Entries about palm beach

Having left Sydney a few weeks before, I was keen to go back for the VIVID Light Festival which lived up to be as amazing as the advertising showed!
Nick was heading that way from the same town at the same time, and gave me a lift. It was a great chance to explore the outer suburbs of Sydney rather than passing them by on a train.
First stop Brooklyn

The photo below of the Cabbage Tree palm grove with the Hwkesbury River was taken in 1927.

It's amazing to see how high those trees have grown!

Adventures included a little off-roading at Buludelah

stopping for vital re-fuel ... of pies...


and managing a rather hairy turn around avoiding the sheer drop when the gate up the track was locked

Before we left Sydney there was one last chance to admire the Botanical Gardens, and the local Cockatoos!

On the way back up we stopped at West Head, to admire the views of the surrounding area


of Lion Island

and to Barren Joey (aka Palm Beach)
Somewhere down there on the water front was my home for the night

We weren't the only ones making the most of the stunning back drop, like this photo shoot

I was lucky enough to spend the night at the family's beautiful house at Palm Beach (aka Home & Away!)

Another day, another sunset,

One of the sights to see near Sydney is Palm Beach - about an hour and a half bus ride away on the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park peninsula.

It is locally known as 'Palmy'.
It wasn't what I was expecting; I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of tourism in the area, and more so by just how beautiful the location is.


It's the main location for exterior filming of the soap Home & Away, which I admit, like most people, used to watch every day after school. So I had to go an have a look.

Alf's Bait Shop

The Jetty where they have their secret meetings


with some nice boats

Summer Bay Surf Life Savings Club

The beach they go for a walk along

The ramp where they walk down onto the beach

The fence where they always seem to bump into each other

The sand dune where they go to have a good cry

We walked the length of the beach, stopping to watch the surfers

and the impressive waves

and at the far end, we took a path up to the lighthouse

The path started from the beach

and wound it's way up the cliff, under the rocks

We didn't find the diner (it's probably in a studio somewhere) but there was a lovely looking restaurant

The headland at the northernmost point rises quite sharply from the beach to over 100 metres above sea level, and features an operational lighthouse. It's not the tallest, but still makes me look small...

The Barrenjoey Head lighthouse was the third light constructed on the Barrenjoey, New South Wales headland, and was completed in 1881. Designed by NSW colonial architect James Barnet, its construction cost £13,695, plus £2,210 for the lamp. At an elevation of 113 m, it is visible to a distance of 19 nautical miles (35 km; 22 mi) out to sea
The views from the top are stunning, almos the best I've seen so far...


and on the other side, looking north up the east coast

A customs station was established in 1843, as the Headland marked the entrance to Broken Bay and Pittwater – considered to be the back door to Sydney for smugglers. The first report of any lighted beacon on the headland was in 1855, when a fire was raised in a basket to assist mariners during storms.

George Mulhall - first principal keeper of Barrenjoey Lighthouse.
The census of 1828 stated that Gearoge Mulhall was born in Australia in 18111 (his headstone states 1814). Hi father and mother came in convict ships from Ireland in 1803.

George's death is an interesting tale- on a stormy night in June 1885 ventured out of the lighthouse for more firewood and was struck down by a tremendous bolt of lightening and as the journalism of that day recorded, was burnt to a cinder. His death certificate however, describes his cause of death as apoplexy (stroke). A few years later, George Junior was struck by lightening resulting in a badly burnt arm which from that day was bound in snake skin to ward off further celestial visitations.

They weren't filming on the day we went, so we took enough photos of ourselves to make up for it