Wonderful Weekend Walk

Here it is, glorious Bondi Beach. This where myself, my partner, and her cousin went for our wonderful weekend walk, the best I have been on in many years. As you can see, it was a wonderful day weather wise, and the sea was in good shape.

We started the day by taking off at about 10:00 from home. It takes about an hour to get to Bondi and we decided to have a light lunch when we got there. We ate just above the section of the beach that you can see there and watched the younger surfers try and find a decent wave.

We then took off on the magnificent coastal walk. We were aiming for a 6km walk to Coogee Beach, and I had decided that Saturday would be a perfect day for my first foray into the water this season. I thought that Bondi was a little busy for me to swim at, and I didn't want to do the whole walk in wet swimming shorts. I thought that maybe half way into the walk would be the best time for the swim with plenty of time to dry off.

As we rounded the point of Bondi, where this shot was taken, we saw a large splash out to sea. As we continued to watch as we walked we realised that what we were seeing (it came up again and again) was a whale spout, and the splash of the whale frolicking just off the coast. It was too far out to get a decent photo of (blast!), but we did get a good look at it. It was really nice to see such a massive marine mammal near the harbour entrance to Sydney and near such a populated area. We did stop to watch it for a while before continuing on with our walk. The whale watching boat did follow it for some time and the people on the boat must have got their money's worth that day! We felt that we certainly did. For many of us it was the first time we had seen a whale from the coast.

About halfway we came to a beach called Bronte. I decided that the surf was the best I had seen at the two beaches we'd seen so far and that this was the place I would grace the surf with my new body! Okay, it is a bit soon for that kind of talk, but I did take the plunge. The surf was about 1.5 metres, and was breaking a short distance from the beach. The sets were regular and I spent a good 45 minutes body surfing the break with a few other keen swimmers. It was wonderful and I got one or two great rides, which wasn't bad considering I am massively out of practise. I was very impressed by the clarity of the water - I could see the bottom and well out to sea quite easily. It was magnificent and I will definitely be going back there. It would be a wonderful place to live if everyone else didn't already know about it and want to live there too!

I was able to shower, wash off the sand, and get prepared for the next half of the walk. It turned out to be a bit further than we thought, about 8kms in all and we were all glad when the end came. This was mostly because we got a bit more sun that we thought, and the swim in the buffeting surf had taken quite a lot out of me. The train ride home was a welcome event, as was getting in and having a nice light dinner. The perfect end to a perfect day.

Sunday was pretty good as well, nice and quiet. I had planned to hit the gym, but decided against it as I felt I needed a recovery day after the swimming and walking the day before. I am not sure why, but my neck and legs were really feeling it this morning. I feel as if I have recovered a lot and am looking forward to cardio tomorrow morning with the training session in the afternoon. I'm all set for the week and can't wait to get into it. I hope that you all had a great weekend too!