Bumper Beach Special: Monterey, Ramsgate Beach, Sans Souci

This one's a little different, because I spent a little bit of time in a number of smaller neighbouring suburbs. 

Monterey

Monterey is a tiny beachside suburb just south of Brighton-Le-Sands. The name may or may not be inspired by the beachside town of Monterey, California, but this suburb is definitely a lot more low-key than anything America has ever done.

I made my way there by taking a 5 minute bus along the beach from my previous post in Brighton. 

As you do, I of course immediately stopped by the beach. Very pretty, but as this is the same beach as my previous two posts we already know this. 

So as not to just walk by the beach, I took a quick stroll into the residential streets just off the coast. The housing here is the typical suburban mixture of "old and small" and "new and big" that you get once a suburb hits a few decades of age. 

More importantly, this little dog stood up to say hello as I came by.

On the way out I passed this typical Sydney hipster cafe that I'm sure does a $10 cold drip coffee with coconut water. 

Monterey: A suburb that tricks you into thinking you're in a small beachside town.

Ramsgate Beach

The next suburb along the coast is the very tiny suburb of Ramsgate Beach which can very proudly claim a grand total of 6 streets. You can walk in and out of here without even realising that you've changed suburbs.

The gorgeous stretch of beach continues here, with a great view of the city in the distance.

Here's an artsy-fartsy picture of some rocks on the beach. This is as artistic as I get, people.

A nice touch in my view are the wider streets with a grassy median strip that most (4/6 according to the map) of the streets have here. 

Ramsgate Beach importantly also contains the main "shopping street" supplying Monterey and (lesser so) the coming Sans Souci. Here you get a full-sized Coles supermarket and a handful of cafes and takeaways. According to Google there is also a farmer's market on Saturday afternoons, but I was here on the wrong day for that.

Ramsgate Beach: Blink and you'll miss it. 

Sans Souci

I'd never been to Sans Souci before but I've always thought this place sounded super fancy.

It turns out that the name is French, which explains why. 

It also turns out that it's French for "No Worries" which is the Aussiest damn French place name you can get. 

This suburb is actually a lot bigger than our previous two and I didn't do it justice as I just stayed along the tiny sliver along the beach and Cook Park. The taster I did get, however, immediately proved to me that "No Worries" is the right name for this place. 

Just to get it out of the way, yes this piece of the beach is still gorgeous. 

What I did fall in love with though was Cook Park. This park sits right on the coast and boasts thick trees, parking where you can sit and watch the ocean, picnic tables, and, unsurprisingly, very few worries. 

I think I'll have to come back, grab a pastry and coffee from the patisserie (it's OK Sans Souci, you don't need to pretend to be French) and enjoy this spot properly another day soon (warning: rubbish photo below). 

Sans Souci: It's our problem-free philosophy.