The week had just spun out of control at work, while it was good in the sense I had many achievements, it still meant that the workload seemed never ending!! :-/ I have repeatedly told myself I should stop expecting the 'chaos at work' to change...easier said than done! So when Friday evening 'pounced' on me, I was anxious that we had no plans for the weekend...Hurricane Debbie had added to this situation since until Thursday I was safely assuming that the weekend was gonna be a 'wash out'!! 8:30 PM I start checking with friends on who's made what plans and Anoop came to the rescue...he said "trek by the beach" and gosh that sounded heavenly!! Immediately I said we (AJ, Tu and I) will join :D And he very promptly added me to the whatsapp group (yes, I need to get used to this as well, every weekend springs up a new group...but I can't deny how convenient it truly is to plan things on whatsapp!! The boon and bane of being a generation that is inseparable from our mobiles :D). The group had a bunch of fun loving geeks from office and while excited about joining them I was extremely conscious that this was a 'zero kid' group in which I was gonna tag Tu along.... all the various memories of groaning at being with a kiddo on a weekend came rushing back to me....yes, I was one of those who had made a whole bunch of insane comments whenever any couple brought their infant/toddler along on a trek!!!! Life has a way of stuffing the humble pie down one's throat...and I must confess the last couple of years have taught me that in BIG, BOLD, FONT SIZE 44 :-))
Anyways the plan was to meet at Rosebay and this link here was to be our guide: http://www.bestsydneywalks.com/rose-bay-to-watsons-bay-walk/
Obviously not everything went to plan in the morning, but we somehow managed to drag a rather cute lil Tu into the car (in her jammies) and we reached Rose Bay Wharf some 5-10 mins after the 'gang' :D Even as we parked Tu was screaming in a thrilled shrill about meeting ' Mamma's colleagues..... Anoop!!" She is rather fond of him having been on a couple of day trips with him in the past...and astonishingly enough Anoop is quite fabulous with toddlers!! :-) As we got out of the car I spotted my friends and steered her over, but much to her dismay Anoop was missing!! With a lil scowl writ large on her face she ran back to her dad, totally annoyed with her mamma who was trying to introduce her to the others! Thankfully Anoop appeared in the next couple of minutes and a sly smile made a 'guest appearance' on her face. We all shuffled into the 'Ministry of Coffee'- a quaint cafe at Rose Bay. the few of us who wanted some coffee and breakfast had our fill and amidst the barking of several dogs on leash we set off on our trek. Rather naively we decided to let Ashish, Arun and Pratik be the navigators...only to realise after a ten minute stroll of the Rose Bay parking lot that it didn't seem like a great idea!! =)) Their sense of humor in trolling Anoop (who by the way is the most adventurous navigator you can get!!) was wayyyy better than their abilities to navigate us in the right direction!! But all's good in fun and frolic and soon enough we headed off on the roads to get to our first check point- Tingira Memorial Park. Abhi was by now ruing the fact that we didn't have a guide who could explain the significance of this point, so for his benefit I have now researched a bit and here are some key facts: Military training was once conducted on an Australian naval ship commemorated by Tingira Reserve. The HMAS Tingira, named after the Aboriginal word 'open sea' was moored in Rose Bay from 1912 to 1927. It was used to train over 3,000 sailors for naval duties during World War 1. The only noteworthy point about our gang was we were desperately trying to make this a beach walk...so we strolled into the shoreline only to discover it was a no go. We had to walk on the roads past some very tempting homeware stores at Rose Bay to reach a road that lead to the Dumaresq Reserve. Something warned me that this was not worth our while....but we had taken a turn to the reserve and google maps said 500 m...so I thought what harm in going there. Plus Pratik made a good case about how beautiful it was gonna be, the sales man that he is I had very lil chance of being able to decline....and to be fair he, Arun, Ashish and Abhi adviced AJ and me to go ahead to Hermitage with Tu.....but we fell prey to the temptations of the curious and landed up following these guys to Dumaresq..... the most polite way I can describe the moment we reached this 'reserve' is a very dampened..."Ahaaaa....??!" We all broke into a laugh at the stupidity of what we had done and clicked a few good pics.
