Clovelly Beach
We've been in Sydney for two months now, and we're very comfortable in our suburban cul-de-sac. The children are at school, I go to work from 10-6, and Helen finds plenty to occupy her time. But we do try and remember that we're on the other side of the world, in one of the prettiest cities in the world, although that's not immediately obvious out here in our Inner-West suburb.
So on Thursday, after I had been on a long coding gig, Helen and I jumped in the car whilst the children were at school and escaped across the city in half an hour for a romantic day at Clovelly beach. A pleasantly warm 25 Celsius, and a strange narrow beach, more akin to an oversized swimming pool than an Australian beach. Since it was midweek, the sea was full of people doing their laps (of which Helen will write more in another post), and even though we'd read that it was good for snorkelling, it didn't seem promising - after all, there was no one else in with snorkels. Undeterred, I waded in, and saw a few little fish about as I swam up the inlet. But then I was really shocked, when this enormous 1 metre long blue fish emerged from under a rock and glided past me. I had met a blue groper. I swam on, and was rewarded with the best underwater seascape I've yet seen whilst snorkelling, with a wide variety of colourful and strangely shaped fish.
I returned to Helen and tried to encourage her to come snorkelling to see the metre long fish, but she was strangely worried by the idea of fish in the sea. Could I encourage Wendy to write emails waxing lyrical about the joy of underwater sightseeing?
We had a pleasant lunch at a cafe on top of the rocks, walked around the point to see Gordon's Bay, then had a last swim before returning to pick up the children. We had planned to travel out to Manly at the weekend, but we decided to return to Clovelly with the children, so they could enjoy the Clovelly experience. Whilst Ethan is making progress with swimming, it was left to Georgia and myself to try out the snorkelling again, and Georgia thought that the snorkelling was really fun, and she found it very interesting to see the fish so close. She also got to see the Groper, and this time we also saw a female as well as the male. We're now very excited about exploring other snorkelling spots, and even seeing carpet sharks and other more interesting fauna, not to mention the eventual trip up North to the barrier reef.
(We didn't have a camera with us, but we saw these images almost exactly, with due thanks to the person we're borrowing them from).
So on Thursday, after I had been on a long coding gig, Helen and I jumped in the car whilst the children were at school and escaped across the city in half an hour for a romantic day at Clovelly beach. A pleasantly warm 25 Celsius, and a strange narrow beach, more akin to an oversized swimming pool than an Australian beach. Since it was midweek, the sea was full of people doing their laps (of which Helen will write more in another post), and even though we'd read that it was good for snorkelling, it didn't seem promising - after all, there was no one else in with snorkels. Undeterred, I waded in, and saw a few little fish about as I swam up the inlet. But then I was really shocked, when this enormous 1 metre long blue fish emerged from under a rock and glided past me. I had met a blue groper. I swam on, and was rewarded with the best underwater seascape I've yet seen whilst snorkelling, with a wide variety of colourful and strangely shaped fish.
I returned to Helen and tried to encourage her to come snorkelling to see the metre long fish, but she was strangely worried by the idea of fish in the sea. Could I encourage Wendy to write emails waxing lyrical about the joy of underwater sightseeing?
We had a pleasant lunch at a cafe on top of the rocks, walked around the point to see Gordon's Bay, then had a last swim before returning to pick up the children. We had planned to travel out to Manly at the weekend, but we decided to return to Clovelly with the children, so they could enjoy the Clovelly experience. Whilst Ethan is making progress with swimming, it was left to Georgia and myself to try out the snorkelling again, and Georgia thought that the snorkelling was really fun, and she found it very interesting to see the fish so close. She also got to see the Groper, and this time we also saw a female as well as the male. We're now very excited about exploring other snorkelling spots, and even seeing carpet sharks and other more interesting fauna, not to mention the eventual trip up North to the barrier reef.
(We didn't have a camera with us, but we saw these images almost exactly, with due thanks to the person we're borrowing them from).
