Bundeena: Three-Hour Guided Kayak Eco-Tour

Wow.. its been ages since I've blogged about my weekend escapades. I am not sure where to start now. So I might as well start with the latest one.

Location - Bonnie Vale Picnic Grounds Sea Breeze Lane, Bundeena, Sydney, NSW 2230
Cost - voucher $49, car travel - not sure (my 86 is not the most efficient when it comes to mileage.. but nothing beats her cutting the winding roads with the windows up, the stereo blaring and me grooving ;)

I had purchased a Groupon voucher for Kayaking a while ago. I hadn't thought much about it at the time of purchase but when I actually got to the venue.. it finally dawned on me that I was going to be in a tiny ass kayak with no harness and a big paddle in my hands (that can slip off into the water!! omfg! what would I do if that happened!!). I did have a kid-size swim vest on me (the size 'small' was a little too big for me... don't get me started on the bearing the brunt of the being the kid jokes there  -_- )

Drive to the place was super cool. I was disorganized as usual.. in fact I'd originally gotten all up and ready a whole day before the actual kayaking day (I forgot it was on Sunday and not Saturday.. I"d just begun my unemployment and when you're jobless.. pretty much EVERY day is a holiday.. the day of the week it is.. is.. insignificant). I was late and didn't have breakfast and didn't pack any food with me either.

I saw a lot of kookaburras that were screeching pretty loud as I got there just close to the 8:00am mark.

It had been raining all night and although I LOVED driving down there in the rain, when I got to the place and realized I didn't have a rain jacket on me... I was a bit scared of getting all cold and pruney in the kayak. The Tour guide, Keith, however assured us that we should all be pretty warmed up once we're paddling away.


The induction was simple and as is the case with all these activites, we had to sign a disclaimer that I was all cool if I died and they weren't responsible or some such stuff... what disconcerted me however.. was that it read something on the lines of 'you know how to swim'... uhhhh... should I have really signed that? doggy paddling does count as swimming, right??

Pretty much everyone had come in pairs.. Its always very sweet to watch couples that enjoy doing such activities together. I was looking around clueless and this goodlooking fella approached me with the intro and all.. I was too excited+anxious about the kayaking to be feeling friendly but I enjoyed the small talk to take my mind off of it. Let's call him Craig. This was his Chrissy present. I asked if he'd done kayaking before.. he said he had a few times but not at Bundeena before. I was paired with him because he was also here by himself.

Damn.. when will my Hercules begin joining me in my fun trips.. can't wait to find someone who enjoys doing these silly things and wouldn't judge me for being scared of water... because once I'm in.. I'm like buffalo (my dad used to call me that when I was a baby.. and acting up protesting against a bath.. but once in.. it was hard to drag me out.. lol.. I don't think I remember that.. but I do remember crying every time I was teased as a buffalo.)

When we were given a very brief intro of how to paddle and steer (which was too brief imo). And then we were off... There was one couple that took off before us. saw I was able to observe how to get into a kayak and start paddling... but still it was a bit freaky when it was my turn nonetheless. The taller person was asked to sit at the back and their responsibility is to sync with the one in the front and steer.. while the one at the front just paddles.

And we were off... as soon as we were slightly in the deep my first question to Craig was 'what happens if I drop the paddle' and he goes.. 'oh.. you go for a swim.'. Damn! what an insufferable moron! obviously I didn't tell him I wasn't so sure about that.. but made sure I had a death grip on the damn paddle.

All fears aside.. the kayaking was an absolutely awesome experience.

We started from the Simpsons Bay. It was high tide and so the paddling wasn't so hard. Paddled over Port Hacking to our first stretch of land and parked our kayaks for a bit for a breather. The first ones there had the kayaker in the back fall in the water.. we were second so I pretty much dragged the kayak well out of the water on land so Craig didn't have to suffer the same consequence (I almost felt like kissing my own bicep for that feat ;). I was called a life-saver by the tour guide after that for helping drag a fellow kayaker out of the water where one of her leg was in the kayak and the other out and her foot kept sinking in the water. The little finger of sand we were landed was too steep and the high tide didn't help either. So it was fun to watch the other pairs gather one by one.

