I don’t really know what I'd expected Bondi Beach to be like; maybe something wild and undeveloped - a bit like Bell's Beach - but I couldn't have been further from the reality if I'd tried.
The route through the suburbs took around half an hour and suddenly, as the bus approached a bend, there in the distance ahead between two buildings was one of the most famous beaches in the world - I had absolutely no idea it was smack bang in the middle of a built up area.
Bondi looks much like any Victorian England seaside town, with its concrete promenade and grassy bank.
A bit of an anti climax actually. We got off the bus in the centre of town and then walked back up the hill so I could take these shots.
There is a fresh water lido on the right and the white building is a restaurant and bar and so we went in and although all the tables were booked for lunch the waitress kindly let us have just a beer on the basis we'd vacate the table as soon as she needed it.
From our spot on the terrace though we had a great view out to sea and could appreciate better the dangers presented here.
We watched one group of swimmers near the headland and rocks and they didn't appear to be making progress despite appearing to be swimming strongly so we wondered if they were in a rip currant. A lifeguard went nearby in a speedboat and they all moved slowly back into shore.
The lido had clear lane markings and we had to feel sorry for whoever was allocated the outside lane as every so often a huge wave would crash over the wall.
Actually it was so hot, and the beer so delicious, that it barely touched the sides and we left well before she needed us to. We walked back down the hill to the centre of the grassy bit and ate our lunch on one of the tree shaded picnic tables. A group of mid-20s came up and asked to share the bench, one of them started chatting and he was originally from Delhi now living in Perth but had come to Sydney for the Easter weekend because he was a fan of the TV series Bondi Rescue and wanted to visit where it was filmed (we'd never even heard of Bondi Rescue!).
Then we walked down onto the beach.
We'd expected a dangerous place where we wouldn't feel safe swimming and so hadn't brought our costumes with us which was a shame seeing the beautiful turquoise water full of people having fun. We debated for a while whether to go back for them but settled on just a paddle instead.
There are loads of lifeguards here. I got chatting to this one and asked if there had been much trouble over the last few days as J had told us the cyclones up north had been causing big swells on the Victoria coast. She confirmed they'd been on high alert for several days and there had been numerous incidents.
Back on the bus, this is the view from the other end of the beach - not quite Margate but .................
Typical blunt Oz humour.
