Day 16: Last full day in Sydney -- Beach Day and coastal hike

¡ɹǝpun uʍop ǝɹǝɥ ʇɐǝɹƃ sᴉ ƃuᴉɥʇʎɹǝʌƎ

It's so nice having a font for the Southern hemisphere :-)

Today we took three public transit over to Bondi Beach, then walked the shore path down to Coogee Beach. Awesome! 

More later...

The lifeguards were out in force as waves & undertow were strong. A storm to the south was sending heavy surf. The surfers were out in force though even they seemed to avoid the larger waves.

Bondi beach was an easy transit ride from downtown Sydney, plus this is the final weekend of the summer holidays. What a gem! 

We found a nice little lunch cafe on the main street. Veggie bowls with falafel or mushroom nuggets (pls don't call them meatballs ;-) for Kathy and me. Yum. 

Kathy and I got into the water right away, however the undertow is so strong we could not swim. I took a few body-surfing runs. Thrilling! Nice speed. Kathy pointed out that the Surf Rescue lifeguards were now watching me carefully. We talked to them briefly, they had pulled one person out of the water already. And the surf is unusually heavy. Couple that with high traffic weekend and they expected to be quite busy. 

Next we took the coastal walk south toward Coogee Beach. What a wonderful & well used resource! Reminds one of the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine. However longer, with nicer beaches and high rocky cliffs as well. Beautiful! 

We walked from Bondi Beach past Tamarama Beach, Bronte Beach, Clovelly Beach, and down to Coogee Beach. 

At Bronte Beach we passed the Bronte Surf Life Saving Club, the first (1903) life saving club in Australia. Can you imagine those Victorians in full body swimsuits going into these waves? I can see why the SLSC became necessary. 

At one of the beaches they had a nice large tide pool for swimming. Kathy and I got to float around for a while, with little waves and light currents washing over us. The water is so so clear, even with the high surf. Amazing! Just the perfect beach day. 

From Coogee Beach we got a bus back to our street (bus stop actually on our block)! Talk about convenient. Sydney Mass transit is ready, convenient, affordable. Really helped us enjoy today. 

While I'm at it, check out the Australian money. The bills are made of thin plastic. Security features include hologram, a clear section, watermarks. Probably others I couldn't identify right off. And different colors and sizes for the denominations to make it easier to use. Pretty!

Today was our last day in Sydney. Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne where we have only 48 hours, including a full day trip to an island for Australian fauna viewing. Melbourne is also the foodie city of Australia, but tomorrow is Australia Day so many restaurants are closed. Where will we find our avocado toast and pavlova?!?