We Paddled over to Lilli Pilli Point reserve.. had a wonderful morning tea (just hot water for me.. I'm not into tea or coffee). I did help myself quite generously with the choc chip cookies. Again where we'd set our picnic blanket up was a tiny finger of sand between a cess pool and the bay and the tide kept creeping in and we had to wrap our blanket little by little and we lost our piece of land just as we were done.

Craig found a pen that floated in with the tide and handed it to Keith who was a little disappointed 'I was hoping I'd get a message in a bottle, not a pen'.. to which I said 'perhaps this a sign for YOU to write a message for someone in a bottle'.

After the breakfast, we paddled leisurely around and were near Maianbar where Keith told us how the legend of the big giant hairy Yeti like creature (whose name evaded me) was born. I obviously can't mention it here as it's a part of the kayakers' code to keep it secret... you'd have do this tour to know ;)

He showed us many beautiful spots around the bays one of which resembled the Mayan pyramids.. lol.. He took us down the mangroves towards The Basin.. we didn't go under the bridge because paddling in would be a fun ride... but back from under the bridge would be going against the current and would take a lonnng time plus some serious muscle.. but something he recommended we all did anyway by coming back and just hiring a kayak instead of getting a tour.. because now we 'knew' all the spots worth exploring.

After we were done, I said goodbye to Craig (who was hoping to get my number) and weighed the time it would take for me to take a shower, pee and then get back home.. or jsut go back.. so I peeled out of the salty sandy clothes on the side of the road behind a truck.. and headed back with fresher clothes but the same old salty, sandy me. My 86 and Coco were both happy with my decision.

The drive back was just as exhilarating and uneventful. Something about driving when it's all overcast and slightly raining.. love it!

The experience was really cool and I would love to do it again.. what'd even be more awesome is if I can find a partner in crime who'd join me in the paddling.

Port Maquarie

On Day 4 of receiving my sexy beast of a car and one day before the Christmas Eve, I set out on a Road trip.. Obviously, I had no set destination.... so it was s coin toss between the Great Ocean Road and Brisbane. I had half a mind of going back to the Great Ocean Road... because I knew how beautiful it is... there wasn't much alluring about QLD, but at the same, I'd never ventured further up north than Port Stephens so discovering new land didn't seem such a bad idea... besides Byron bay was on the way... and that is supposed to be wonderful.. Brisbane won the toss and I set out early in the morning with Coco with just a couple of shorts and not enough spare clothes (the plan was to use the opportunity to do Boxing Day shopping in Brisbane).


The car is extremely sexy and although I have no idea if her mileage is good or bad, I feel she just can go forever without taking a break. I arrived at Port Maquarie in about 4.5 hours without any break wearing a Santa hat all the way! As soon as I checked into the hostel, I cuddled up with Coco and we both fell sound asleep. Woke up in a couple of hours and it was well past lunch time.. so instead of eating something first, I set out to the Lighthouse. I choose most of my destinations based on whether or not they have a lighthouse.. so I was pretty excited to go check this one out.

When I got to the lighthouse.. and I must say, the car's GPS system is sooo handy. I didn;t have to rely on my dodgy navigation skills at all... The lighthouse was ... well... not what I expected... it was tiny:


After that I headed to the main street in the town had a greek wrap and chatted with the owner of the greek eatery who was Indian while his wife and presumably her sisters made fun of me showing too much skin and how they'd never dream of wearing anything like that in public (yes.. I do understand Hindi and a bit of Punjabi, ladies!).. I asked the owner what the best beach was and he said there were many if I wanted to take a walk along the beach line.. but if he was to pick just one, it would be the Shelley beach.

Over there I saw an interesting sculpture of a man sitting calmly on a throne with dragons/monitor lizards trying to climb up to his high grounds.


