25 Things I Love About Sydney – Part 4

Today’s post is number four of five… well, putting up the entire 25 Things I Love About Sydney in one post would have been a bit too long, don’t you reckon?

Today’s five faves starts off with my latest passion, something I hope the children will take up too when they are older.

16. Ocean Swimming in Sydney

The revelation of summer 2012 – 2013 was taking up ocean swimming and doing the Palm – Whale Beach swim in late January.

I trained with Can Too and raised money for Cure Cancer Australia.

This is something I could never have done without training and mentoring. Can Too were fantastic and I blooming LOVED IT!!

Can’t wait to start again in November 2013 and get a bit of exhileration back into life… and some good old-fashioned fear.

17. Sydney’s Bird Life – galahs, cockatoos and kookaburras

Now I didn’t see many of Sydney’s brightly coloured birds early on. Living at Tamarama and working in a pub in Pyrmont meant I wasn’t in the midst of them.

But I do remember seeing galahs at some stage quite early on and being utterly transported. Pink birds, amazing!  Pink and grey parrots… just wandering around.

When you’ve grown up with the speckled browns of starlings and sparrows with the odd flash of a robin’s red breast, then seeing extravagantly coloured birds makes a big impression.

Rainbow lorikeets are now quite easily seen in the bush behind our backyard and even the odd king parrot.

The kookaburras are so cheeky they come swooping down and snatch sausages from our hands. There are gigantic cockatoos all over the shop too.

The birds may be a commonplace sight now, but they’ll always be exotic to me.

(Thank you Arnie Hollyman for letting me use your photo.)

18. Spectacular Bush Walking – Even In The Heart of the City

There must be hundreds of beautiful bush walks in this city. Some of them are ever so central, like the lovely walk around Cremorne Point, which can be done with a stroller.

The photo above is from the boardwalk that runs south of Curl Curl Beach. Just north of that is the rougher coastal walk north of Dee Why Beach.

Next on my list is the Manly Scenic Walk from Manly to the Spit Bridge, which we haven’t done for years… then maybe a hike up to the lighthouse at Palm Beach… and for summer the Bondi to Cooggee and beyond coastal walk is a fave.

We’re spoiled here in Sydney, I’m telling you.

19. That Glorious Iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge

Of course, it’s always been a central focus of my passion for Sydney. We gazed on it when we had Harbourside picnics in my youth, we walked across it, sometimes less than sober.  These days I walk across the Bridge with the kids.

It took me decades to get around to climbing it, what a thrill to this year, read all about BridgeClimb for my son’s 16th birthday here.

For some amazing aerial footage of Sydney Harbour and Bridge click here.

Can I also highly recommend swimming at North Sydney Olympic Pool at night?  Do back crawl as you swim, the views of the Bridge are fantastic.

20. The Rock Pools by the Ocean Beaches

Here’s the rock pool at South Curl Curl, it’s an absolute paradise for children.

25 years ago, these rock pools that dot the south or north ends of most of Sydney’s ocean beaches meant little too me.  Now they’re everything!

Sydney’s rock pools make wonderful watery playgrounds for kids, and great places to swim laps too, there are dozens and dozens to enjoy.

This is one of our family favourites, we’ve spends loads of time here with the kids, and once we saw a mother and baby whale splashing about just off the beach. Sheer Sydney magic.

Check out any of my beaches posts to find fantastic rock pools for the kids.

Do you have a favourite Sydney rock pool?

Any other galah lovers out there? 

 This was 25 Things I Love About Sydney – Part 4….. find Part 1 here,  Part 2 here, Part 3 here and Part 5 here.