canyonwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canyonwalker) wrote2023-12-28 01:12 am
canyonwalker) wrote2023-12-28 01:12 am
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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!
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!