01/01/22 Happy New Year and Remember to Take Your Banana.

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I eschewed seeing in the New Year in favour of a good night's sleep, which I didn't get anyway thanks to the official (very loud) fireworks at midnight and outbursts of unofficial fireworks at sporadic intervals thereafter.  Despite all the late night banging I got up early for a bike ride on the assumption that the streets would be empty due to the population sleeping off last night's excesses.  

Ibis were the only things out and about in the back streets of Newtown.
 

A couple of days ago the kids took us to Clovelly beach, and I was keen to find out how easy (or difficult) it was to get there by bike.  I was so keen to get out, in fact, that I forgot both my banana and my water bottle, which was not a smart thing to do.

I could get used to these separated bike lanes.  I may have been too hasty to slander Sydney's bicycle infrastructure in previous posts.

Part of the ride was through/around the Centennial Parklands, where I had a bicycle highway to ride on.  Unfortunately it was patrolled by peletons of lycra-clad Very Fast Cyclists who zoomed up from behind and passed very close and very fast.  I said Happy New Year.  They ignored me.  We both looked down our noses at the other.

Centennial Park is now on my to-explore list for Sydney.  I saw swans.  I also found water fountains, which helped to offset my lack of a water bottle.

For a minute there I thought this was a) the scene of a bicycle-related homicide or b) letting me know that cyclists regularly fall off here.  T'was quite a disappointment to realise it's just advising of bicycles and roller bladers.


Clovelly beach was a hive of unexpected activity. All the people who made New Years resolutions to get up early and exercise must have decided to come to Clovelly beach to do so.  Elderly asian ladies marched briskly up and down the pathways. Swimmers churned up and down the ocean pool while other swimmers, made of sterner stuff, churned up and down the bay itself.  Around the perimeter a large group of all shapes and sizes of humanity participated in an organised activity that involved swimming and then jogging briskly in their wet swimsuits around the bay.  I had to shut my eyes briefly as some of them were smuggling budgies and I didn't want to look.  But then I had to open my eyes because running into a budgie smuggler would be way worse than just seeing one.
 
Clovelly Bay is very narrow.  The concrete foreshore on both sides was an employment initiative by Randwick Council during the depression.  They also planned to build a causeway across the entrance to the bay, but the weather had other ideas about that.  Now the remnants of the attempted causeway create an artificial reef across the entry to the bay.

Clovelly Bay, runners on the left.  Budgie smugglers not pictured.

 
Having come down a really steep hill to reach Clovelly Beach, I headed home via Waverly Cemetery in a search for flatter paths. 

There's worse spots.  Apparently this is considered one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world.  I'm not sure if that's so much because of the cemetery, or the view.

You're in poetic company in Waverly Cemetery:  Henry Lawson and Dorothea Mackellar are both buried here.




 

I was very happy to get home to my breakfast, banana and all.

Comments

  1. Phil DJanuary 3, 2022 at 2:34 PM

    Happy New Year to you guys!! Looking forward to reading your adventures in 2022!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KatyBeeJanuary 6, 2022 at 9:53 AM

      Thanks Phil! I hope all is going well in your part of the world :-)

      Delete

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