Found: Palm Beach

Let's head to the northeastern-most tip of Sydney. 

Palm Beach

After a wonderful beach trip enjoying the sand and the sea at Narrabeen, I figured I'd pick off a normally hard to get to Northern Beaches suburb before heading home. This took me all the way up the peninsula to Palm Beach. 

I parked at this arbitrary residential street,

near to this carpark named Lucinda Park. 

Lucinda Park does also have a parky-bit, featuring this monument thing, 

a lifetime supply of rowboats, 

and not a bad view at all. 

We'll spend more time looking at the ocean in this post, but for now let's go walking. 

Wikipedia tells me that Palm Beach has the highest income of any suburb in Sydney. As such, I was expecting to see some megahouses but (on this street anyway), the houses are actually fairly typical for any beachside suburb.

More notable than the houses themselves however are the surrounds. Despite not being that far from everywhere else, Palm Beach somehow feels more tropical and more remote, with plenty of greenery draping the houses, 

and in the distance too. 

This street sign promised some beachy-goodness so it seemed like the way to go. 

The path led me to a beach on the western side of the Palm Beach peninsula.

This meant getting to enjoy one of the rare beaches in Sydney with a backdrop of anything other than the ocean. Pretty. 

Interestingly, you've also got some houses here rather close to the beach. 

You do have to wonder how long until the rising sea levels claim these mansions. 

A walk along the shores,

leads to some beachside grass,

across the road from the local beach-bar and takeaway. The bar in particular has a very pleasant beachside aesthetic. 

I headed back to the car to head to another bit of Palm Beach. Ordinarily I'd walk, but after a day at the beach, a walking circuit of this hilly and cliffy suburb was a bit too much. 

On the way, I passed Dr Evil's lair, 

and his regular mansion too. 

Driving a few minutes up the road and moving the car from the free street parking to an extortionately priced council car park did hurt my soul, but it was a sacrifice worth making. 

You can see the lighthouse from the car park though, so that's cool. 

From here, I was further up the peninsula, meaning more tropical looking western-facing beach. 

Like the one before it, this one has the gorgeous wooded hills of Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park in the background, 

it actually reminds me of those Hawaiian Beaches they used to film Lost back in the day. 

Taking a short walk from here, 

led to the more traditional Sydney-style beach. This bit in particular is North Palm Beach, which is the exact same beach as regular Palm Beach, it's just the northern end. 

Palm Beach is as excellent as the rest of the Northern Beaches. You can look at the sand,

look at the cliff-top lighthouse,

(here's another view from the grass rather than the sand),

and you can even go windsurfing. 

Also notable is a bench dedicated to Spud. 

With this done, I had one more point of interest I wanted to check out. 

This meant hopping back into the car and navigating the extremely tight residential streets of Palm Beach to head up hill. 

When I looked at this suburb on the map, I found a marker for the "Palm Beach Bible Garden", which seemed as good a point of interest as any to check out. Apparently a fellow named Gerald in the 1960s saw the landscape here which made him feel rather pious. 

As a result, we have this tranquil multi-level public area,

with plants, 

a fish pond, 

a fairly excellent view of the area below, 

and Bible verses. 

How about that.

Palm Beach: And I made it all the way through without mentioning Neighbours.