If you missed the last post, December 2019 is "beach month" where I'll be celebrating the beginning of summer by visiting a handful of Sydney's fine beachside suburbs (and hopefully inspire you to get out and enjoy the rest of the season!)
Clovelly
Just as my previous suburb of Bronte immediately to the north, Clovelly is another Eastern Suburbs beach, forming another component of the well-travelled Bondi to Coogee Walk. Heading up a set of cliff-side stairs from Bronte takes you into the suburb's bounds, with a sign reminding you that you are indeed on the coastal walk.
Clovelly's first point of interest is immediately over the border, and is the best located lawn bowling club I've ever seen.
Give your throw too many beans and you'll need a dinghy to retrieve your ball.
In front of the bowling club are what I can only assume are the local bowler's houses that must boast tremendous views of the Tasman Sea.
Continue south past the houses and the main bit you might associate with Clovelly begins to open up.
As a beach, Clovelly is rather unusual compared to its Sydney brethren. It catches a narrow inlet of water to form an odd little bay.
There's even a ladder where you can go for a dip directly in the deep end, but with the wild waves of the ocean that far from the beach you'd need to be a damn good swimmer.
Here it is facing out from the sand.
Now, what's a day at the beach without fish and chips?
It was around lunchtime and I was ready to eat. I went into Google Maps on my phone and typed in "fish and chips". The returned options were to keep going to the next suburb (but I'm hungry now), eat at a cafe on the beach which had a fairly mediocre star-rating, or walk away from the beach and into Clovelly proper for a real fish and chip shop with great reviews.
Into the suburb it is.
On my fried-food-mission, (which was primarily up hill, sadly), Clovelly seemed to have plenty of medium density apartments,
and these colourful shops,
as well as some fairly leafy streets.
After a walk which was probably not as long as it felt while hungry, I reached what could probably be considered Clovelly CBD, which is basically a street with a few restaurants and a handful of local services like a newsagent and hairdresser.
I found this mixed-used building to be rather funky.
Anyway, I was here to eat at "Out of the Blue", the local burger and fish and chippery.
The place was bloody busy, with people streaming out the door waiting for their orders, and the very few tables inside occupied by folks who arrived at the right time.
Sadly, this meant I had to take my calamari and chips to the local bus stop instead.
It's never dignified to eat while hunched over a bus stop bench, and it would've been nice if the shop wasn't cash only, but I still enjoyed my meal. If I find myself here again, I'll probably give the burgers a try, like most of the locals seemed to be ordering.
Before I headed back to Clovelly's shores, I poked my head into a street just off the local shops so I could snap up a picture of the very interesting looking St Anthony's church,
here I also found this pleasing old home,
and bootleg Lisa Simpson.
Heading back with a full stomach was much quicker.
My goal from here was to head to the next suburb by continuing the coastal walk south.
As such, I bid farewell to Clovelly Bay,
and followed the path further along this beautiful cliffside walk.
The way to the next suburb is as you might expect, with more dramatic coastline,
and houses I'd never afford.
Keep following the path and you'll get to my next beach suburb.
Clovelly: The unique bay keeps this beach memorable.
0 comments: