Damn Scotts, the Turkish and Wine. | Wednesday, August 16, 2006 |
On Sunday Gillian planned out a walk for us in an effort to ensure that we don't get mistaken for barrage balloons. We hopped on the first of two busses required to get us to Milsons Point (which is just at the northern side of the Harbour bridge) where we disembarked and started on our walk to Balmoral. It's probably worth mentioning at this point that there was a) no discernable Scottish presence, and b) a really quite charming beach, but more of that later.
The walk starts off through some densy populated areas such as Kirribilli and Cremorne. Kirribilli House, located as you may have reasoned in Kirribilli is the official residence of the Prime Minister. From the water it is quite grand, from the street, less so. Much fuss was was made at the start of Howards tenure as in recent times, the offical house of the Prime Minister is the Lodge in Canberra but Mr Howard as the member for Sydney decided to stay put. With the views across the harbour to the city and Opera House, it doesn't seem like a tough choice either.
Anyway, on past Kirribilli House and Admiralty House and we weaved our way through a succession of high-priced housing and around any number of small parks.
The coast is quite jagged in places and there are peninsulars that add distance to the walk. We opted to take the hour long addition down to Cremorne Point and past a small pool that has a million (and more) dollar outlook across the harbour This early in the year it was deserted, but during the summer it's very popular (and has been since the 20's when it was nothing but a collection of rocks).
The weather was kind so the surrounding ocean was a deep blue and in places looked very mediteranian with small sandy coves and yachts bobbing around.
Cremorne Point ends at a small rocky outcrop complete with lighthouse. It's a bit of a steep clamber over smooth rocks to reach a precipitous ladder bolted into the rock face where you can go down to sea level and onto the jetty leading to the light itself. It's all pretty tranquil until the Tasman ferry comes in and sends larger waves to chase us away. On reaching the top of the latter there's a reminder of the dangers of rock climbing in the form of a memorial to a sixteen year old girl that died falling from here some years ago.
The path down the other side of the point has some really very grand houses on it, a number of which are up for sale (too rich for us unfortunately). By this time we've been walking for probably 2 hrs and it's starting to get warm and we're starting to get hungry. We were forward thinking enough to bring a snack and drink with us, but the two Tim Tams, and a piece of leftover toast are soon devoured as we pause for a short break at Mosman Bay. We're saving our dried Apricots until later.
There's a large extra piece of walk in the area underneath the zoo which we decide to skip given that the map we have indicates it's an extra hour onto the journey. As it turns out, some of the pathway is closed for an upgrade so perhaps it was just as well. We walk up a steep path that runs adjacent to the zoo, with a high fence and fierce looking barbed wire angled towards us running along the top. Signs warn of electric currents too.
Unlike our last visit to Wellington where a walk took us past the zoo there, we see no animals. No Emu's, no Baboons (or whatever those red bottomed monkey things are). It's all quiet other then the sound of our laboured breathing as we trudge up a seemingly endless set of stairs.
Nevertheless, they do end, and we're back into suburbia before hitting Taylors Bay and Clifton Gardens. The foreshore at Clifton Gardens is teeming with people out for picnics, walks and the odd bunch of people learning to Scuba. This part of the coast has been occupied by the military for some time and there barracks and other buildings in the process of being re-zoned into a fully fledged park. A very sturdy walking path has been built to make the length downards walk back to sea level easier.
At the bottom we're met with the sounds of shouting and hollering. One or more AFL teams are practising their strange little game on the playing fields. From here, we can now see Balmoral, and as we expected it's very busy as the Mudgee wine and food celebration has come to town and the decent weather has brought the hordes out.
We stay for a few hours sampling wines in the sun and Gillian meets one of her workmates. No-one told us that Balmoral Beach has a kind of island thing attached to it via a small stone bridge. The whole place is very nice (if busy). Despite it being the middle of winter (or just past), there are people in Bikinis on the beach. Winter is awfully harsh here sometimes but today is not one of those days.
Another hill climb up to military road where we wait for ages (about 15 minutes which at the end of our day seemed a long time) for a bus and we head home. Before long we plan to close walking this part of the coast and head from Balmoral back to Spit Bridge.
