Sydney Northern Beaches - Palm beach & The Basin

It's very hard to find words to begin to describe Palm beach...

Palm beach

Situated a good 50km outside Sydney's CBD and famous for it's other name of 'Summer Bay', Palm beach is the filming location for Australian TV drama, Home and Away. We were recently surprised to arrive there on a filming day whilst visiting with a friend from home. I can't say I was familiar with the actors there but the surrounding hype was great fun. My friend was even able to score a couple of pictures with the Aussie actors!
Filming aside, Palm beach itself is our favorite beach of NSW to date (we have yet to discover Byron). The surrounding high hills and cliffs are famous for their distinct excess of wealth but the general vibe is definitely not pretentious.

Barrenjoey bay

We've been really fortunate to enjoy lunch with some great friends of ours at The Boathouse, a restaurant built on a pier overlooking Barrenjoey bay, the calmer side of the Palm beach peninsular. The boys annihilated beef and steak burgers (in anticipation of the evening's fishing and rugby antics) while the ladies opted for delicious frittatas, which we all washed down with massive freshly cooked prawns. We felt very lucky indeed!


A short ferry trip from Palm beach can land you at a small national reserve called The Basin. Essentially, The Basin is a naturally protected bay come lake with a very narrow inlet which has been shark-proofed so it's a nice safe spot to swim, fish and paddle board - all at once, if desired...
Families flock to The Basin in the holidays but we've been fortunate to miss the bustle on both the occasions we've been.

The basin, complete with strange clothing choices?

The second time we visited was to camp over night with friends. The park has BBQ and amenities and a big open fire pit that we sat around, whilst playing Articulate. It's very entertaining waking up amongst the possums and wallabies and I will never forget the sleepy morning encounter I had with a resident wallaby which entailed a near collision between the two of us, resulting in one stunned-awake looking wallaby and a shocked tooth-brush-in-mouthed human eying each other reproachfully. I would like to think my eyes blink rather more coordinately in the morning than his as he just looked silly. Hallelujah to coffee?

South of Palm beach is Whale beach, great for surfing. There's a great breakfast place there called (very originally) Whaleys, which does a mean 'Green Breakfast' of poached eggs, broccolini, spinach, ricotta and home-made pesto on sough dough bread. Need I say anymore?

It was here at Whaleys, having consumed this champion brunch that Luke caught his first wave on his new board. We were all very impressed! I think we'll always have fond memories of our trips to Palm beach and surrounding areas. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be one of the lucky rich buggars who own a property up there? Roll on Euro Millions!!

Sydney City - The Rocks and Sydney Library

Yet another fun crossing on the ferry (it never disappoints!) and we arrived again at Sydney Circular Quay where we decided to explore the historic streets of The Rocks.

The Rocks area was originally the home of the Cadigal people, and the place where the first European settlers stepped ashore in 1788. The 19^th century warehouses have been converted to chic restaurants and hearty pubs. We visited the museum and stopped for herbal tea after.

Luke's pot of Chai Latte

After The Rocks we visited Sydney Library where we also took a look round the Australian Ballet Company exhibition which was showing for a limited time on the upper levels. We looked all around the Domain, the gardens opposite the Library and where we would be celebrating Field Day Festival on new years day 2013! 

I am very aware that this post provides evidence of Luke perusing ballet exhibitions and drinking 'herbal tea' from miniature tea pots. Sorry for not representing you in your best masculine light, Luca - surf and skateboard ventures yet to blog...

Sydney City - Botanic Gardens and Art Museum

Sydney harbour bridge from the Botanic Gardens

Catching the Manly-Circular Quay ferry

Sydney harbour and city centre is just a 30 minute ferry trip from Manly. A journey we always enjoy! The first day we explored Sydney centre we ventured round past the opera house and up to the Botanic Gardens, in keeping with our different city botanic garden ventures so far...

The Botanic Gardens of Sydney are HUGE and unquestionably beautiful. The only way to see the gardens, we decided, was on our longboards. Taking advantage of the 30 hectares worth of maze-like pathways and long steep hills the gardens have to offer, we whizzed by the various themed plant and flower displays whilst sitting on our boards. Technically speaking, we weren't skateboarding and the garden's policy said 'No Rollerblading' so we felt justified in our mode of transport... Thankfully passers by enjoyed the spectacle almost as much as the plants so we weren't punished for our cheeky assumption!

Sydney Art Gallery

We enjoyed a yummy packed lunch in the gardens and, after lazing in the sun a bit, (the sun did come out that day, even though the pictures say otherwise!) we hit the FREE art gallery.

Luke's foot double

I keep telling people that the thing I love most about traveling is the time you have on your hands. Time to stop and actually take in your surroundings and not to be in a constant rush or adhering to a time-schedule. We must have spent a good three hours in the museum looking at all the period-sorted paintings and sculptures, idols and aboriginal prints/ patterns. Luke liked the sculpture of a warrior (left and right photos) because, similarly to Joey from friends, he found his foot double!(?) Needless to say, Luca is enjoying the extra time too...

Sydney Northern Beaches - Curl Curl

Northern Beaches, Sydney

On Friday 16th November we arrived to a lovely home-cooked dinner at North Curl Curl of Sydney's Northern Beaches, New South Wales, where we will set up camp for the next two (closer to three!) months. We have been staying with Luke's lovely cousin Katie and her husband Jimmy and three kids.

Katie very kindly showed us the local neighborhoods and towns on our first few days. We have since become very familiar with, South to North, in order: Manly, Freshwater, Curl Curl and Dee Why. it's about 10km from the very southern end of Manly to the northern point of Dee Why and all four beaches with their towns are equally as picturesque as the next.

Curl Curl is a beautiful beachy and family oriented community. The beach itself is about 1km long, with lovely soft yellow (and squeaky?) sand and a notoriously consistent swell, as do most the northern beaches.

North Curl Curl beach

The first week of arriving saw us do little more than sunbathe, eat and read books. It would appear that traveling is exhausting work, worthy of a relaxing holiday after all!? The local shops include a Mexican and vegetarian restaurant, newsagent, bakery, post office, bottle shop and recent addition cafe, COOH (http://cooh.com.au/) - my new favorite place (the fact they now know me by name may be an indication of how long we've been staying at Curl Curl. OR, an unhealthy addiction to morning coffee?).

Sunday mornings see all the Northern Beaches laden with young kids and their families at 'Nippers', swimming and surf lessons for kids aged 5-13. The kids take to the water in swarms and play games in the sea followed by hotdogs from the surf shack. All very Aussie.