87 Northbridge - Clive Park, Minimbah Road

At the end of Sailors Bay Road in Northbridge  we set off to explore Clive Park and surrounding area.  Unexpected surprises presented themselves the first being Clive Park itself.   Although small, it has excellent picnic tables, benches, BBQ area well set apart in a couple of little glades under  trees looking through to Sailor Bay and across the water to Castlecrag.   It felt quietly secluded even though a few children with attendant adults were enjoying the  beach below.   Our path led around large boulders skirting  the beach. Right there in front of us was, allegedly,one of the the smallest sea pools in Sydney.  See photo.     

From Clive Park we turned into Minimbah Road to walk along its entire length  passing the Marina before ending up at the Swimming Centre.   Again families were enjoying the new found summer weather.  

En route down Minimbah  we looked  for and found Bob’s and Blanche’s house.  

A friend of ours (the three walkers today)  lived on the cliff above B and B’s house.  She deliberately and crossly grew  bamboo to avoid having to watch the  PM putting around the roof-top Putting Green.  From where we were below on the road we could see that bamboo higher up on the cliff.

Further on we found the beautiful Italian style house where we three once attended a memorable party.   Peering over the high wall was pointless as all we could see were the terracotta roof tiles   Too steep, too far below.  

Minimbah Road  proved  to be an interesting road with houses strung hung down the steep cliff with two, three or more floor levels needing mechanical movers clinging wherever possible.  Stairs and stilts and railing and steps of every description.  A glass mosque like dome on one home, another with a stunning glass roof the shutters of which created floor patterns two stories below.  Architecturally interesting, sometimes very pleasing.  Gardens likewise. 

 Pippa noticed  iron supports on the cliff face - woe if ever a tremor sends rocks skidding down.  One can only admire architects and builders who have won the odds agains the slope, the cliff and the rocks.

After an hour and a half of good walking we visited Tram Expresso on Sailors Bay Road.  The owners/staff were interested in our choice of coffees, teasing, laughing - pleasant place.  We all  agreed it was a relaxed, comfortable venue

86 - Rookwood Necropolis/Hidden Sculpture walk

Rookwood Necropolis

Thanks to Pippa’s precise instructions and her belief that car driving was the way to go, we found our way to Rookwood easily, following those instructions right into the selected parking spot.  We also followed up later by having coffee in the cafe, Reflections. Thank you Pip for all that research.  It seemed unbelievably difficult, too far, too hard but you eased the way by  showing us how to go.

 

Well, at last we found ourselves in Rookwood Necropolis along with the added bonus of the “Hidden” sculpture exhibition both of which kept us transfixed, interested and thoroughly fascinated for the few hours we were able to wander through just a fraction of the 283 hectares.

Jane guided us from sculpture to sculpture with the aid of her guide-book.  While the sculptures sometimes fascinated,  the surrounded area dominated,  coloured as it was with emerging spring colour; graves were either highly polished shiny or grey crumbling with age, a sense of decay mixed with modern carved glitzed marble, structures massive or tiny, some buried sunken obliquely into the ground,  topsy turvy. There were monuments, mausoleums, symbols of every religion, rows of precise granite memories edged by another section of unruly disorder.  Somehow it all hung together in the most charming way with scattered  monuments, chapels, urns, obelisks, shelters, beautiful trees, birds,  dale up,  dale down, vistas, views, Few  of us had ever been to this monumental place, few of us could guess the enormity, the size, nearly a million internments. 

  Established in 1868, it is protected by an act of Parliament.  

We didn’t see the the original 81 hectares which is  subject to a Permanent Conservation Order  “represents the largest and one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian public cemetery anywhere in the world”   It was designed as a  “grand gardenesque style” once fashionable. Surely we need return, there are still another 200 plus hectares for us to explore!

Walkers:  Pippa, Marie-Claire, Jane, Kate, Carolle

85 - Turimetta Headland, Coastal Walk

84 - Engravings Walk - Seaforth Oval /near Ban try Bay

Engravings Walk:

After many weeks of rain a sunny day finally permitted  a Walk.  Yay, hooray.

The Engravings Walk is, as the name suggests a destination for Aboriginal engravings on  a rock sandstone platform.

The first half is the track is a bush track which gives  way to a service trail.   Here, because of unusually  high rainfall we found large muddy pools right across our path.  We walked parallel to the Wakehurst Parkway  close by,  unseen but heard.

