Bondi to Coogee Beach: A Sunday Walk Unlike Any Other

At the end of last month, when the school holidays began, the Bobinoz family jumped on a plane to Sydney for a four day break. Top of our list of ‘things to do‘ this time was to walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach via the scenic route.

Bondi to Coogee walk

As you can see from the map, this is a perfect Sunday walk, so that’s why we chose Sunday to walk it. Make sense, doesn’t it?

The walk hugs the coastline between two of Sydney’s most famous beaches and, given the time of year, there was a chance we could do a bit of whale watching. Apparently you can often see whales from Bondi Beach and the surrounding area at this time of year.

This walk is doable in an hour and a quarter, but taking a couple of hours in incredibly slow mode builds in plenty of staring at the ocean time. We took three hours to give us enough time to stop for a hearty snack at one of the many cafés at around the halfway point.

Here’s what our walk looked like, and please do remember, this is the middle of winter here in Australia. We began, of course, at Bondi Beach…

As you can see from these photographs, winter doesn’t stop people going in for a dip, either in the sea, or the famous Bondi swimming pool…

Hmm, well, perhaps not ‘in’ the swimming pool. Plenty of people standing around in togs, but not much going on in the water. I can assure you though, that with the naked eye, I could see one guy fully submerged in the water.

Let’s continue walking and staring at the sea for a bit.

At this point, you are probably thinking, ‘these pictures have been photoshopped‘, because, well, the sky is just so beautiful and the sea an incredible deep blue.

Rest assured, I’m not smart enough to use photoshop, these photos show exactly how it looked.

Back to the walk.

This is Bronte Beach…

We stopped for food here, and as mentioned earlier, spoilt for choice; most people stop here it seems, lots of cafés to choose from.

Back on the trail, and after heading up this dead-end path…

We doubled back, returned to the path and headed towards the cemetery, and then past it…

Before we made our final descent down into Coogee. We couldn’t help but notice some houses that could genuinely use ‘with views‘ in their real estate description…

And finally, down to Coogee Beach…

We were delighted to discover, when we got to the end of this path, that there was a pub. A very busy and lively pub. To be more specific, it was the Coogee Pavilion.

I was so excited about this that I forgot to take a photograph of it, instead heading straight for the bar. Never even saw Coogee Beach, let alone take a photograph. Fortunately, others can take up the slack for me, so my thanks to ABC.com.au for the following picture of the Coogee Pavilion…

And thanks also to Mynameisben123 at en.wikipedia for the following image of Coogee Beach…

Did we see whales?

No.

Never had much luck with that, as I explain in Whale Watching in Australia: What’s it Really Like?

I did see somebody playing barefoot bowls though…

Oh yes he is…

Who would have thought?