and humidity made its own huge and thick condensation cloud.

warm bones

The bloke on the bench also had plenty to say about other things. About Sydneysiders - that they may have a reputation for being friendly and laid back but are actually pretty aggressive, out for what they can get. And endlessly (accurately) about the dire, damp nature of the English climate. It gets into your bones he said. Of course I defended the pleasures of dampness, all the time thinking ah yes, warm bones. 

Note - the beach at Coogee has been invariably packed body-to-body. This is an unrealistic view (showing the Pavilion in the background which is also always packed) taken early in the morning before the crowds arrived. 

the glory that is seawater pools

There are also a number of seawater pools all along the coast, costing varying amounts from 20 cents to $8, and with various rules and facilities. I should mention right away that swimming is not something I like to do. But might just dip my toe in here…

falling in love

I have already fallen completely in love with Coogee beach despite its popularity. Mingling with all that good health and sportswear is a marvellous sprinkling of eccentricity....

seagulls and doyles

In my determination not to give into jetlag, but noticeably disoriented and wobbly, I find that without thinking I have got on a ferry to Watsons Bay; focusing on a single goal of getting take-away fish and chips from the famous Doyles for my lunch.  Then sitting in the glorious sunshine on the sand (like any decent Brit I expect to get excited by sunshine/beach for at least the next 3 months) with that fab view back to the city. Interrupted only by seagulls squabbling.