The place was supposed to have goannas there but I didn't spot any.. instead I saw these funny turkeys gobbling away happily and running around with little kids chasing them.. It was a nice family beach.


I lied on the rocks with little Coco for a long time until a couple of annoying men came to disturb our peace and tried to chat up with me. At which point I decided I'd just make my way back to the car than engage in any forced socialization with these encroachers.


I stopped on the main street again and had a super-choc drumstick and a salad takeaway for dinner where one of the people staying at the hostel who was there struck up a conversation with me.. I was too much loving the chocolate to be all snarly at him.. so I exchanged some pleasantries and walked back to the car.. The wind was starting to pick up.

The hostel was quiet with most people enjoying their dinner in solitude and on their PCs or phones.. I sat across this dude who was eating something obviously too spicy because there were no other free benches... He wasn't a bad conversationalist.. he was German with a strong accent and poor grammar. I finished my lunch and excused myself saying I was going to go check where the music is coming from.. he said he'd like to come along too.. so we walked together.. and found that just a couple blocks away there was a sort of fair/show with all the rides and things.. the types you see in small towns and it was mostly empty. So we walked back to the hostel.

The next morning on Dec 24th, I set out early towards Brisbane... this part of the journey was longer than Sydney to Brisbane.

Ferry to Manly

So this weekend wasn't all that happening in terms of going out. But the closest I got to exploring in or near the city was take a ferry to Manly. My visits to Manly have been of a tragic story. The first time I got there was like a year and a half ago, all I did was take a ferry to Manly, get to the wharf, have a Gellato and just take the  next ferry back to the city. The next time I got there was during the Vivid this year and. I did have progress.. I walked to the beach but it was night time so I didn't really get a good view of the beach. But I did walk on the pipes for a bit which sounds dangerous.. but was extremely fun to do when it was absolutely dark and i couldn't see anybody close in sight. So this Saturday was my third visit beause I was going to see someone there. The ferry ride was awesome! Here's a panorama photo from the back of the ferry:


Its a shame that the weather wasn't that great in the morning as I was getting to there. But it did light up in the afternoon on my way back. And the best part, I did get to see the beach in daylight. I couldn't linger around too long because I had to get back to the city for a friend's birthday party. But the sight of the beach was totally worth the visit.

The Bondi Beach

I didn't really want to go very far this weekend but didn't want to not go anywhere either. I hadn't been to the Bondi Beach ever but didn't think I'd like it much anyway thinking it's always very crowded. I was in for a huge surprise.

When I got to the Bondi Beach on the 380 bus, I looked at the beach, saw all the people in it and just walked into the San Churro's overlooking the beach. I asked for a dark hot chocolate and she asked me if I'd like marshmellows with it.. I didn;t really wanted to.. but said I'd try it anyway.. The dark choc arrived with a huge dollop of whipped cream on top with marshmellows.. damn.. that was just way more sweetnezz than I could handle!

Just off the beach there's this heart shaped pool and skating area which is kinda cool.


I walked to the end of the beach near the rockpool. I couldn't really get to the rock pool from the place on the beach I was at but it was an amzing view of the big waves crashing in on the shore from there. Besides I stood on the rocks at the end and there was no wind so I could comfortably stand for a long time there.

I loved the beach. I was there till way after dark. It wasn't crowded where I was at all. It was like being surrounded by a lot of people and yet in absolute solitude with nothing but the sound of the waves all around me. Right in the heart of the crowded urbanland but still so close to the raw power of nature. I don't have any words to describe the serene beauty of the experience. Its definitely scratched the barrier in my head of being able to enjoy being at a beach closer to the city.

Cruwee Cove

The last week I was at the Congwong Bay I'd actually intended to get to the Cruwee Cove. But I got there too late.. and I had to return. I came back to the City from the skydive at 11ish, had a long brunch with my friend in Chinatown and said laterz to her at 12:00. I didn't have much else to do because the laundry (which is a giant chore) was already done on yesterday. So I decided to just go back to the Cruwee cove and finish what I'd started. I got off a stop before the last stop and walked to the golf course. The Beach at the Cruwee Cove is very rocky so you can't really get in the water, but it is very scenic. I'm not a huge fan of gettin in the water anyway. Its very cold and windy and all I want is to go places this winter so I may return to them some other time and hopefully the photos will encourage others to explore these not so touristy places as well.

