Bondi beach

Lovely sunny day today. If you are going to go to just one beach in Sydney it has to be Bondi, doesn't it? Well, there is also Manly, and for families Balmoral and Bronte (and even Shelley, next to Manly) are supposed to be better. But Bondi is the world-famous one, so Bondi is where we went.

It is a short walk from our hostel to the bus stop, and from there just about half an hour to the beach. A century ago the area was deserted, with just the hangman's cottage at the far end. Now it has a row of smart looking low-rise houses from end to end. The beach itself is a long stretch of beautiful white sand, not too crowded on a weekday this time of year. As per what we had read it wasn't full of posers, the ambiance was chilled and relaxed. The sea is shallow, but cold (compared to Vietnam) and with strong currents. There were enough waves for the surfers, but by the shore they were small enough for us to play around with.

Aisha refused to get in the sea and Lucas and I just had a quick splash, but we weren't hot out on the sand. Temperature was nice, with a cool breeze and the occasional cloud. Spent a couple of hours there and then decided to walk a bit of the coastal path. Before that we stopped by the skater park next to the beach where there was a guy doing awesome tricks with a bike.

The coastal path is lovely, and there are many joggers and walkers going up and down. Australians, at least in Sydney, seem very health-conscious, nearly everybody looks really healthy and there seem to be people doing sport everywhere you go. Even the seagulls look clean and pretty. We walked up to a park where we spent some time playing with a dog (Aisha) and looking at some kids playing with a weird-shaped ball (Lucas). From there you also had a lovely view of the next beach, Coogee.

After all that walking both kids fell asleep in the bus on the way back. We have to get them up to speed on walking because we want that to be the number one activity in New Zealand. Otherwise we are going to have to spend a fortune renting bikes.

Esther has written an article on responsible tourism (in Spanish) for one of the blogs in El Pais, Spain's leading newspaper, and just had it published.