Authorised Outdoor Recreation: Centennial Park

Hello.

As you may be expecting, due to the Sydney lockdown this will be my last of these for a while. 

This post itself was documented early in the stay-at-home restrictions, while on a legal walk for exercise from my house. As you'll see from the photos, there were loads of people out and about - and I was one of them. While I could potentially make some blog posts within 10km walking distance from home while getting my exercise in, I think it is the wrong message to send when we've been in lockdown for more than a month and case numbers are still rising. 

No matter where in Sydney you are, please do the right thing so that we can get back to normal as soon as possible. 

Centennial Park

Centennial Park is a funny suburb. It is a suburb, despite just being a park. It's a large park, but it is a park nevertheless. 

I entered on foot, through the main entry gates for cars, bikes, people,

and horses,

starting at this pleasingly bulbous roundabout. 

It was only once I reached here that it occured to me that Centennial Park was a suburb I could tick off, and so my exploration today is unplanned, with a fairly random stroll through the park being in order. 

This meant looking at palm trees and an old building (but not climbing the hill to see what it was),

walking on a horse street,

and making my way to an exceptionally pretty lake - with some caveats.

Poop-lake overlooks a great recreation area, 

with the obligatory ducks and other waterbirds,

and lots of open space. 

A very pleasant spot, all-in-all. 

Continuing through the park across what I can only assume is a medieval bridge,

I found some plant-art,

and other generally interesting plants. 

By another most likely not-in-bloom, flower garden as I found back in Baulkham Hills.

There is a road running a circuit through the park, however this road had been closed to cars on my visit, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to better stretch-out and enjoy the place. 

This carried me on through to more gardens, 

a busy coffee kiosk,

and more lakes,

including one with a highly intriguing name.

Does what it says on the tin. 

I continued through a partially wooded area,

to the other side of Duck Pond,

where I was able to meet some new friends.

Continuing on,

past an ominous bench,

and a small bushwalk I opted not to take,

led to more lakes,

and a cement circle with markings on it calling itself "The Labyrinth". As people were exercising on the thing, I felt too awkard taking a close up photo so here's a shot from six kilometres away. 

There are better pictures and more information about the thing on the Centennial Park website. 

By this point, I was pretty much ready to head back. It was already a fair walk to reach Centennial Park, so I was ready to get going. 

Along the way, I passed a statue of Charles Dickens. I don't know what Charles Dickens looked like, for me to be able to tell you if they did a good job, but it seems pretty decent to me.

I also passed this tree wearing cropped pants. 

As the afternoon sun had its final hurrah, I made my way to the park exit.

Bonus dinosaur eggs.

See you in a couple months.

Centennial Park: It's a park, and it's a suburb. What will they think of next?