Click the map to go to an interactive version. At this point I reckon that Microsoft have the best street/satellite mapping available (beats Google hands down for Australia at any rate).
The walk starts off through some densy populated areas such as Kirribilli and Cremorne. Kirribilli House, located as you may have reasoned in Kirribilli is the official residence of the Prime Minister. From the water it is quite grand, from the street, less so. Much fuss was was made at the start of Howards tenure as in recent times, the offical house of the Prime Minister is the Lodge in Canberra but Mr Howard as the member for Sydney decided to stay put. With the views across the harbour to the city and Opera House, it doesn't seem like a tough choice either.
Anyway, on past Kirribilli House and Admiralty House and we weaved our way through a succession of high-priced housing and around any number of small parks.
The coast is quite jagged in places and there are peninsulars that add distance to the walk. We opted to take the hour long addition down to Cremorne Point and past a small pool that has a million (and more) dollar outlook across the harbour This early in the year it was deserted, but during the summer it's very popular (and has been since the 20's when it was nothing but a collection of rocks).The weather was kind so the surrounding ocean was a deep blue and in places looked very mediteranian with small sandy coves and yachts bobbing around.
Cremorne Point ends at a small rocky outcrop complete with lighthouse. It's a bit of a steep clamber over smooth rocks to reach a precipitous ladder bolted into the rock face where you can go down to sea level and onto the jetty leading to the light itself. It's all pretty tranquil until the Tasman ferry comes in and sends larger waves to chase us away. On reaching the top of the latter there's a reminder of the dangers of rock climbing in the form of a memorial to a sixteen year old girl that died falling from here some years ago.The path down the other side of the point has some really very grand houses on it, a number of which are up for sale (too rich for us unfortunately). By this time we've been walking for probably 2 hrs and it's starting to get warm and we're starting to get hungry. We were forward thinking enough to bring a snack and drink with us, but the two Tim Tams, and a piece of leftover toast are soon devoured as we pause for a short break at Mosman Bay. We're saving our dried Apricots until later.
There's a large extra piece of walk in the area underneath the zoo which we decide to skip given that the map we have indicates it's an extra hour onto the journey. As it turns out, some of the pathway is closed for an upgrade so perhaps it was just as well. We walk up a steep path that runs adjacent to the zoo, with a high fence and fierce looking barbed wire angled towards us running along the top. Signs warn of electric currents too.
Unlike our last visit to Wellington where a walk took us past the zoo there, we see no animals. No Emu's, no Baboons (or whatever those red bottomed monkey things are). It's all quiet other then the sound of our laboured breathing as we trudge up a seemingly endless set of stairs.
Nevertheless, they do end, and we're back into suburbia before hitting Taylors Bay and Clifton Gardens. The foreshore at Clifton Gardens is teeming with people out for picnics, walks and the odd bunch of people learning to Scuba. This part of the coast has been occupied by the military for some time and there barracks and other buildings in the process of being re-zoned into a fully fledged park. A very sturdy walking path has been built to make the length downards walk back to sea level easier.
At the bottom we're met with the sounds of shouting and hollering. One or more AFL teams are practising their strange little game on the playing fields. From here, we can now see Balmoral, and as we expected it's very busy as the Mudgee wine and food celebration has come to town and the decent weather has brought the hordes out.
We stay for a few hours sampling wines in the sun and Gillian meets one of her workmates. No-one told us that Balmoral Beach has a kind of island thing attached to it via a small stone bridge. The whole place is very nice (if busy). Despite it being the middle of winter (or just past), there are people in Bikinis on the beach. Winter is awfully harsh here sometimes but today is not one of those days.
Another hill climb up to military road where we wait for ages (about 15 minutes which at the end of our day seemed a long time) for a bus and we head home. Before long we plan to close walking this part of the coast and head from Balmoral back to Spit Bridge.
Click the map to go to an interactive version. At this point I reckon that Microsoft have the best street/satellite mapping available (beats Google hands down for Australia at any rate).
