Day 2: Collaroy to Bondi

It was a freezing night in the beach house style YHA at Collaroy! On the upside, it gave me an early start to the day as I was keen to get moving quickly.

I walked down to the beachfront and the familiar stretch along Long Reef, the LR flag hanging listlessly against a grey background and the headlands I’d passed the previous day. 

Up on the headland I admired another storm out to sea, engulfing a large ship on the horizon, and hoped that it wouldn't head my way.

Turning south I continued down to Dee Why and contemplated walking through the dunes to the lagoon. The beachfront seemed a more welcoming option with a few early fisherman out, so I headed that way. Shoes off to cross the lagoon – it was refreshing to have the sand between my toes, although I hoped the condition of the lagoon's water had improved over the last 10 years!

Back in 2001, the Manly Daily reported that the NSW Scientific Committee classified the area as an endangered ecological area, and made it a top conservation priority of the State's threatened species list. The lagoon had been heavily impacted by "urbanisation of the catchment area, building site sediment, stormwater pollution from residential and commercial areas, weed invasion and sewerage overflows". I spotted a few birds in the area, so it appeared the situation had improved.

At the end of the beach, I went up the stairs near the rockpool to the top of Dee Why Head. It was a beautiful walk through the bush and I was surprised at how big the reserve was. Hunger was setting in by this point, so I quickly passed Curl Curl and the amateur swimming club, then only paused briefly to observe the surfers out at Freshwater.

1903 By Mills & Pile. Contributed by National Library of Australia [nla.map-lfsp1411-e-cd]

A shortcut through the streets took me to North Steyne and the pine avenue of Manly. 

 The 2.5hrs of walking had worked up quite an appetite and I enjoyed a big breaky at Hemmingways. It’s a great café with the walls lined with old books, and I picked up a copy of Hemmingway’s first novel, Fiesta, to accompany my meal.

Refuelled with 2 flat whites, it was time to keep exploring. I took the footpath around to Shelly Beach, then up through the scrub towards the military remnants on North Head. From 1828, North Head was used to quarantine passengers on ships arriving in the colony. The military presence on North Head began in the mid-1930s with the red gravel parade ground completed in 1938. North Head was heavily fortified during WWII, and afterwards, became the Army School of Artillery until 1998. I always get a bit lost at North Head, and after finding the Parade Ground, wandered on various tracks until I was back on the scenic drive down to the Corso at Manly.

Atlas of the Suburbs of Sydney, ca 1885-1890 - Manly (Historical Atlas of Sydney)

The Narrabeen, one of 4 "Freshwater" class ferries servicing Manly, was just pulling into the jetty as I arrived at the Promenade. The plan was to continue across to South Head – unfortunately, there’s no direct connection to Watson’s bay, so, looking forward to another break, I jumped aboard and admired the harbour as we crossed over the Circular Quay. A quick hello to the buskers lining the wharf, I weaved around the busy office workers to the next pier, and the younger, more sleek, Louise Savage that was to take me to Watson’s Bay. 

In contrast to the scrub on North Head, South Head is quite open, with large fig trees marking the pathway. 

A yacht race was in progress near middle harbour and the boats created stark silhouettes in the monochrome scene. 

I was soon at the stripy Hornby lighthouse looking back over to North Head where I had walked a few hours previously.

The remainder of the afternoon followed the towering cliffs alongside the Gap, Vaucluse and North Bondi in an incredible warm afternoon light.

I was looking forward to a rest by the time I arrived at the iconic Bondi Beach, and was glad Billy was meeting me at the Beach Burrito Company at the north (and closer) end of the beach. We chomped down on a couple of tasty burritos, washed down with a few cold Mexican beers and I retold the story of the day.

I still hadn’t booked any accommodation, and made the snap decision to look up lastminute.com after wanting to avoid another cold hostel night. Taking a leap of faith, I agreed to the unnamed hotel offer, and cheered for joy as the Swiss Grand was revealed! Heartened by the knowledge of a comfy night ahead, we headed up to Gertrude and Alice’s to peruse their bookshelves (one of the best collections of second hand and new books at a café in Sydney!), then at closing, headed to Ben & Jerry's for icecream - given our upcoming trip is to Vermont, the home of B&J's we thought it would be worth sampling the Australian version for comparison!

Day 1: Barrenjoey Headland to Collaroy Beach

Every great journey begins with a paddle in your hand. As such, I found myself at 5:00am down at Rozelle with the Molokai girls for a quick 2hr paddle around Cockatoo Island and back. After this warm-up, I was quick to change and head into the city to flag down the L90 bus up to Palm Beach.

4:40am is an early time to start the day, so the 2hr bus ride gave me a chance to have a bit of a snooze, check out the day’s maps and send a few emails. It didn’t feel like long before I disembarked at the familiar Palm Beach golf course at the northern end of Barrenjoey Rd, slung my day pack over my shoulder, and headed up the trail towards Barrenjoey Headland.

The Hawkesbury sandstone of Barrenjoey Lighthouse glows in the morning light

Despite paddling from Palm Beach many times, I’d never actually walked up to the lighthouse that is a great landmark to keep an eye out for when on the water. (Note: it took me one race around Lion Island where I kept circling, taking a line down the Hawkesbury River rather than back to Palm Beach to learn this). The lighthouse was built in 1881 on the headland marking the entrance to Broken Bay and Pittwater. It shares the space with a customs station established earlier in the 1840s to monitor any smugglers attempting to bring contraband into Broken Bay, considered the backdoor route into Sydney.

