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| Its a little hard to believe that we are only a handful of kilometres from our biggest city. |
Sin City put on her best face for today's stroll, with the blue skies, sunshine and the beautiful harbour there wasn't a lot that even I could find to whinge about. I did this walk the day we arrived back from Papua New Guinea, with Sam electing to head to the shops and check out some galleries I was flying solo again, not an unusual occurrence for the Feral walker. I'd been reading about this walk for years as it features in some of Tyrone Thomas' old walking guides, but on my many trips north over the years I'd somehow never got around to walking it. So, as I mentioned, with good weather predicted for this Tuesday I decided to catch the ferry over to Taronga Zoo and go for a bit of an amble around the leafy suburb of Mosman.
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Not a bad view for these guys.
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Sam and I had actually visited the zoo a few weeks previously, so when the ferry docked at the wharf today I was soon saying my metaphorical goodbyes to all the other passengers and slipping into the bush. I picked up a track heading west along the coast towards Little Sirius Cove, the path was another of those typical in the Sydney coastal region, sometimes walking sandstone slabs, sometimes board walks and sometimes just plain old dirt. Walking along here with the harbour sparkling on one side of me and the odd wild animal noise coming from Taronga Zoo on the other side of me was a bit of a surreal experience, oh yeah, and when I focussed a little further out there was the Opera House and the high rise buildings of the Sydney CBD, like I said, surreal.
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I wish getting to the start of all my walks was this beautiful.
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The route along here is squeezed between the zoo and the harbour.
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| That's Little Sirius Point. |
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After checking out a bit of a lookout and an overhang at the end of Little Sirius Point I started heading towards the sand in Little Sirius Cove, along here I arrived at a signposted track to Curlew Camp that wasn't mentioned in my notes or map (when you use notes that are about 150 years old it pays to walk with an enquiring mind!). So being a curious kind of bloke I wandered down for a bit of a look, it turns out this was an artists camp from the late 1890's, a kind of out-station for the famous Heidelberg school of artists, both Roberts and more commonly Streeton spent time up here...who knew. There isn't much left of the old camp except for a bit of carving in some of the sandstone, the views no doubt are what attracted the artists though and they are still great.
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Little Sirius Cove from near the site of the historic Curlew Camp.
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There isn't a lot left of the Curlew Artists Camp.
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| The beach at Little Sirius Cove was pretty quiet today. |
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Continuing on I soon arrived at the crescent of sand that is the beach at Little Sirius Cove, this place was dead quiet today, a couple of dog walkers, a girl sunbathing, and a couple of mums walking their dogs in the park was the extent of the action here. I was now heading away from the water for awhile as I made my way across the headland through the very flash suburb of Mosman. The locals in Mosman were a little suspicious of the slightly dishevelled Feral walker though, first I got swooped a couple of times by an irate magpie and then I got stalked by a lady in a 7series BMW. Yeah, walking up the steep Lennox Street admiring all the beautiful houses something didn't feel right, turning around I noticed a black BMW with tinted windows idling along behind me with the well dressed lady busily taking photos of your Feral correspondent with her phone, hmmm. Now I was pretty sure that this lady wasn't snapping shots of me for her private collection so I figured that the best thing to do would be to go over and say hello. Using every ounce of Feral charm that I could muster I managed to convince her that I wasn't casing the joint, although having convinced her that I wasn't a crim I them had to reassure her that the suburb wasn't going to be over run with all my Feral followers keen to follow in my footsteps, yeah right, all three of them!
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Making my way through the leafy streets of Mossman I had to survive a few of the locals that weren't overly keen to have the Feral walker in their suburb.
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Not quite Inca standards but still pretty good, this was beside the steps climbing up to Lennox Street.
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Crossing Bradley Head Road I started my zig zagging descent back down to the water at Chowder Bay. Chowder Bay was a fair bit busier than Little Sirious Cove had been, there were a few kids swimming and plenty of people picnicking on the extensive lawns backing the beach. I was now going to be following the coastline all the way back to to the wharf, the first objective I had was Chowder Head and once again I was back on the sandstone. Every now and again the houses of Mosman were visible above me but surprisingly, more often than not it was just me in the bush with beautiful views of the harbour through the trees. The other somewhat surprising thing was that there was virtually nobody on these tracks, the lack of other walkers meant that there was a bit of wildlife around in the form of bush turkeys, kookaburras and an assortment of lizards.
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Chowder Bay.
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Making my way around Chowder Head, there are plenty of spots to view the harbour through the trees.
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There are still some houses in Mossman that require a bit of a reno.
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| If you squint you might see a kookaburra in the shadows, it was the best I could do today. |
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Heading around Taylors Bay it appears that not a lot of people actually work in Sin City, well judging by the number of expensive boats anchored just off shore anyway. Apart from the boats the other thing that struck me about Taylors Bay was the beautiful aqua marine water and white sand beach, being only a couple of kilometres from the centre of of our biggest city it was a stunning natural scene. I was now starting to make my way around Bradley Head, while the headland blocked my views of Sydney I now had views out to the Sydney Heads. Bradley Head was the home to a military fort that dates back to the 1840's and that was the next spot that I got to. The old fort is marked now by a large flag pole and a series of monuments to navy ships that have been lost at sea over the years.
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There were some nice boats anchored in Taylors Bay, although my other photos will have to go straight to the pay per view section of my blog!
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| Looking back down toward Sydney Heads as I walked around Bradley Head. |
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The walk was now coming to its conclusion as I made my way back to the wharf, however what I thought would be a little under whelming on paper was actually pretty good walking on the ground. The track passed above some beautiful little sandy coves in its last kilometre before meeting up with road almost opposite the bottom entrance to Taronga Park Zoo (only an exit nowadays I think). All that was left now was to wander down the foot path, jump on the ferry and head back to the hotel in Sydney. Settling into the hotel I glanced out the window to see the ship that we'd been on for the last three weeks sailing out of Sydney Harbour, our holiday was coming to an end.
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Another local stopped today hello.
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Bradley Head turned out to be a great spot to walk.
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| There are a few of these beautiful beaches on Bradley Head. |
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The Dirt.
Like I mentioned earlier this walk was written up by Tyrone Thomas, I used the notes and mud map out of the first edition of 120 Walks in New South Wales, the book dates back to 2000 so its well and truly out of print, you maybe able to pick one up second hand somewhere. I didn't have a GPS for this stroll but according to Mr Thomas I walked around 6 kilometres, I'm guessing the total elevation gain would be in the vicinity of 150 metres. This is an easy walk with some great coastal scenery as well as a chance to check out some of the flash houses in Mossman.
Relevant Posts.
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| The historic Taronga Park Zoo, I think this bottom gate is an exit only nowadays. |
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| Back at the hotel I watched the ship that had been home for the last three weeks make her way out of Sydney Harbour. |
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