Australian Adventure Day 31 – Bondi Beach, The Gap, Watson Bay, Balmoral Beach and Circular Quay

Driving in an open top jeep along the streets of Sydney next to a charming Oztrian with the wind blowing through my hair I felt like a young girl again!   It was 7::30 am. and already the temperature was in the high twenties.   Bondi Beach – oh wow – a clean sweep of white sand with crystal clear waves gently breaking on the shore.   Young people were already playing volley ball, joggers were getting their early morning run in before work and a tractor was smoothing the sand for the crowds that were due later in the day.

Our Oztrian host – He’s from Austria but lives in Oz – left us to jog and do his morning training and we took a walk to the Iceberg Club.  It has a fabulous pool overlooking the beach but we decided to swim in the sea.   Bondi is definitely the place for the beautiful jet-setters of our world but there were all kinds of people on the beach – I was relieved to find that most of the early morning swimmers were my age or older.  Hubby has a saw and bandaged hand so he chose to remain on the beach and keep an watchful eye on me.

The wind blew through my hair

Volley Ball on Bondi Beach

Open Air Gym – free to all

 

A tractor smooths and cleans the beach

It was cold!

But hey, I swam at Bondi Beach!

We were back at the apartment by 8:45, showered and then went to our hosts restaurant – Kantine Cafe – for breakfast – poached eggs on Turkish bread served with a delicious tomato relish .  The coffee is excellent too and we had two cups while waiting for Wayne and Bruce to fetch us.  Once all the chatting, catching up and deciding what to do was over we set off with Wayne and Tamara while Bruce and young Ella followed in their car.  On the way to the Gap Wayne drove us around smart neighbourhoods and showed us how the beautiful people of Australia live.   The Gap is notorious for its suicides and although it is well fenced and their are signs up with encouraging messages of hope there are still one or two who succeed in doing themselves in! Hubby checked to see that I had my will correctly made in his favour!  Yes darling all my millions will go to you!

The Cuzzies –  Ella, Bruce, Helen, Wayne, Tamara

Ella, Bruce, Earl, Helen Wayne

View toward the South Head at  The Gap

Fisherman’s Wharf Watson’s Bay

After having a take-away lunch from Doyles at Fishermans Wharf, Watson’s Bay we drove to Balmoral Beach – another beautiful spot, calm and child friendly so many families bring their youngsters here.   Earl just loved seeing the fabulous yachts and fishing boats and one in particular caught his eye – on Googling its name Tamara found that it was for sale!  Sorry Honey – out of our budget!

Balmoral Beach

View

Spot where Tamara and Wayne were married!

We had ice-creams here and then it was time for us all to part company.  Wayne dropped us at Mosman Bay where we got the ferry to Circular Quay.  A ferry trip is just up Earl’s street and he was fascinated by the skill of the skippers and the speed at which they embarked and disembarked passengers.  The views of The City, The Bridge and The Opera House were magical.   What a beautiful place Sydney is.

We boarded the Charlotte at Mosman Bay

 

Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Opera House

At Circular Quay our tickets were rejected – we thought they included ferry, train and bus – but unfortunatley the guy who sold them to us misunderstood our needs!  The ferry chappie kindly allowed us a free pass! We then found the number 380 bus parked and waiting to start its route.  The friendly Greek driver recognised our accents and kindly allowed us aboard before he made his way to the proper bus stop.  He also reminded us to get off at the correct stop.

It was almost 6 0’cock when we got home so we went to the Australian Woolworths nearby and got some take away sushi for supper – It was excellent!

So ended another ‘lousy’ day in Australia!