Taking the Bus to Bondi Beach

Australia Travelog #11
Bondi Beach - Tue, 26 Dec 2023, 11:30am

Today we're starting our "Visit ALL the beaches!" hike with Australia's famous Bondi Beach. (And TBF we're hardly visiting all the beaches, just 6 or 7 or so.) And we decided that we'll travel like locals. Instead of hiring a ride via Uber we took the bus.



It helps that Sydney has a pretty well-developed system of public transit. You don't even need to fuss with a fare card to ride a bus or tram. You can tap on and tap off with a credit card... and you get the same rate as if you had a fare card. It's much easier than having to deal with buying fare cards, keeping them topped up, and— as a visitor from thousands of miles away— leaving town with several dollars stranded on a fare card you probably won't use again before it expires in a year or two.

Cost-wise the bus was a reasonable deal vs. Uber. Two tickets were less than 1/3 the cost of hailing a ride, and there's a bus line (#333) that operates from a stop three blocks away from our hotel and goes right by Bondi Beach. Not having to fuss with transfers made the bus an easy pick. Plus, we enjoy traveling like locals in our style of self-directed sightseeing.



Bondi Beach was... well, a beach. I mean, it looks like any other nice beach, with lots of light colored sand, blue-green water, and warm, sunny weather. Around 11am when we rolled up it was busy but not thronged. Likely by later today it'll be a mob scene.



We shucked off our shoes and socks and headed across the sand. The water was COLD! We'd thought we might enjoy wading for a bit, but just getting in up to our shins briefly told us it would not be pleasant. We scurried back to where the water only came up to our toes, though not before a breaker hit us across our knees dampened our shorts. Well, we came dressed for that possibility! And in the warm weather we're confident we'll dry quickly. Remember, late December is mid summer down under!

Six Beaches and a Cemetery. Lunch in the Rain.

Australia Travelog #12
Bronte Beach - Tue, 26 Dec 2023, 1pm

Today we're doing the Bondi to Coogee Beachwalk. It's a route I found yesterday/this morning while researching which is the "best" beach in Sydney to visit. Answer: Visit ALL the beaches!



This route takes us from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach, Bronte Beach, Clovelly Beach, Gordon's Bay, and Coogee Beach. I've embedded a map from Sydney.com's Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk page (see right/below).

In addition to five beaches we also hike over numerous cliffs... and past a large cemetery.

At the moment we're only part way through the hike. We're at Bronte Beach, and it's started to rain. Like, not just a sprinkle— which we'd be fine with, as we brought rain jackets knowing afternoon showers are in the weather forecast— but pouring. Fortunately we were already planning on stopping for lunch as we're hungry, and there's a row of small cafes across the road from the beach area. We dashed the last few hundred steps in the rain.

It'll take me a while to get pics from the beaches, cliffs, and cemetery up (I know you're all... dying... to see those pics! 😎) so for now here's a pic of lunch.



It's a lamb wrap in lavash bread with a side of chips (American: fries). The cafe we're at calls itself a burger shop but I noticed the owner is Middle Eastern as are some of the staff, so I made an educated guess to order the one Middle Eastern item on menu. Wow, it's good!

Last Licks at the Lounge

Australia Travelog #13
Sydney Hilton Executive Lounge - Wed, 27 Dec 2023, 7am

We're back at the executive lounge on the 36th floor at the Hilton hotel. This lounge has kind of been our second room the past few days. When we got back from walking six beaches yesterday we ate dinner here because we were too tired to go out anywhere. We left at 7pm, me with two drinks in hand. We were asleep back in our room before 8. This morning I was up around 5am again, and we headed down to the lounge (down because our room is on 38) when breakfast opened at 6:30.

This makes now four breakfasts and two dinners we've had in the lounge. The breakfast spread here is pretty nice. I've been filling up each morning on sliced meats, cheese, and fresh bread. It's waay better than eating a protein bar in the room for breakfast. And getting here right after opening at 6:30am it's virtually empty, vs. the utter madhouse it's been at dinner hour.

I get lounge access as a benefit of my elite status, but as crowded as the lounge has been at dinner time I think the hotel front desk upgraded as many people as they had rooms available to the "executive levels" to provide them free food. ...Which isn't a wholly bad thing, given that over Christmas and Boxing Day the eats in the area haven't exactly been plentiful.

After this we'll head back up to our room, pack our suitcases, check out of the hotel, and Uber to the airport to pick up a car. The next several days we're going bushwalking at various national parks!