Beach month continues as we scamp through the Eastern Suburbs.
Crossing into the suburb's borders, you immediately hit a beach, but it's not the beach most people associate with Coogee.
This is Gordon's Bay. It's little and it's far less postcard-y than its neighbours, but that also means it's a lot quieter too, with only a handful of people enjoying its shores today.
Continuing past Gordon's Bay,
you soon hit vertical path onto the street.
From the street, you can take the direct, paved path to Coogee's main beach,
or the scenic route,
which is half bushwalk,
half coastal trek.
The scenic route takes you onto the sandstone cliffs where you can look out onto the Tasman Sea (squint and you can see Jacinda Ardern putting on her jandals),
before you're obligated to head back out onto the main route,
Follow the path further down, and if you can ignore the sand and sea, you can also observe this interesting sculpture memorialising the victims of the 2002 Bali Bombings.
With a separate stone dedicated solely to the victims from NSW.
By the memorial (but not quite related) is this Christian shrine, apparently set up after a local saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary at this spot. Different strokes for different folks.
Finally, rather than heading to Coogee's shores, you can instead take a dip in the Giles Baths, accessed from the same spot.
Now, I didn't do my homework and wrongly assumed that these were Coogee's women only baths, so I didn't head in. Here's a beautiful 360 degree photosphere from Google Maps instead, showing what I missed out on. Rats.
Coogee
If you've been following along so far, then you won't be surprised to know that Coogee is the suburb immediately south of Clovelly, and is the terminus to the lovely Bondi to Coogee Walk. That walk is how I entered the suburb.
Crossing into the suburb's borders, you immediately hit a beach, but it's not the beach most people associate with Coogee.
This is Gordon's Bay. It's little and it's far less postcard-y than its neighbours, but that also means it's a lot quieter too, with only a handful of people enjoying its shores today.
Continuing past Gordon's Bay,
you soon hit vertical path onto the street.
From the street, you can take the direct, paved path to Coogee's main beach,
or the scenic route,
which is half bushwalk,
half coastal trek.
The scenic route takes you onto the sandstone cliffs where you can look out onto the Tasman Sea (squint and you can see Jacinda Ardern putting on her jandals),
before you're obligated to head back out onto the main route,
where the turquoise waters of Coogee Beach begin to show.
Follow the path further down, and if you can ignore the sand and sea, you can also observe this interesting sculpture memorialising the victims of the 2002 Bali Bombings.
With a separate stone dedicated solely to the victims from NSW.
By the memorial (but not quite related) is this Christian shrine, apparently set up after a local saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary at this spot. Different strokes for different folks.
Finally, rather than heading to Coogee's shores, you can instead take a dip in the Giles Baths, accessed from the same spot.
Now, I didn't do my homework and wrongly assumed that these were Coogee's women only baths, so I didn't head in. Here's a beautiful 360 degree photosphere from Google Maps instead, showing what I missed out on. Rats.
Anyway, from the spot of the Mother Mary, I had a pretty solid view of Coogee's sweeping sands,
before heading down there myself.
On the way, you'll see the rather impressive Coogee Pavilion, a multi-story bar and restaurant with rooftop access,
and, of course, the big and wide grassy picnic area by the beach, where you can have your fish and chips disrupted by an excited seagull or ibis.
The nice thing about doing this month of beaches business is that I can be quite lazy. You know Sydney has good beaches, I know Sydney has good beaches, and so I don't exactly need to say anything groundbreaking.
Bonus rockpool.
As you may have noticed, Coogee is one of the more commercial beaches in Sydney, with dining options all along the street across from the shore,
as well as the Coogee Bay Hotel, an establishment that made news a decade ago for their unique customer complaints management system.
From the beach, you can continue along the shore south,
Where you can look out into the ocean some more,
and enjoy some public parks.
From here, I headed out onto the street, featuring a few interesting old homes,
and, of course, the path back to the beach.
From here, I was able to take advantage of Coogee Beach's well utilised bus stop to jump on a bus to Central Station.
Coogee: If Bondi is Coca Cola, then Coogee is Pepsi - still nice, almost as busy, but not as famous.
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