Life's a Beach: Narrabeen

It's been a long time coming but here I am - the Northern Beaches. This is an area of Sydney famous for NIMBYing away public transport options, voting for Tony Abbott, and, of course, beautiful beaches. Let's go.

Narrabeen

I've chosen to start my foray into the region with Narrabeen. Geographically, Narrabeen sits about half way up the coastline that is the Northern Beaches. This means a 40 minute bus ride from the city on the shiny new double decker "B Line" buses. These buses are quite interesting because they're set up more like a train than a bus line, with there generally being a single stop per suburb, rather than one every six metres like most buses.

Narrabeen's B Line bus station sits on a sleepy strip of stores on the very busy Pittwater Road.

Upon getting off the bus, I turned around to face the bus station car park. This place is interesting for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, you use your Opal card for the parking. If you've used public transport, the parking is free. If not, it's a fairly hefty parking charge.

Secondly, there were four geese queueing up for the toilets (or are these ducks? I don't know).

The parking backs out onto a lovely stretch of parkland at Narrabeen's Lagoon.

Here, there are geese having a BBQ,

as well as a walking and cycle trail which circles the lagoon.

Narrabeen Lagoon is lovely,

but when you come to the Northern Beaches, you come for the beach, so I headed back to where I began and crossed to the other side of Pittwater Road.

Luckily, the beach is only a short distance from here, so I took a turn into a sidestreet and past some fine businesses such as a shoe repair and a place called Drake Real Estate (started from the bus stop now I'm here).

Just a little bit up the road are some very beachy apartments,

very beachy houses,

and this adorable van.

Seriously, it's so damn cute.

Oh yeah, there's also a beach.

Narrabeen is a fantastic Sydney beach, with a sweeping shoreline, golden sand,

and some very lucky residents.

We all know that walking on sand is a nightmare, so I made my way back off the beach and into residential Narrabeen,

where there are lots more beachy looking apartments and houses on the appropriately named "Ocean St".

This one has swirly stairs, so that's pretty sweet.

Further up the road are a couple of cafes, with plenty of Sunday lunchtime patronage on this particular day.

Continuing further along, we meet the fabulous lagoon once more, as it makes its way into the ocean through a bit named "South Creek".

This bridge leads to the next suburb.

More important than that however, are the gorgeous views on either side which I got to enjoy as I crossed over.

Narrabeen: If it's good enough for the Beach Boys, it's good enough for me.