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Posts Tagged ‘Weekends in Sydney’

Birchgrove to East Balmain

Posted: April 30, 2016 in Inner West, Sydney Harbour, Walking
Tags: ferry, inner west, Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Things to do in Sydney, this weekend in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

After a couple of weeks off with Robyn overseas, we picked up again this weekend to walk from the end of Darling St west to Birchgrove.

Views across just 500m of harbour to the new Barangaroo site from the southern side of Darling St, beautiful waterfront parkland and renovated historic factory buildings and industrial waterfront.

All in all, a great walk.

The city is just a stone’s throw away across the entrance to Darling Harbour

Barangaroo from East Balmain

Cool. Art on the side of a house at Duke St

The old Colgate Factory, now factory apartments.

Ferry workshops near the Colgate factory

Didn’t know that Mort Bay was named after a person and not anything to do with Death as such. Nor did we know that WWII vessels were manufactured in Balmain.

Australia’s oldest dry dock here at Mort Bay

Mort Bay

Ballast Point Park, Birchgrove. Worth a visit.

Ballast Point Park, Birchgrove.

Birchgrove to Drummoyne

Posted: April 3, 2016 in Inner West
Tags: Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, walk, walking inner Sydney, Weekends in Sydney

A beautiful walk from the end of narrow Louisa Rd, west around some gorgeous waterfront past the Dawn Fraser Baths and the site of the old Balmain Power Station, over the Iron Cove bridge, along the front of Birkenhead Factory Outlet Centre to Drummoyne.

Fab!

From Louisa Rd Birchgrove to Drummoyne

Birchgrove Point, end of Louisa Rd. The Coal Loader cafe and Waverton are across the harbour where the orange is

Birchgrove Ferry wharf, Yurulbin Park.

Looking through a carpark over to Cockatoo Island

Hidden garage door. Nice!

Looking across towards Cockatoo Island from Birchgrove

Narrow blocks, still worth a fortune.

Beautiful little park at Balmain Sailing club that leads around west towards Dawn Fraser Baths

Balmain Sailing Club

Elkington Park, Dawn Fraser Baths at left

Looking towards Dawn Fraser Pool. Beautiful fig leaning into the water.

World famous Dawn Fraser Baths at Birchgrove (Balmain)

Elkington Park, Cockatoo Island behind

Marina at Rozelle, in front of the site of the old Balmain Power Station

Pump House, relic from the old Balmain Power Station.

Iron Cove Bridge, walking west towards Birkenhead Factory Outlet Centre

View towards Schnapper Island and North Sydney from Drummoyne

Peppercorn Park, Drummoyne.

Beautiful development at Drummoyne… “Breeze” in St Georges Cres. Could move in tomorrow!

Canada Bay to Mortlake

Posted: March 25, 2016 in bicycle, Sydney Harbour
Tags: inner west, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, weekend, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

A beautiful afternoon for a bay-side walk.

Today, Easter Friday, we walked from Canada Bay along the waterfont, through Cabarita to Mortlake, near the car ferry across the river to Putney.

We love walking through areas where the home owners don’t own the water; makes for a much nicer walk 🙂

A beautiful path virtually the whole way.

The end of Durham St, Canada Bay. The start of today’s path

Bayview Park, near Massey Park Golf Course

Looking west towards Breakfast Point

Waverton to Greenwich

Posted: March 20, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: breakfast, cafe, Coffee, Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Weekends in Sydney

We started with breakfast at The Coal Loader Cafe. in Balls Head Rd at Waverton, where we were a few weeks ago. Beautiful spot – have to remember this as a venue for a 60th or similar.

From there we headed west, making our way around Balls Head Bay and Oyster Cove, around Berry Island Reserve and on towards Greenwich above the fuel tanks at Gore Cove, some of which have been removed, but some are still in use today, pumping fuel from here to Clyde near Parramatta.

Coal Loader Cafe to Greenwich Rd

Coal Loader Cafe. Lovely.

Coal Loader Cafe

Old wharf fallen into disrepair at Waverton below the Coal Loader Cafe

Old street signs art installation below the Coal Loader Cafe

Looking west towards Wondakiah Dr

Tunnel under the old Coal Loader site

Oyster Cove at the end of Wondakiah Dr at Waverton. Dense housing around, but lots of parkland maintained. Nice!

Remnant of the old gasworks at Oyster Cove at the end of Wondakiah Dr at Waverton. Dense housing around, but lots of parkland maintained

Berry Island – the point where land was filled to connect it to the mainland and make it no longer an island as such,

Berry Island

Looking back towards the Coal Loader

At the point off Berry Island

Along the path between Berry Island and Greenwich

Hollaway Park

Hollaway Park, at the end of Vista St. Beautiful little park with a view

Vista St Greenwich

THE spot to watch the fireworks in Sydney! Greenwich Rd, above Gore Cove.

Longueville / Northwood

Posted: March 13, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, this weekend in Sydney, walk, walking inner Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

Parts of Longueville are beautiful!

We had a great walk around the streets as close to the waterfront as we possibly could – sadly, the absolute waterfront is owned by the private residences leading down to that water. Beautiful houses on big blocks of land, some nice local parks and walkways too.

Given the the tide was well out, we did try to walk around some of the foreshore, however the mangrove mud was VERY soft!

Northwood appears to be a locality inside Longueville – I only mention it in the title as this is the ferry wharf you would go to to explore this neck of the woods.

