A Month of Beaches Part 1: Bronte

It's the first day of December. That means Summer is here - the fantastic season of hot barbeques, cold beers, being branded by your car's seat belt buckle, and, of course, the beach! To celebrate the start of the season that makes Sydney really sparkle, I'll be exclusively covering beach suburbs this December.

Bronte

Bronte is an Eastern Suburbs beachside suburb, sitting a little bit south of its far more famous cousin Bondi. If you're coming in by public transport, you can get a bus all the way to the shore. Because I'm me, I instead hopped out upstream of the beach in residential Bronte.

I'm glad I did.

Sure, I first met some uninspiring houses and apartments,

but then Bronte started to open up to me, with a tremendous mixture of the tantalisingly blue sea up ahead,

and a little bit of interesting architecture,

as well as your obligatory multi-million dollar beachside houses.

Although it wasn't too warm today, the sky was clear and the sun was shining, which is enough to make the sea absolutely pop.

In just a few more steps, I reached the cliff-side road, with a steady stream of people doing the wonderful Bondi to Coogee Walk,

and, of course, a little bit of a good view.

Following the road south,

leads downhill to the surf lifesaving club,

a grassy area to enjoy the outdoors,

and of course, the beach.

Now, a few months ago my goofy blog and I were featured in an article on the real estate website Domain. From there, I received a good chunk of new readers and publicity, including one bloke, Rory, who shot me an email offering to show me around his suburb.

I've had folks offer to tour me around before, and I've declined every time. Rory, however, was a Bronte Surf Lifesaver, and I feel like if a lifesaver offers to show you around their beach, you say yes.

I met Rory on the sand, where he showed me inside the clubhouse (I wasn't allowed to take photos as I'm apparently considered to be "the press"). He also took me for a walk around the tremendous beach and grassy area,

where he pointed out Bronte's very own train station (been running since the 1940s),

and the absolutely gorgeous swimming rockpool.

He also took me to a hidden point of interest in Bronte that I've never made it to before, despite having passed through this suburb on the dozen or so Bondi-to-Coogee walks I've done in my life.

To get there, start from the grassy area, and follow a path away from the beach,

into a little bit of a valley,

with surprisingly thick trees,

and a stream of water,

leading all the way to a modest but still pretty waterfall. It's been pretty dry lately, so I suspect the water flows far more freely after a decent rainfall.

What a great little place for some solitude just a few steps away from a well travelled Sydney beach.

Rory subsequently led me through an assorted series of paths and alleyways in order to surface from the park,

at which point we parted ways.

At this point, I was somewhere near to where I entered Bronte in the first place, which meant walking downhill once more to get to the beach.

Now, as I've mentioned a couple of times so far, Bronte sits on Sydney's famed Bondi-to-Coogee coastal walk. I wasn't ready to end my beach travels for today, so I was to continue southwards to hit my next beach.

This meant following the stream of people south,

onto some slightly vertical roads,

(with more marvellous views),

and up a sandstone-cliffed road with a timeline of Bronte history painted on the path.

This continues to the still-in-the-suburb-of-Bronte Waverley Cemetery.

Last time I did this walk, I remember having to walk through the cemetery to get to the next beach (unless I'm losing my memory, that is). Now, however, they've got a rather incredible boardwalk hugging the cliffs, allowing you to skip the gravestones on your coastal walk.