A walk to La Perouse

We have been coming to Sydney every year for a few years now and each year I attempt to do another walk beside the ocean. Two years ago I got as far south as Maroubra and was not able to go walk further south beside the ocean because of a firing range. This year I went to Malabar on a bus with a plan to walk to La Perouse at the entrance to Botany Bay.

It's a long crappy bus ride enlivened by a vision like this.

The plan was to walk beside the ocean and here is my route that was about five miles long.

I hopped off the bus and a few blocks to walk to the beach at Malabar. On the way I passed this long mural on a wall at a local school. The mural was probably at least twice as long as what the photo shows.

There is a lovely park by the beach.

I get the impression that Malabar beach is not very well known but it is all quite lovely.

The usual sail covered area where Mums bring their kiddies to play.

And of course there is a toilet block. Being old, I used it.

A very pleasant beach that was virtually deserted.

I started heading south.

Perhaps the wind is strong enough to make the poles lean.

Looking back at the deserted beach.

Of course there is a rock pool.

Somebody actually swimming in the pool.

The maps provided by the Sydney Walks seemed to indicate that I could walk alongside the gold course and I saw a jogger heading towards me so I started off.

It was blowing a gale so it would have been a tough day to be playing golf.

The path.

There were plenty of golfers.

The north shore of the inlet with old lookouts probably from one of the wars.

I suspect the ball was well and truly lost.

The rock formations are fabulous.

A somewhat confusing difference between the two signs so I decided to continue.

One hole had you hitting across the inlet. No chance of retrieving a ball if you duffed the shot.

I would have lost a lot of balls here if I played this course regularly.

I presume these deaths were not caused by errant gold balls. I can understand why the Golf Clubs would prefer that non golfers stay off the course.

Little Bay beach.

To get to the beach I had to descend the cliff down this muddy path.

Rocks that I had to walk across.

Clear sea water.

I loved the colour of the streaks.

Weird, almost incomprehensible rocks.

Little Bay.

There were signs at Little Bay for the next golf course indicating that they did not want anybody walking on their course. It looked like there was a path along the rocks so I tried that for a while.

The rocks path seemed to peter out so I spotted a man who was walking ahead of me. I asked him what was the story about walking on the course. He said he had been doing it for years but advised me to not chance it.

I went a little further south.

However eventually there was no obvious path along the rocks so I admitted defeat and headed inland to the golf club car park.

So I was back to walking along a footpath. 

I think this building is part of the old Prince Henry Hospital.

Eventually I came to Anzac Parade that headed south to La Perouse.

Typical house of the era, whatever that era was.

Map of the La Perouse area. You can read about the area and the French Captain of that name here.

Interesting house.

A place to be avoided if like me you don't like snakes.

NSW Golf Club on the hill. The course was laid out in 1926 and usually ranks in the top 50 courses in the world.

This tower was built in the 19th century to combat smugglers.

All parks in Australia have a water fountain.

Entrance to Botany Bay. Captain Cook sailed in here on April 29 1770.

Since I was there on a Thursday, the Museum was closed.

Bare Island.

I walked across the bridge. The wind was ferocious.

Seagulls cowering in the wind.

I am not sure what these people were doing out there on the island. It would not have been too comfortable with the breeze.

Part of the fort installation.

Botany Bay is a port.

I walked back to the mainland.

Plane coming into land at nearby Sydney Airport. If you have a seat on the right hand side you would get a good view of La Perouse.

The planes fly over the suburb of Kurnell. This is where Captain Cook first landed.

The former Cable Station building now houses the La Perouse Museum.

It's good that he is suitably remembered.

Restaurants line the street next to the park.

It was quite a walk and I felt a bit tired at the end so I was glad to sit for a while in the shed waiting for the bus. I blame the wind. My maximum altitude was 141 feet and I averaged about2.67 mph.