St Georgian: Rockdale & Kingsgrove

Hello! Before I start, a quick announcement. I'm taking a short pause for a couple weeks after this post. The next suburb after this will go up on Thursday 1 December. 

I have some travel coming up (first time leaving the country since the apocalypse began - yay) and want to take the time to properly unplug. Of course, if you're reading this in the future, none of that was important.

Now, onto the post (a two-for-one today, lucky you).

Rockdale

Again in Sydney's St George region, I left my previous suburb Bexley on foot to enter Rockdale. 

It looks like this. 

My main Rockdalian order of business today was to visit the town centre for some lunch, so I headed across this busy intersection, 

past these beautiful old brick apartment buildings, 

and the Taj Mahal (of South Africa (of Rockdale)),

to reach Rockdale CBD. And I have this sign to prove it. 

Rockdale CBD, while not being particularly unique, does have its charm. It has these loopy balconies above these shops, 

it has a bona fide master of biryani, 

and even these shopfronts have an interesting enough brick trim. 

Of course, if a bit of brick isn't enough for you, these shops have an entire Castle Palace Hall to decorate them. Fancy. 

In terms of what services are present here, it's all the usual stuff. 

Chicken, 

haircuts and tax, 

better call Lovemore, 

a train station, 

and plenty of food to go around. 

Speaking of food, for lunch today I decided to drop by this place... Smokinals BBQ? Oh, Smokin' Al's BBQ. 

This joint does various meats cooked in various ways (including smoked). 

One of the options on the menu was some sort of loaded waffle fries with their BBQ chicken. That sounded like a tasty option,

until I realised I'd just ordered a snack pack. 

While tasty, this thing was huge and isn't exactly the kind of meal that you can have and then just go about the rest of your day. I got through this much. 

So after lunch, my intention was to spend some more time in Rockdale. Due to the meal-induced coma, I had no option but to change my plans and get on this bus into my next suburb. 

Rockdale: Watch out for Smokinal. He'll sedate you good.

So as not to disappoint you with a suburb cut short, I'll continue this post into my next suburb. 

The bus from Kingsgrove dropped me into Bexley North (a suburb previously completed),

where I took one stop on the train, 

into

Kingsgrove

So this is Kingsgrove. Like many suburbs, it's split in half by its railway line. Today I'd be focusing on the north side of the suburb, 

but I briefly poked my head to the south side first. 

Here there's a shopping area hugging the main road, 

and if you head along here, 

you get to something called The Pottery.

This is just a plaza between some apartments with a few shops, 

but on this day there was this inflatable gift looking thing (or is it a jumping castle?) so that's kind of awesome. 

Interestingly there's also a Priceline here that proudly advertises its herbal services. 

Anyway, I left this little pocket of Kingsgrove, 

to now head to the northern bit of the suburb. 

On the way, I passed this sign. Usually these signs are near the suburb's borders. This one is pretty much smack bang in the middle. Oh and in case you're wondering, both sides of the sign say "Kingsgrove". Exhilarating. 

Anyway, I headed this way into an industrial area, 

where I found this delightfully floral warehouse building, 

and this old car. 

Now, Google told me that there was a path to get through here to the street behind. 

There was, but only just. Good thing I didn't finish my lunch. 

Anyway, that path leads to Wolli Creek (imagine naming an entire suburb after this disappointing trickle),

and this tunnel under the M5. Here's a question: how short does a tunnel have to be before you're just going under a bridge? 

Anyway, after crossing the tunnelbridge, you wind up here. 

This is the "M5 Linear Park", which is basically a pathway that runs parallel to the M5 motorway. 

It looks like this. 

It does have some park-like features though. For instance, this tree, 

and these benches. 

I quite like this bit, 

even if it does just take you past more industry. 

Anyway, rather than continue this path along the entire M5, I soon departed, 

exiting out onto another warehousey type street. 

Farewell o Linear Park. 

Anyway, I've mentioned this before but I do actually enjoy walking through industrial areas because you never know what you'll find. 

Coffee, 

some good nuts, 

a touch of art deco, 

and of course, Ford muscle parts. 

Naturally, the industrial area eventually ended and a residential one began, 

but rather than head into the houses, I instead stopped to take a look at this park.

Pleasant. 

This is apparently Clemton Park. Which is also a suburb. That this park is not in. 

Nice residents too. 

From here, I wasn't too far from the bounds of my next suburb. 

And as this post is already a little bit too long, here's a commentary-less overview of my walk out of Kingsgrove. 

See you in December.

Kingsgrove: Home to both the world's narrowest path, and the world's linearest park. [citation needed]