Road Trip: Bondi Beach
Happy Wednesday!
This week is dark and cold and rainy. It’s proper fall weather now but I don’t think it will last. Hopefully, I can get a rainy afternoon this weekend when I have nothing to do because this is my favourite reading weather.
Today continues our never-ending road trip lol. Our last stop was the famous Bondi Beach in Sydney.
On our last day in Byron Bay, we were really sad to leave. We actually debated staying there one more night. We drove slightly out of town before we pulled over and tried to look for accommodations in or around Byron Bay but it was very slim pickings. And it would also mean our last two days would be full driving days back to Melbourne. In the end, we stuck with our original plan and drove somewhere about an hour outside of Sydney so we could have a full day there the next day.
I was so excited to go here with Tj. Even though he was disappointed to leave Byron, I knew he would love it. In 2009 I came to Australia with one of my girlfriends, and I did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour and got to check out Bondi Beach. Tj had been to Sydney, but never to Bondi.
We arrived in the morning and went to drop off our stuff at the hotel in Bondi Junction. It was less than a 10-minute bus ride to the beach. We went for a quick brunch and it was kind of fun to walk down the side streets and look at the boutiques and houses, but we were both getting impatient to just get to the beach.
Here are some facts I learned about Bondi Beach online here:
only 7 km from Sydney CBD (central business district)
Bondi is an aboriginal word believed to mean the sound of water breaking over rocks
was privately owned land but when the owners threatened to restrict access it was declared a public beach in 1881
Now, I am a huge fan of the tv show, Bondi Rescue. In fact, after we realized how different the water is here in Australia after getting pummelled by waves in Sorrento, I try and make all our guests watch at least an episode as well. Bondi Rescue is about the lifeguards on this famous beach and some of the things they encounter, which is usually tourists in over their heads (literally).
Tj likes the show too, but he didn’t realize how big Bondi Beach is until we were actually there. He was impressed. I knew he would like the mix of city and beach. The water was perfect, maybe a little cold, but the waves weren’t too strong (although I still made sure we swam between the flags haha). I was so happy later when the Bondi Rescue beach jeep (I don’t know what it’s called lol) pulled up right in front of us! I snuck some pictures haha but it was super cute seeing kids shyly approach the lifeguards to say hi and take a selfie with them - and some adults too.
We found a patio right off the beach to have a drink and a snack. It was perfect to watch the sunset.
When we got back to the hotel later we found out our room had been upgraded (woohoo) to a suite that had a view of the Harbour Bridge! We got so lucky with parking and accommodation on this trip!
Later we went back to Bondi to grab dinner. It’s important to remember if you are ever in Sydney that restaurants close pretty early https://www.meganaway.com/home/2018/8/21/one-day-in-sydney?rq=sydney. We ended our last night with – you guessed it – Baskin Robbins!
The next morning Tj found a coffee place nearby so he could have one last look at Bondi Beach! I have a feeling that we will be staying here next time we are back in Sydney.
Well, that’s it. The end of our road trip. It’s been nice during these gloomy days to re-live the trip and look at all our pictures.
Have a great week :)
