THE BEACHES Words By Micahel Teh
Locals know how to avoid tourist traps and they know the hidden gems that most tourists miss when visiting their hometowns. When it comes to my beautiful hometown, Sydney in Australia… even the tourist traps like the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb and Bondi Beach are really worth a visit… the first two for their unique architecture and incredible views, and the latter for the coastal walk, Bondi Icebergs pool, the beach, café and restaurant culture, not to mention the people watching. As much as I love Bondi, and while it has its own beauty from different angles, it is probably the most built-up, urban beach in Sydney (and quite possibly Australia), with a lot of unappealing architecture and many less trees around it, compared to other Sydney beaches. For those looking for more natural, tree-lined beachscape beauty, one has to explore the slightly more distant suburban beaches. Most visitors to Sydney, sadly miss its most beautiful ones, my favorite being three of the northern-most: Bilgola, Whale and Palm Beaches. These are worth at least a day trip, if not a few day escape.
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Bilgola Beach is a tiny one, set in a gully with a sub-tropical microclimate and the palm trees to match. Whale Beach, with a headland that supposedly looks like a whale… is the beach I summered at as a child, staying at a great aunt and uncle’s (and like most Aussie kids, nearly drowned at multiple times over the years, being “dumped” on bigger surf days :). And last but not least… the focus of this article… Palm Beach. Located about an hour and a quarter drive north of the city’s CBD (downtown), Palm Beach, Sydney’s northern-most surf beach, is completely unique. It is set on a narrow peninsula, a long spit of sand, reaching north to what was once (probably millennia ago) the rocky island of Barrenjoey. Atop this cliff-lined outcrop sits a lighthouse marking for ships and yachts, both the rocks and the entrance to Broken Bay – the beautiful, tree-lined harbor, a flooded river valley and estuary that marks the northern edge of suburban Sydney. This peninsula is blessed to have both a long surfing beach (with waves) – Palm Beach - on the eastern side of the peninsula, and a protected, flatwater side and beach on the western or Pittwater side - Pittwater being that part of Broken Bay. The leafy, southern end of Palm Beach is often referred to as Kiddies Corner, as it is seasonally
Palm Beach Penninsula, RugliG/ Shutterstock.com
