Flip it and Reserve It: Connells Point and Hurstville Grove

Let's now round out a day in Southern Sydney with a couple more suburbs. 

Connells Point

Connells Point is another stop in Sydney's many "where the hell is that?" places to live. I entered on foot from Kyle Bay, kicking things off at a pleasant waterside park on the Georges River. 

This park features regular parky things, 

and sits in front of some fancy looking houses. 

Indeed, like Kyle Bay before it, Connells Point continues the story of big and flashy houses on river-adjacent streets. 

I took a walk up this hill to see what this suburb has to offer a casual passer by. 

The answer appears to be "not a particularly huge amount", but we'll give it a go anyway. Here are some mundane observations.

An older roofy house between two geometric new houses,

someone who owns two identical cars,

and another local reserve on the banks of the river. 

Here, you can collect big sticks, 

or sit on a bench. 

I continued on,

past one hell of a driveway,

a house number written in words, 

and a 1980s Ford Laser (I always get a kick out of when a completely regular car is still on the road way after the vast majority of its siblings have been decomissioned). 

For good measure, here's another fancy house. 

Carrying on, I found Redin Place Reserve, a park which looked on the map like it could offer up a small shortcut to where I was headed to next. 

This, however turned out to be a poor idea. The recent rain left the grass wet and squelchy,

and while this neighbourhood bit of nature is actually very nice, 

you can't actually use it to get where I was trying to. Oops. 

After picking up a few friends, 

I backtracked onto the street for the more sane way to get to my next suburb.

This took me past a front yard begging you to stand on it barefoot,

some more geometry, 

and a funky looking convenience store. 

From here, this street, 

which hosts the other (impassable) side of Redin Place Reserve, 

took me to the next suburb. 

Connells Point: More big houses, a little bit of liquid, and not too much else. 

Hurstville Grove

Hurstville is a fantastic suburb, and among Sydney's best smelling. They have a "Grove" version, meaning the apartments and barbecued ducks are replaced with woods. 

Sadly, the entrace to the suburb doesn't smell nearly as good as real Hurstville, with the smell of Asian spices replaced with the smell of swampy earth. 

Still, every suburb needs a chance. 

This street heads past some bushland, 

with a path (that I didn't take) that claims to go to Hurstville,

but if you skip the bushwalk, you do end up in more Connells-like suburbia.  

Also like Connells Point, I immediately found another waterside point, 

this one especially modest, 

before continuing down this wealthy-looking residential street, 

into another public space. 

This turned out to be a bridge over some swampy bushland, 

behind people's houses, 

and featuring a few plaques in memory of a number of peacetime military accidents. While any loss of life is a tragedy, and especially so when in service of your nation, I admit that I did find it a little bit odd having a walk dedicated to what are essentially workplace accidents. 

After reading a few plaques, I continued on, 

into another waterside reserve, 

this one a little bit more useful than the tiny one from before, 

before continuing into yet Moore reserves. 

This one is really big. 

But rather than stay and explore, by this point I was quite tired after a day out suburbsing,

so I continued through it into neighbouring Oatley where I was able to take a train home.

Hurstville Grove: Decidedly less delicious than Hurstville, but admittedly more grovey.