A local walk

I decided to go for a local walk from Curraghbeena Point to Neutral Bay. I had not considered this walk before as it involves a little bit of pavement bashing as you approach Neutral Bay, whereas I normally prefer to stick to entirely foreshore tracks. However it was a lovely Saturday morning, on an Easter weekend, so while everyone else was heading off to the shops, I would do the walk knowing that there was a very nice cafe at my destination.

Just a few photos that I took on the day before my walk.

I thought that this lift was a little ambitious. 

 

The Manly ferry arrives at Circular Quay.

 

The AMP building.

 

Anyway, it was time for the walk. I was using a Garmin GPS unit to create a breadcrumb trail as well as my new TZ30 camera to take photos. Later I would then be able to upload the results onto the Everytrail website to create a record and route for my walk.

The walk started outside my apartment block at Curraghbeena Point.

 

Head up Raglan Street.

 

Cross over a footpath until you descend to Mosman Bay.

 

Lots of boats moored up here.

 

As you walk around the head of the bay, you can see some of lovely houses in this area.

 

Have just picked up the path to Cremorne Point.

 

Looking down the bay.

 

The footpath is tarmac all the way.

 

You pass the Old Cremorne ferry wharf.

 

The harbour is in the distance.

 

Tree lined route.

 

As you approach Cremorne Point the headland narrows and you can see across to the city.

 

I continued on right to the tip of the headland and looked back.

 

Sky-writing. It is Easter.

 

A bench with a view.

 

Back to the path.

 

Eventually when you have completed the walk around Cremorne Point you need to walk on roads but they are pleasant suburban locations.

 

The walk took just over an hour at a gentle stroll and here is the Thelma and Louise cafe at Neutral Bay. I found time for a coffee and croissant here.

 

A small beach at Neutral Bay.

 

Having completed my walk, I caught a ferry to Circular Quay. As you left Neutral Bay you could get a glimpse of the harbour bridge.

 

I had a sit down at Circular Quay while waiting for a ferry to take me back to South Mosman.

 

This busker was good and helped make the time sat in warm sunshine with a great view just fly by.

 

I am glad that I made the effort to do the walk.

Peewit

My darn Samsung camera back in for repair

Yep, my Samsung WB850F compact camera is back in for repair. This is the third time within the 12 months warranty. This time instead of just freezing when you switch the camera on, it refuses to focus with any kind of zoom setting. In fact as you press the shutter, an image on the screen goes out of focus and then it takes the photo. Handy eh!

So when a beautiful sunny morning appeared, I decided to take a trip to the Blue Mountains for the day. I went by ferry, and then train.
Before I left home there were these two aircraft buzzing around the harbour. I used my rather chunky DSLR camera to take the picture. I would be lugging this camera around with me on my trip to Katoomba and having fitted my 8mm lens there would be a lot of very wide angle photos apart from the odd one or two that I took with my phone. The wide angle lens allows me to take panoramic photos such as this one.

 

The lookout at Echo Point

 

Another lookout this time I was the only person on it. The cliff-top track was rather muddy as a result of recent heavy rain.

 

Some of the effects of heavy rainfall.

 

Looking through the gum trees.

 

Katoomba Falls

 

I do not fancy taking this trip as I am scared of heights.

 

Taken with my phone.

 

The cable car at Scenic World. I had to do a bit of road walking to get here as they were doing some construction work involving a helicopter and had closed the cliff-track.

 

Rather than walk along the road and then the flooded track to get back, I took the local bus to town. I recall having a great meal many years ago at this Art Deco restaurant in Katoomba.

 

The train ride back to Sydney was made more entertaining as I was chatting to a Buddhist monk and hearing about some of the interesting things that he had done.

At Circular Quay, the Queen Mary 2 is moored up at the OPT.

 

I just took a walk into Mosman and happened to choose a time around 3pm to do it. I was amazed by the literally hundreds of huge and expensive 4x4's out on the school run. I saw some awful driving and parking. I felt scared even on the pavement. Crossing the road involved waiting for a car to let me across (there were no gaps in the traffic) and then hope that I did not get run over. I made it home safe but am double checking my hospital insurance cover. You even have to pay for an ambulance to scoop you off the road here.

Peewit 

Pottering around Sydney

Over January we had some extremes of weather around Sydney. Everything from a really hot day with a temperature of over 45°C to two days of continuous rain caused by the remnants of Cyclone Oswald. The weather was worse in other parts of NSW with many areas having out of control bush fires, and others with flooding. Sydney got off relatively lightly and I managed to get out and about on mainly sunny days. Here are some of the photos that I took on my trips.

I went to Chowder Bay by bus and then walked to Middle Head from there. This is the view from Middle Head looking across the harbour entrance towards South Head. The Manly ferry is passing by.

 

The start of a yacht race in the harbour.

 

Looking towards Manly

 

A Sydney sunset from my apartment.

 

I went by train to Austinmer via the Royal National Park. Here is the beach at Austinmer.

 

Hills in the background.

 

A lot of people around here were worried about fracking.

 

I walked along the coast to Thirroul.

 

The beach was much quieter at Thirroul.

 

Time to head home, so waiting at a rather deserted Thirroul station.

 

Maybe someone knows what the heck all these signals mean.

 

A few days later and they were filming a show from "The Biggest Loser". On this day the overweight contestants were abseiling down the AMP building in Circulat Quay.

 

Reaching the end of the 100 metre descent. It was also a very hot day. I was watching from an open air bar at the nearby Customs House library. I was having a nice cool beer with my daughter who was on her lunch break. She bought the beers.

 

My webcam shows a temperature on that day of 44.9°C but it had exceeded 45.

 

I had a trip to Manly one afternoon and here is the ferry.

 

A walk from Mosman to Spit Bridge via Quakers Hat Bay starts near the Mosman war memorial.

 

A suburban street in Mosman.

 

My first sight of Quakers Hat bay.

 

The foreshore walk was a bit more challenging than I had expected and it was a hot day.

 

Nice view.

 

Kids were on a sailing course near Spit Bridge.

 

A Spit Bridge marina.

 

On a warm late afternoon I walked around Farm Cove to Mrs Macquarie's Chair where I took this photo.

 

Another day, another walk. This time the view is across Mosman Bay while on the way to Cremorne Point.

 

A great evening at the concert hall in the Sydney Opera house. They were screening the film "2001, a space odyssey" but with the music played live by a large orchestra along with the sound effects from a choir of 30+ members. I will never forget that evening. The music and overall effect was stunning.

 

The next day was Australia Day when the weather started to deterioate. There was the usual race of the Sydney ferries in the harbour.

 

The fireboat and some wet yachtsmean.

 

This sound stage was pushed over to Athol Bay and there was a live and loud performance by Jessica Mauboy and others. By the evening the weather was getting bad.

 

A few days later there was the rare sight of a submarine going around in circles in the harbour.

 

Old and new.

 

The Allen Border oval at Mosman. Hopefully they will play some cricket here soon.

 

"Carnival Spirit" moored at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay.

 

A look back while cruising down the Parramatta River. The water is still brown from all the heavy rain.

 

It had seemed that I had not done very much during January but the photos show that there were some sunny days.

Hoping for good weather in February and of course it is the Womens World Cup fifty over cricket tournament being held in India. Having said that, the male dominated organisation suddenly changed the venues and schedule just days before it was all due to start. Hopefully the media and teams were able to recover from this shambles. It seems that choosing India as a venue is a high risk strategy.

Peewit.