     
It was really windy. I sat near the rocks for a while. It was very peaceful I"d have sat there all day if the wind wasn't blowing my brains away. The waves there are very powerful and I could just sit there watchign the giant splashes all day. The mist from the splatters actually even made rainbows. see if you can spot the rainbow in the shot below.


I walked around a bit before gettin back. The Henry's head is an awesome spot for watching the sunset. Coco and I sat there watching the sun set in the land and planes come to and from the Botany Bay while a industrial chimney kept spewing flames in the backdrop of beautiful blue skies.


I got back to the Congwong bay beach from that hidden bushtrail the father and daughters had unknowingly shown me the last time. The beach is really beautiful and I always wanted to write something in the sand.. I couldn't really think of anything so just drew Miss U =)


I may have put my curiosity to rest by visitin all the places I could walk to at the Cruwee Cove.. But I think I really like the beach and would like going back there with anyone that doesn't mind a bit of a heart pumping walk and a lot of wind and cold.

Congwong Bay

It was 3ish on a Sunday afternoon and it didn't really seem like I was going to get out much but I thought I'd go out just for the sake of adding another post to my blog.. I'd initially intended to actually go to Cruwee Cove.. I think I"m beginning to see a pattern of the places that appeal to me here.. not hard to miss. I completely misread Google Maps in my over confidence of knowing the city.. it said stand C comething and I immediately assumed it to be some other bus station I was quite familiar with... I kinda like this.. the feeling of actually 'knowing' the places and names.. When I arrived here every place was just alien name to me... but I guess I'm beginning to get a hang of a very limited few places here... Could be from my Google maps surfings to pick destinations over the last few weeks too.. who knows.. if I could I'd like to make this 'my' city.

Anyhowz.. I goofed up the bus station and missed the L94 or something which is every half hour.. so I waited at the bus station patiently.. actually passing time was quite a pleasure with the company of good music. Took the 3:38 bus that would arrive at the place around 4:30. I wasn't thrilled of arriving at the place at almost sunset.. but heck I was at the bus station.. I"d come too far to just go back to my desolate room in the house. The 391 goes almost till the end of the Botany Bay. The last stop is called La Perouse.

I got off there and considered walking to the Bare Island. There was an exhibition there with an entry fee onto the island of $2. Here's a photo of the Bare Island taken from near the bus stop:


It was so insanely cold and windy that I just couldn't have been able to stay there anymore so I decided to take a walk to the beach and go where I'd intended to go - The Cruwee Cove. I walked to the end of the Congwong beach and a dad and his two daughters kinda disappeared on a bush trail while I was taking pictures of this steam. I was almost tempted to dip my hand in the water from the stream flowing into the ocean to see if it was sweet (not salty sea water) when I realized it came from a pipe.. ewww!! The pattern in the stream looked really pretty here's a photo of the stream flowing into the sea.


When I got back from there I watched a movie called Gallowalkers where Wesley Snipes rips peoples' heads and spines out. Looking back to the photo after the movie.. the pattern in the water kinda looks like a spine..

It was so obscure I wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for them. The trail was not an official path and very rugged. I climbed to the top and considered walking another half hour towards my chosen destination but it was sunset already and I was a little nervous (terrified!) of venturing further on the bush trail. I took another photo of the Bare Island from the bush trail to the Henry point and walked back to the bus stop.


Coco and I waited for a long time for the bus to arrive.. We watched many aeroplanes land on the Sydney airport. I think Cocstar really enjoyed himself on this visit. It was still very cold and he didn't really get much chance to venture out.


The sound of the sea was amazing and very calming. If it wasn't so cold I'd have liked to sit on one of the boulders there watching the waves wash over the sandy rocky shore.

