Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk - & a free drinks!!
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
236
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Thursday, January 22, 2009
When we got to the Original Backpackers Hostel, we were given a book that had vouchers for free drinks at pubs scattered all around Sydney. We had kept our books from last time as well, so we had two free drinks at each of these bars. Only thing was, you were only allowed to use one per person per day - looked like 'Smooth Talking Sime' was gonna have to go to work!
We got our first free wine & beer, then I went to the bar and used my unrivalled charm on the poor unsuspecting and defenceless barmaid! Unbelievably, it worked!! These Aussies are more stupid than I thought! In England I would have just got slapped! (Although, that's not always a bad thing!!).
Anyway, we finished our 2nd freebie and then started to do something crazy - no, not pay for drinks! We decided to do the Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk! This was a 7km walk along the cliff tops, in our flip flops - not far by our previous walking standards, but we haven't really been to active lately - except in the bar and the bedroom!!!
We did however, have some free vouchers for some bars in Bondi - so off we trotted.
As it happens, this is a really nice and easy 90 minute walk. First place we came to was Coogee Baths. Do you realise that we haven't had a bath in 7 months!! No wonder the ozone layer is knackered!
We then arrived at Gordon's Bay where there is a really good snorkelling area. Apparently it was named after someone called Lewis Gordon. Not the snorkelling, the bay! Actually, I wonder who did invent snorkelling. Perhaps someone called Ivor Snorkell! Oh well, who cares, it is a nice bay area anyway.
Next was Clovelly Bay which looks almost man-made with all the concrete everywhere - not our favourite bay.
After walking through Bundock Park , we arrived at Waverley Cemetery. Now, you normally walk past this on the cliff tops, but they were doing some construction work (the contractors, not the dead bodies!!), so we had to walk through the middle of the cemetery.
I think this was the dead centre of the walk! If we do this walk again, we will bring some medicine for all the coffin!! Oh dear, I've gone back into 'Dad Joke' mode again - sorry!
We did play the usual cemetery games of 'Spot the oldest grave', 'spot the most glamorous headstone' etc, but it wasn't really the highlight of our walk. The p[lace just didn't have any atmosphere - there was no soul and a lack of vodka & martini's....you know, no spirits!! Sorry...again!
After the cemetery we walked through Bronte Park, past Melson's Bay and Tamarama Bay and up to Mackenzies Point. From here, there wasn't a man just stood there with his finger out, but there was great views of Bondi Beach. And more importantly, we could see our next free drink pub! That sped the walking up a bit!
The next pub was Bondi Beach Iceberg Club. We even had to become free members before we went in! We just had to pass the initialtion test of sucking icebergs for 12 minutes!
Seemed a lot of hard work for a free drink, but you know me & Lorna, we persevered nonetheless! This was a good bar actually, with great views over the beach. We only had one drink here as we wanted to go for a swim and drunken drowning wasn't too much of an exciting prospect!
After a couple of hours on the beach (by the way, I actually prefer Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach), we headed off to Bondi Junction to find three more of our freebie pubs.
First one was the 'Cock & Bull' Pub. I asked if I could enter their 'Mr Cock & Bull 2009', but was told that I could only enter the 'Mr Full of Sh*t 2009'!! A bit harsh I felt, but no doubt true!
The Cock & Bull was actually a decent Irish Bar. We also went to the Circa Bar, which had a good outdoor drinking area and The Eastern. This bar looked a little to classy for us backpacker types, but we were welcomed in anyway.
Actually, I must say that every bar welcomed us OK and didn't have any attitude towards us for just having free drinks. I thought some staff might be funny with us, but they were all really nice.
We got a train back from Bondi Junction to Kings Cross (Sydney, not London - that would have been one hell of a train journey otherwise!), which is where our hostel is.
After dining, we Skyped a few people at home - in the soberest way we could - I think we got away with it!