Looking forward to exploring a bit more of this area in the weeks ahead.

This week’s progress

Dubois St Longuville. Beautiful homes fronting the river

The sand was a little soft! And got a LOT softer!

Arabella St Longuville. Views to the city 🙂

Northwood Road

Looking across the bay to Woolwich (Marist Sisters College)

Lovely park near Kelly’s Esplanade, near Northwood Ferry wharf

Spectacular views to the city from Arabella St (and very cool front and garage doors!)

Spectacular views to the city from Arabella St

Drummoyne – East of Gladesville Bridge

Posted: March 4, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: ferry, Sydney, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

The Swans v Giants pre-season footy match was on Friday night so we parked the car near Drummoyne Oval a little beforehand and headed east towards the city. Some beautiful water-front real estate, a few hidden parks. Nice 🙂

Rea Reserve, Drummoyne Ave

Some beautiful waterfront real estate with views east to the harbour bridge. Some places make it easier to sticky-beak than others!

From Drummoyne ferry wharf

Lovely little park at the end of Lyons Rd

Private beach and a dog park opposite Spectacle Island

Drummoyne Oval

Drummoyne Oval. Swans | Giants pre-season. Cheap entry 😉

Rhodes > Olympic Park > Rydalmere

Posted: March 1, 2016 in bicycle, Cafe, Inner West
Tags: breakfast, cafe, Coffee, ferry, olympics, Sydney weekends, Weekends in Sydney

We drove down to Rhodes and parked at the northern end of the path, near the railway bridge to Meadowbank.

We unloaded the bikes and headed off south along a beautiful path beside the river in front of all the new apartments at Rhodes.

As the shopping strip peters out, the path continues along the waterfront, through the Rhodes wetlands, past bird sanctuaries, recreation areas and, once we reached Wentworth Point (close to the Olympic Park), housing.

It was raining this day, so we stopped here and had a coffee before returning back a different way through the various Olympic area paths.

The following week, in bright sunshine, we parked the car and headed out from near the Olympic Archery Centre, heading west along the bike path. We rode past the Armory cafe, but had to cross the river at the bridge at Silverwater road as there’s no path through the oil refinery. The path continued on this other side of the river… we rode till it finished near Western Sydney University.

Here we turned around and rode back to the Armory Cafe for breakie. A nice morning 🙂

Bike paths

Rhodes waterfront

The Armory Cafe

Looking east from near Silverwater Road

Heading west towards The Armory Cafe

Wentworth Point (near Olympic Park) from Rhodes

Historic wrecks at Rhodes

Bird watching refuge at the wetlands area near Wentworth Point

Waverton to Milsons Point

Posted: February 29, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: Sydney, sydney harbor, this weekend in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

On a beautiful, last day of summer day in Sydney, we parked the car at Waverton Station and walked south, down the hill past a small cafe towards the water.

There’s a road that makes its way around Balls Head, but the bush track below the road takes you past a remnant of (recent) old Sydney, the Coal Loader. It’s a beautiful,easy path with beautiful views of the city. Quite the spot for the New Year’s Eve fireworks.

Some beautiful waterfront along Waverton Peninsular Reserve and Waverton Oval to Sawmillers Reserve (which sadly doesn’t go right through to Blues Point.

Wander along the path near Wendy’s Secret Garden to Luna Park and the Harbour Bridge.

A fabulous walk of about 6 or 7 kilometres. Catch the train back to Waverton Station from Milsons Point Station – just 2 stops.

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Beautiful Harbour views along the path at Balls Head Reserve

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Berry’s Bay

Beautiful Harbour views along the path at Balls Head Reserve

Beautiful Harbour views along the path at Balls Head Reserve

Remnants of the old BP storage facility. Lots of round tank holes hewn into the rock.

Sawmillers Reserve

The Goods Line

Posted: February 29, 2016 in Inner West, Sydney Harbour
Tags: Dr Chau Chak Wing, Frank Gehry, Paper Bag building, Things to do in Sydney, this weekend in Sydney, walking inner Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, what to do in Sydney

The Goods Line is a shared pedestrian and cycle path and green public space, connecting Ultimo with Darling Harbour.

The line provides a pedestraian and cycle path from Central Station to Darling Harbour, with mixed-use spaces to enjoy – dining tables, grassy spaces, table tennis tables, study pods amongst the trees and a children’s water play area with a sand pit shaded by trees.

A fabulous re-use of what was a busy industrial railway line.

http://www.shfa.nsw.gov.au/sydney-Our_places_and_projects-Our_projects-The_Goods_Line.htm

Only a short walk, but so well done

Past the iconic Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (designed by Frank Gehry – The “Paper Bag building”)

Past the iconic Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (designed by Frank Gehry – The “Paper Bag building”)

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Parramatta ~ Harris Park Heritage Walk

Posted: January 24, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: ferry, Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, walking inner Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

Back from our holiday to India and so ready to resume normal weekend service!

Our plan this year? We enjoyed walking the beaches and coast so much in 2014 that we decided to do the same this year, except we will hug the inland waterways. Late Sunday afternoon we headed out to Parramatta Ferry Wharf to begin walking East along the southern shore.

We parked the car at Parramatta wharf and walked towards Rosehill racecourse along the Harris Park Heritage Walk, a really nice path along the (pretty murky this far up stream) Parramatta River with terrific signposting advising various historical sites that used to be there

It’s well done; love wandering along bits of Sydney we’ve never seen before.