Bondi Beach on A Not-so-Beachy Day

Our good friend, who's a Sydney local, gave us a list of all the places we have to see in Sydney. The Bondi-Bronte Coastal Path was one of them. It takes a short train and a bus ride to get to Bondi (pronounced Bondai, like bonzai with a "d"). The beach is a beautiful curving crescent littered with humans and the water is packed to the gills with surfers. Lifeguards are busy keeping the swimmers in one zone and the surfers in another. Bondi is where the famous Australian lifesaving program originates and is home to the world's oldest surf lifesaving club. You can now find a surf lifesaving club (house for the lifeguards as well as a restaurant, bar, and sometimes nightclub) at every major Australian beach.

 

We had been planning on a surf, but these are strange waters to us and a huge swell just came in from a cyclone out at sea. Since I'm still recovering from my latest surf mishap, we decide to wait for a calmer day. This was decided after we already dragged our surf boards down the subway and onto a crowded bus, only to turn around when the surf looked poor and take the boards back home. Business idea for anyone who can swing it: we need surfboard storage lockers at the major beaches around Sydney - since you can't surf in the city proper. No one else seemed to be dragging their boards around so I assume they're staying at Bondi or Manly and not in the city like we are.

Icebreakers Pool

We're back in Bondi for the coastal walk. The path takes you around the cliff edges all the way down the coast. Many people use this as a jogging trail. Beautiful trail. We start at Bondi Icebreakers, a public pool of sorts seated on the edge of the sea. They have these saltwater pools at most of the beaches around Sydney, where giant waves at high tide splash into the pool. Exciting stuff, we wanted to go for a dip but were too cold. Sydney is having the coldest December in 51 years. The trail follows 2.2 miles of coastline and finishes at Bronte Beach.

We catch a bus back to Bondi and meet up with our friend for drinks and tapas at Bondi Hardware. We weren't sure what to expect, maybe we were meeting at the hardware store and she would take us to a bar somewhere. Or maybe this was the bar. Both, it turns out. Two weeks ago the bar opened in what was formerly the local hardware store. They've paid homage to the previous tenants with clever menus posted on planks of wood and gear-driven graphics. Awesome drinks and good food. They even whipped up a strawberry lime mojito for me when it wasn't on the menu. There are no mojitos in Australia - or maybe I've been going to the wrong bars :)

It's Christmas Eve, so naturally everyone our age is in the bars. The Aussies are not big on celebrating the Eve (not much for Christmas in general, really), I blame the heat and sun. Our friend takes us to a favorite local dive, Bondi Beach Road Hotel. It's a typical Aussie pub: part hotel, bar, and restaurant. It's packed with locals - you can tell by the singlets, messy bleached hair complete with trucker hat and thongs (if you're lucky, many places allow bare feet). The walls are covered with relics of the early surf lifesaving club. We meet a crew of people and have a pretty good time.