I was quick to bound up the hand-carved stone stairs of the Smugglers Track to the top, keeping ahead of a school holiday tour group so I could enjoy the stunning views over Broken Bay (almost) to myself.

View over Broken Bay towards the Central Coast

It was a beautiful morning, and I kept a look out across the expansive ocean for whale spouts, but there were none in sight, so after a quick poke around the historic lighthouse buildings and a bit of an explore of a few small trails on the headland, I turned my back on the Central Coast and headed down towards the sand dunes of Palm Beach.

The recent storms had thrown up a lot of debris, so I joined a few other holiday beachcombers looking for trinkets and picked up a couple of interesting pieces of driftwood. Halfway along the beach, I met a fisherman and his two sons. They were out fishing for Australian Salmon (called Kahawai in NZ) that come up from the cooler Victorian waters during winter. The morning had been a success, and the boys had already snagged a decent sized 50cm fish!

Looking at the map, the Cabbage Tree Boat Harbour was marked at the southern end of the beach. I thought this would be a good place to check out, as a potential safe option from a treacherous landing at the northern end of the beach (just ask Mandy!). Upon inspection, it was definitely calmer than further north, but I wouldn’t rely on it as a certain safehaven. The rock pool looked far more enticing!

First beach down, 20+ to go! A set of stairs took me up to Whale Beach Road that leads along Little Head and I admired the modern beach mansions adorning the headland. What a spectacular place to live! But one to enjoy when working from home.

Lifestyles of the rich and the famous

Whale Beach is quite short so it didn’t take long to make my way along the sand towards Bangalley Head, apparently the highest point on the Northern Beaches. I’ve found paddling alongside Bangalley Head quite difficult when heading north to Palm Beach on a summer’s day – the NE wind chop bounces back off the rocky headland making your ama jump about. It didn’t look that bad at all today as I peered out from the clifftops! The high point provided a good vantage of the beaches to the south – I could pick out Avalon, caught a glimpse of Bilgola and then Newport over the next headland, with Long Reef jutting out far in the distance. It felt like there was still a long way to go!

Avalon was the next stop, with its distinctive sloping headland, and familiarity born by the controversy surrounding the objections of the locals to the filming of Baywatch here in 1999. I took a break to visit the bakery (no coconut macaroons!) And found a great breakfast café, Nourished, that will be a must to return to.

Avalon Beach and distinctive headland

At Bilgola I found a group of teenagers marooned on the beach, resorting to building their own shelter for the night out of palm leaves. They looked like they were having fun, and I mentioned they’d have to get a few more fronds up before the impending storm broke. I suspect a retreat to ice-creams would be the outcome in the case of calamity!

Up and over the headland, I quickly spotted the distinctive reef that juts out from Newport headland (another place to keep an eye on when paddling along the coast). The map shows a separate rocky island, but there’s no way I’d be trying to get through there on my canoe.

Storm over Newport Reef

The houses seemed to get bigger along Newport, without becoming imposing – wow! It felt a bit naughty peering in through their backyards as I walked along the beach, but it was a window into a different world – I wondered who owned such beautiful houses and hoped that the owners were able to enjoy their great view.

By this stage the sun was quite low in the sky, casting a warm glow out to sea in contrast to the massing of dark clouds congregating offshore. It was a spectacular moment.

I followed the clouds around the Bungan Headland, taking more photos as I went. Bungan Headland has an interesting role to play in Sydney's history. In 1942 during the Second World War, 3 Japanese midget submarines slipped into Sydney Harbour. Only 1 was able to fire its torpedoes and hit the depot ship HMAS Kuttabul taking 21 lives. Two of the subs never made it out of the harbour, but the third mysteriously disappeared. It wasn't until 2006 that the remains were discovered, with the bodies of the crew still on board, off Bungan Head, Newport.

I was so caught up in the view that I almost missed Bungan Castle. It looked like a place with a story, but unfortunately there was no one there to tell me about it, other than a sign that read “Bungan Castle – 1919 – Private Property”. Not a place to explore! I was pleased to have finally worked out where this mythical castle was – after our paddling session the previous weekend Amanda asked me if I’d seen the castle, and others had also referred to it when trying to spot Mona Vale Basin from the water.

That was part of the fun of this trip – tying together a mixture of places that I’d visited before, or heard of separately. Now I had a map in my mind of the Northern Beaches and how all of the features connected. Hopefully this will help when navigating out on the water.

Bungan beach was the wildest beach I came across. It may have been that evening was setting in and that the clouds continued to threaten, but it also had no carpark, and no easy access. A lone surfer made his way out to the break.

I’d enjoyed the distractions of the day – plenty of photographs, explorations of all the rock pools and a few coffees at nice cafes – but combined with a late start, had eaten into my time. I looked up at Mona Vale headland in the darkness and decided to take a short cut to Collaroy where I was meeting Lisa for dinner and a movie. The L90 appeared on the horizon, and I was aboard, completing the final 7km in a matter of minutes, rather than hours. It seemed a shame to just zoom past Mona Vale, Warriewood and Narrabeen, when they deserved the same detailed attention I’d applied to the more northern beaches. But as the storm broke, and my tummy rumbled for dinner, I knew I’d made the right decision. It’s a section of the walk I’ll definitely return to!