Tu was totally perplexed at our jaunt so far in her opinion we were seeing so much of the sea and not getting our feet wet...she could almost have emulated the famous Obelix's "These Romans....!!!!!!" We made her pose with us for this lovely pic
The view was good, we saw some folks who were enjoying the view from their obviously opulent houses. We walked back to a lot of banter about 'who' made the final call to have picked this particular outing as the agenda for the day!!! Clearly popular vote landed with Abhishek...who very heatedly defended his point of view as well!! =)) When we turned into Tivoli road we all felt quite humbled by the various gorgeous houses on both sides of the road and somehow managed to reach the start of the Hermitage Foreshore Track. Right from the word go the track is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!! Lovely shaded boarded walks, a raging crystal blue ocean to one side and some battered and shaved limestone formations on the other. It alternated between few steps at a time to gravel paths, to meadows and thereafter some beaches. The first one- Queens beach is just a litlle stretch, but this was already occupied by a couple who almost had a 'DND" sign on...so we just walked on much to Tu's dismay!! (She is a water baby and was itching to enter the water).
Then we reached Tingara Beach, but it just seemed too strewn with debris and dry eaves from the boats that were anchored there. So yet again we walked on.
Finally we reached Milk Beach- just a pristine little cove with the most adorable waves, some kids were already frolicking in the water!!
Hence though the 'gang' had crossed this beach and were waiting for us a lil further on I had to request them to maybe take a 20 minute break so Tu could get into the water.... she didn't wait for me. With a little squeal she had already run right into the waters drenching her butterscotch coloured shorts in no time at all!! =)) Even as AJ struggled to bring her back to earth, I pulled out her swim suit, and as soon as we let go- a small watermelon coloured thingummy (she has a watermelon printed swim suit) had run into the beach!! The weather was just perfect to let her have her fun and just as we thought it couldn't get any better a ferry drove in selling icecreams.... Tu almost looked like her version of 'heaven' had just arrived!! :-) We also couldn't resist buying ourselves a cookies and cream bar and all in all it turned out to be a heavenly stop!! The team had recharged on some bananas and proclaimed themselves to be minions on a roll!! ;-)
Soon it was time to pack up and we changed Tu out into a pretty purple frock that matched her purple walking shoes and we were on our way to Nielsen Park. We stopped near the Strickland House (apparently the house of Sydney's second mayor) to get some group pics going.
And soon we set off to see a sign that said 1.2 kms to Nielsen. The views and paths were all excellent extracting quite a few "Ooooh's and Aahh's" from all of us. :D
In what was a good hike we reached the gorgeous Shark Beach!! Truly a jaw dropping sight ...rocks jutting out of the bay as sail boats float in the background- the azure waters are a fantastic sight to the eyes.
The Nielsen Park Cafe had some decent veggie options for a quick lunch and the gang decided to go on to Watson's Bay.
Tu was exhausted by this time so we decided to drop off and take a bus back to Rose Bay- all in all it had been a wonderful day of fun and frolic, so sooo proud of Tu that she managed a 5 km hike with us with the least fuss. Can't wait to continue to do more such outdoorsy stuff with her! Again a huge shout out to Abhi, Alka, Pratik, Marion, Ashish, Arun and Anoop for being patient enough to wait for us and go at our pace with Tu, she couldn't stop singing praises of all of them on the way back! Hoping we can do it agin some time soon! For now a good walk on a sunny day will certainly entail a good nights sleep! Bfn
Anyways the plan was to meet at Rosebay and this link here was to be our guide: http://www.bestsydneywalks.com/rose-bay-to-watsons-bay-walk/
Obviously not everything went to plan in the morning, but we somehow managed to drag a rather cute lil Tu into the car (in her jammies) and we reached Rose Bay Wharf some 5-10 mins after the 'gang' :D Even as we parked Tu was screaming in a thrilled shrill about meeting ' Mamma's colleagues..... Anoop!!" She is rather fond of him having been on a couple of day trips with him in the past...and astonishingly enough Anoop is quite fabulous with toddlers!! :-) As we got out of the car I spotted my friends and steered her over, but much to her dismay Anoop was missing!! With a lil scowl writ large on her face she ran back to her dad, totally annoyed with her mamma who was trying to introduce her to the others! Thankfully Anoop appeared in the next couple of minutes and a sly smile made a 'guest appearance' on her face. We all shuffled into the 'Ministry of Coffee'- a quaint cafe at Rose Bay. the few of us who wanted some coffee and breakfast had our fill and amidst the barking of several dogs on leash we set off on our trek. Rather naively we decided to let Ashish, Arun and Pratik be the navigators...only to realise after a ten minute stroll of the Rose Bay parking lot that it didn't seem like a great idea!! =)) Their sense of humor in trolling Anoop (who by the way is the most adventurous navigator you can get!!) was wayyyy better than their abilities to navigate us in the right direction!! But all's good in fun and frolic and soon enough we headed off on the roads to get to our first check point- Tingira Memorial Park. Abhi was by now ruing the fact that we didn't have a guide who could explain the significance of this point, so for his benefit I have now researched a bit and here are some key facts: Military training was once conducted on an Australian naval ship commemorated by Tingira Reserve. The HMAS Tingira, named after the Aboriginal word 'open sea' was moored in Rose Bay from 1912 to 1927. It was used to train over 3,000 sailors for naval duties during World War 1. The only noteworthy point about our gang was we were desperately trying to make this a beach walk...so we strolled into the shoreline only to discover it was a no go. We had to walk on the roads past some very tempting homeware stores at Rose Bay to reach a road that lead to the Dumaresq Reserve. Something warned me that this was not worth our while....but we had taken a turn to the reserve and google maps said 500 m...so I thought what harm in going there. Plus Pratik made a good case about how beautiful it was gonna be, the sales man that he is I had very lil chance of being able to decline....and to be fair he, Arun, Ashish and Abhi adviced AJ and me to go ahead to Hermitage with Tu.....but we fell prey to the temptations of the curious and landed up following these guys to Dumaresq..... the most polite way I can describe the moment we reached this 'reserve' is a very dampened..."Ahaaaa....??!" We all broke into a laugh at the stupidity of what we had done and clicked a few good pics.
