On the Central Coast - Part 2 - Three beaches in one day!

Another perfect day weather-wise, and since I was on the coast, we decided that today could be a ‘day of beaches’.  First up was Palm Beach, the northernmost beach in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan area.

Colloquially referred to as ‘Palmy’ it is a 2.3 kilometre long, east facing beach.  It lies at the end of a long peninsula, fringed by surf on one side and tranquil Pittwater on the other.

Palm Beach is used as the location for the fictional town/beach of Summer Bay in the TV series Home and Away, and they were filming the day I was there.

At the north end of the beach there is a trail through Kur-ring-gai Chase National Park. Here we are about mid-way up the trail.

On the way up to the lighthouse.

The Barrenjoey Head Lighthouse was completed in 1881, built from Hawkesbury sandstone, and is the third light constructed on the Barrenjoey headland and is connected to the head keeper’s cottage and assistants quarters.

A gravestone marking in memory of George Mulhall, the first lighthouse keeper at Barrenjoey Lighthouse, from 1881-1885.

This is the site of one of two Stewart Towers which were the first lighthouses on Barrenjoey - 1861.  It’s not far from where the current lighthouse stands today.

The Pacific Ocean, and Palm Beach, on one side of the peninsula

and Pittwater (an estuary, or bay/harbour, and one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Central Coast) on the other side.

One of many beaches on Pittwater

The second beach for the day was Newport Beach - a 1.3 kilometre long beach, about 40 mins. away from Sydney’s CBD.  The winds were really picking up by now (you can see how many other people were out on the beach) but I was insistent that we eat our lunch on the beach!  The food had a little bit of extra ‘crunch’ to it today.

The Surf Lifesaving Clubhouse at Newport Beach

The third beach stop today was Brighton le Sands Beach.  On the shores of Botany Bay, Brighton le Sands  is actually one of 7 beaches that all run into each other around the northwest side of Botany Bay.  The headlands into Botany Bay are where Captain Cook first landed in 1770.

The beaches along here are a great place for plane spotters (can you see it?) as Sydney airport is right nearby.

A netted (from sharks!) swimming pool, known as baths, at Brighton le Sands.  There are several of these areas all along the beach here.

Come out, Come out Hippo, Wherever you are is a large brass sculpture of a hippo emerging from a drain.  It was the winner of a competition in 2019 and is now on permanent display in nearby Cook Park.