Continuing on from my last blog, here's the 2nd half of the walk:

From Tamarama you climb up and over another small headland with dramatic rocky outcrops and expansive views of the sea, before dropping back down and into Bronte Beach. Bronte is my personal favourite beach, mostly because of the features surrounding it.

There’s a model railway line which offers rides for children on weekends and holidays. Behind Bronte there is a large grassy park with picnic booths and BBQs for visitors. The park winds its way back into a steep sided ravine which then becomes heavily wooded bush through which you can walk on a trail up into the suburb. Parking near the beach is difficult in summer, so it’s easier to park up in the suburb somewhere and make the beautiful bushwalk down to the beach.

Another pleasant part of Bronte is the row of shops along its southern edge. Now mostly cafes they offer an excellent choice of casual dining for lunch or a relaxed wine or coffee. Or take away fish and chips which you can take down and eat on the beach – an Australian tradition!

Bronte also has an ocean flushed pool, the Bronte Baths. It’s a small pool perfect for swimmers who don’t like the sand and breaking waves in the surf. It’s tucked under the cliffs which you climb as you head across another headland before coming into one of the treasures of this coastal walk.

Waverly Cemetery is a huge burial ground which was first used in 1877, so not that old in European terms, but significant in Australia’s short history. Its 9 hectares stretch along the coastal cliffs for about 500m. The last time I did the walk you needed to walk through the cemetery but since then there has been a walkway constructed along its seaward side. The walkway hangs over the rocks and above the sea and affords dramatic views, but it’s also interesting to walk among the graves and contemplate the lives of the people interned there. One such person is Henry Lawson, arguably Australia’s finest colonial poet.

Leaving the cemetery you cross a headland park before the next beach, Clovelly. It has the advantage of having a large parking area, so if you have to drive, it’s probable that you’ll have a better chance of getting a park here (but on summer weekends it’s not easy to get a park anywhere!). It’s a small beach, which has at its side a large concrete platform from which swimmers and snorkelers can climb directly into deep water off the beach, avoiding the breakers. Snorkelling at Clovelly is very popular with an abundance of fish to be found very close to the beach.

Over the headland from Clovelly is Gordon’s Bay. This inlet has a tiny sandy patch at its head, a beach of sorts! But its beauty is its nature in the rocks and vegetation which grow among them. Like most of the way along the coast, there is a lot of expensive real estate hugging the coast, but around Gordon’s Bay in particular there are a lot of very impressive houses to ogle at for those who like to dream.

Over the final headland and across a last park and you walk into Coogee. This is another large beach with a long expanse of golden sand, surrounded by a large reserve and backed by lots of opportunities to eat, drink and shop.

Having walked the track from Bondi you could turn around and walk back (if for instance you’d left a car at the start), but there’s lots of transport options from Coogee to Bondi Junction or the city. Tamarama and Clovelly also have transport options, so you don’t even need to walk the full track.

 

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