Tu was totally perplexed at our jaunt so far in her opinion we were seeing so much of the sea and not getting our feet wet...she could almost have emulated the famous Obelix's "These Romans....!!!!!!" We made her pose with us for this lovely pic
The view was good, we saw some folks who were enjoying the view from their obviously opulent houses. We walked back to a lot of banter about 'who' made the final call to have picked this particular outing as the agenda for the day!!! Clearly popular vote landed with Abhishek...who very heatedly defended his point of view as well!! =)) When we turned into Tivoli road we all felt quite humbled by the various gorgeous houses on both sides of the road and somehow managed to reach the start of the Hermitage Foreshore Track. Right from the word go the track is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!! Lovely shaded boarded walks, a raging crystal blue ocean to one side and some battered and shaved limestone formations on the other. It alternated between few steps at a time to gravel paths, to meadows and thereafter some beaches. The first one- Queens beach is just a litlle stretch, but this was already occupied by a couple who almost had a 'DND" sign on...so we just walked on much to Tu's dismay!! (She is a water baby and was itching to enter the water).
Then we reached Tingara Beach, but it just seemed too strewn with debris and dry eaves from the boats that were anchored there. So yet again we walked on.
Finally we reached Milk Beach- just a pristine little cove with the most adorable waves, some kids were already frolicking in the water!!
Hence though the 'gang' had crossed this beach and were waiting for us a lil further on I had to request them to maybe take a 20 minute break so Tu could get into the water.... she didn't wait for me. With a little squeal she had already run right into the waters drenching her butterscotch coloured shorts in no time at all!! =)) Even as AJ struggled to bring her back to earth, I pulled out her swim suit, and as soon as we let go- a small watermelon coloured thingummy (she has a watermelon printed swim suit) had run into the beach!! The weather was just perfect to let her have her fun and just as we thought it couldn't get any better a ferry drove in selling icecreams.... Tu almost looked like her version of 'heaven' had just arrived!! :-) We also couldn't resist buying ourselves a cookies and cream bar and all in all it turned out to be a heavenly stop!! The team had recharged on some bananas and proclaimed themselves to be minions on a roll!! ;-)
Soon it was time to pack up and we changed Tu out into a pretty purple frock that matched her purple walking shoes and we were on our way to Nielsen Park. We stopped near the Strickland House (apparently the house of Sydney's second mayor) to get some group pics going.
And soon we set off to see a sign that said 1.2 kms to Nielsen. The views and paths were all excellent extracting quite a few "Ooooh's and Aahh's" from all of us. :D
In what was a good hike we reached the gorgeous Shark Beach!! Truly a jaw dropping sight ...rocks jutting out of the bay as sail boats float in the background- the azure waters are a fantastic sight to the eyes.
The Nielsen Park Cafe had some decent veggie options for a quick lunch and the gang decided to go on to Watson's Bay.
Tu was exhausted by this time so we decided to drop off and take a bus back to Rose Bay- all in all it had been a wonderful day of fun and frolic, so sooo proud of Tu that she managed a 5 km hike with us with the least fuss. Can't wait to continue to do more such outdoorsy stuff with her! Again a huge shout out to Abhi, Alka, Pratik, Marion, Ashish, Arun and Anoop for being patient enough to wait for us and go at our pace with Tu, she couldn't stop singing praises of all of them on the way back! Hoping we can do it agin some time soon! For now a good walk on a sunny day will certainly entail a good nights sleep! Bfn
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