Kurnell (mis)Adventure

The weather wasn't really that great but I decided to go to Kurnell anyway. I guess that's what this blog is about... going places even when the weather isn't picture perfect. Guess this time my journey was a bit jinxed... you'll know why shortly...

Most times I don't really plan my random visits and this time it wasn't any different... I saw Cronulla on google maps and decided to go to it because there was a direct train going to it. When I checked it out on wiki (which I normally don't do), I saw Kurnell as a nearer cooler place to go to and had a bit of a historical back ground to it too so it was an instant pick as the destination of the week. Turned out that luckily there was public transport arrangements to Kurnell too... so figured that's where the pin had landed and that was where Coco and I were going.

As I got there it was raining and it was biting cold... definitely way less than 20degrees... but hey there was no way I could complain as soon as I saw the first rocky pier thingy there... There's only one thing to do when you see one of these... climb over the super terrifying rocks all the way to the end.. and I did just that... it was.. well.. Heaven!! and then saw another pier where a black lab was sportying his long jumps onto.. well.. I wasn't going to let a puppy beat me.. so I went there too... I took a few selfies there.. but got this giant stalker pelican in the shot too:


There isn't much to see in terms of scenic beauty at Kurnell in my opinion because its all marred by these giant oil or something rigs that I did take photos of... but.. as luck would have it, my camera's card decided to tell me it was corrupt after we got back from teh Kurnell trip. Didn't matter much because I didn't like the photos much anyway.. Besides it was so cold I was reluctant to have the camera out and take any photos too..

Well.. since there isn't much to see.. in about an hour an half or so after climbing on a 3 or so rocky piers (where I was still stalked by that scary mean Pelican) I was done and wanted to return back to the city.. so I made my way to the bus stop and realized this:


There are only two buses to Kurnell on Sundays.. a morning and a late evening bus! oh joy! it was 12:30pm and it looked like I was stuck there for an eternity!

Luckily I am participating in the GCC and thought heck if i walked back to Cronulla I"d really boost my step count up.. and I did.. and damn I gotta say that walk wasn't pleasant! It was terribly cold and it was mildly raining... The wind was so bad that at one point I literally had to stop walking lest I be blown backwards by the wind... no fcuking kidding! There were some plus sides to the 10km walk back though...  I got beeped at a lot and given the Joey look by a couple of bikies .....annnnd... I saw a plant that looked like fennel that I grazed like a goat and was glad it was indeed fennel! lol

I did get these cool shells from the beach there that are proudly sitting on my desk:


When I walked back to Cronulla I walked to the beach and sat there for a while with Coco... we were both so glad to have made it to civilization and weren't stranded on the highway or splattered on the road like was-a-roo.. The Cronulla beach is very nice it has big beautiful waves and big dreamy mossy rocks on the beach... I cherish the photo of me and Coco there with a milky wave engulfing one of those mossy rocks in the background and both of us smiling dreamily (not posting it here though :p). I had a hot chocolate on the way back to the train station and a super sweet almond pastry (which put me off all almond pastries for..ever!). This will be one (mis)adventure I won't forget.. and I"ll always make sure that there isn't just a way TO to the place but is a way back 'from' the destination too... no one wants to be a giligan!

Barrenjoey Lighthouse

I had decided to go and stay overnight or so over the Queen's Birthday long weekend. The most lucrative place was Port Stephens but I couldn't find any bookings at my fav backpackers so I decided to book a place at somewhere else.. and picked the Batemans Beach instead... The thing is.. I lived in Canberra for about 5 months.. and during those days, I was never inclined to go there even once. Maybe having seen Adelaide's white sandy beaches had set a high bar for my expections of a beach... I cancelled my booking a couple days before because finding a car rental was going to mean me having to do something for the first time.. And I hate doing things I don't know and would include asking a friend or a coworker for their advice..

So I decided to go someplace close to the city that didn't require me to pay overnight accommodation.. double bonus!

Initially I thought I'd go to Collaroy Beach, but saw that the same bus, L90, goes all the way to the Palm beach so it was an instant decision to visit the Barrenjoey Lighthouse aituated at the very tip of the landmasses as you can see fro google maps. Besides I think I have a thing about lighthouses. I have a very special lighthouse in mind as our wedding venue I've never been to yet..

The bus ride to the Palm beach is nice especially if you're sitting on the last seat on those ultra-long buses. It does get a little curvy and isn't the most enjoyable for people with any form of motion sickness... But I survived the ride.. and got off a stop ahead of where I was supposed to get off because I was so taken aback with the spectacular view.


The walk to the Barrenjoey lighthouse is supersteep and there are no stairs. The weather was beautiful in the morning when I Was making my mind up but when I did get to the Palm beach, it looked like it could rain any moment. The laborous walk uphill to the lighthouse is very rewarding as you get amaysome views from up there. There's also a whale watch point where you can sit drinking in all the beauty that surrounds you for hours waiting for one of the getle giants of the ocean to surface for a little bit of a playtime. I sat there for a long time.. but I wasn't lucky enough to see although as soon as I got there, people had exclaimed about seeing a splash somewhere but I must've missed it by this much! This is a photo of the whale watch point taken from atop the lighthouse:


I sat at the whale watch point sketching the lighthouse through a bit of a drizzle but left when the kind ranger announced the last tour of the lighthouse for the day (at 3:00pm). It was a half hour tour where he took us to the top of the lighthouse. I'd never been up the top of any lighthouse yet so that was an amazing experience. The windy side is so windy that my camera was almost ready to fly away with the winds. The place has a very old history. This port used to serve as a smuggler's point to drop off goods so they wouldn't have to pay the taxes had they unloaded the shipment at the Sydney harbor instead. The tour guide also explained that the lighthouse had a red screen on so the ships could distinguish this lighthouse from the Sydney one.


The steep walk down is much faster as I was running down most of the way. The place was an amazing visit and will stay in my heart for years to come..

Kiama - The Big Poo

I've wanted to visit the Australia's big things for quite a while now. I've seen two of those in South Australia. According to the words of a wise man, Australia is full of giant fiberglass statues put up by nowheretowns to attract tourists (or something like that). I miss the man that said those words. I've dedicated this blog in the hope of showing him how much he and all his words mean to me. I pray that I'll somehow reunite with the love of my life through this blog.

Of all the attractive big things, obviously, The Big Poo seemed like the best place to start this journey with. Wiki states that it was erected by the townsfolk of Kiama as a protest against reusing waste water. It says that it was made form foam.

I caught a train from Sydney at 7:29am and arrived at Kiama after a 2:22 long journey. On the way the weather had already begnu to show that it wasn't going to be at its nicest, but I was hoping and praying that there would be blue skies down south as compared to Sydney. After all, they say that Wollongong is a beautiful place and Kiama isn't far from Wolly much.

As I got out of the train, it was pouring mixed with really strong winds. I

So without further ado, here're the photos from Kiama.

This is the Big Blowhole. This unique rock and cave formation makes trapped water spout out in a giant fountain over 30ft high at times.

There is a beautiful lighthouse near the big blowhole.

This is the small Blowhole. I personally found this one more beautiful as its much more in the open and is less crowded and there are rocks where you can just sit and watch it blow forever.. Its very very beautiful and mesmerizing.

But wait.. where's the Big Poo that got me motivated on the journey to Kiama? I aksed a few boys at the cafe near Shell harbor and the oldest and wisest of them said that it was 60km up somewhere and there was no way one could walk to it. But if it really was 60km of there.. It wouldn't really still be Kiama, would it, buddy? Guess he was makin sure his seniority and wiseness wasn't challenged in front of the youngsters. At the visitor's center, the older nice lady that I asked the same question to said that she was here for 7 years and has never seen it so it must've crumpled away.. After all it was made of foam.

But wait.. On the way to Kiama Hieghts just before the small blowhole, I found the giant caricature.