The destination of the expansive sandstone platform was reached after we climbed through  protective fencing.   Some of the Aboriginal engraving were  very faint while a few showed up bold and large.

After a good look at the engravings while wandering over the smooth surfaces of the fascinating sandstone  platforms  we retraced our steps to Seaforth Oval.  

Another track leads from that starting point, The Timbergetters Track which almost became the choice for the next walk.   Unfortunately it falls in the “Hard” category.  Pity really but we will give it a miss.   Moderation in all things including walks.   The Moderate category is a perfectly good and an acceptable grading for us.

Coffee in  Roseville,  Hill Street Beans  where Kate joined us.

Walkers:  Moira, Pippa, Marie-Claire, Donna Carolle

After the rains

83 - Huntleys Point, over Gladesville Bridge, under Tarban Bridge

The Three Bridges Walk sounds frightfully impressive but it was an easy walk.  We did in fact cover three bridges one way or another.

On this beautiful July warm sunny day we commenced our walk  in Huntleys Point, that rather exclusive littler suburb  in Sydney’s Hunter Hill Municipality located on the northern shore of the Parramatta River.

From Huntleys Point Road we headed  under the Tarban Creek Bridge which we walked over in November last year.  

 under Gladesville Bridge

Entrance stairs on to Gladesville Bridge from Huntleys Point

Gladesville Bridge - northern end

Parramatta River from bridge

Backyards Huntleys Point

Parramatta River/Huntleys Point

High above Huntleys Point

Five dock Bay foreground

Drummoyne, Abbottsford, Cabrita,Looking Glass Bay, Gladesville

Drummoyne 

south end Gladesville Bridge

Under Gladesville Bridge

Stain at Hunters Hill

  

After following the grassy verge alongside noisy Victoria Road we found the spiral stairs leading up to the footbridge high across Victoria Road.  We were able to gaze down on  the never ending traffic way below.  Then we continued over and down the other side descending  alongside Riverside School.

We gained access to the Gladesville Bridge footpath  via the entrance stairs on the northern end of the bridge.  The Bridge links Hunters Hill to Drummoyne part of  Victoria Road carrying traffic on the Northern Western Expressway. 

Coffee at Stain,   Hunters Hill.

Walkers:  Pippa, Marie-Claire, Moira, Jane, Donna, Carolle

82 Banjo Patterson Park, Gladesville Hospital, Bedlam Point

Approaching Jetty, Looking Glass Bay

Convict built remains of old ferry punt walls

Bedlam Bay

ghosts in the trees 

Mass grave nearby see Wiki notes

The old Boat Shed

Gladesville Hospital

Gladesville Hospital

Banjo Patterson Park, Bedlam Point, Gladesville Hospital, Looking Glass Bay:  Our Tuesday Walk  started on Punt Road in Gladesville which leads directly to the front of Banjo Patterson Restaurant, “Rockend” once home to eminent  journalist, author, clerk, poet, Andrew Barton “Banjo” Patterson OBE. He lived there with his Grandmother while attending Sydney Grammar school. (and Wendy, our Archibald Guide  “Banjo” Patterson’s portrait by John Longstaff was the winning portrait in 1935!

We  wandered into the 1830 Cottage to look around.  The cottage/restaurant along with the  surrounding garden area is beautifully kept and  well maintained.   The house overlooks Looking Glass Bay with its  attractive jetty from where we had views to Abbotsford with the Sydney Rowing Club in sight which brought back memories of another walk.   

From Looking Glass Bay we followed the path leading towards  Bedlam Point  which is adjacent to the grounds of old Gladesville Mental Hospital.  Here we found a less pristine area with morning glory spreading its vines, asparagus fern digging in everywhere,  weeds of every description entangled with the shore natural bush overlooked in places by massive shadowy Fiscus lining  the old stone walls. A thousand inmate ghosts swirled silently, sadly in the darkness of the branches above, wafting, watching us.    

Checking the map once again in an attempt to follow where our footsteps had led us it seems we saw little of Gladesville Mental Hospital complex itself  While we saw some  of the old buildings, there are yet many more to be seen in this sprawling space. What we did see though were some rather neglected and shored up old buildings while many other buildings have been taken over by a variety of medical and care related organisations. We came across part of the old sandstone wall which is heavily impressive. Many of the  buildings are, glad to say, on the National Register. 

While researching this area  I found a wonderful Picture Essay of the precinct which also informed that there is a mass grave of over 1000 unnamed inmates buried there, downed out of sight.  This seems a tragedy since we now know that people were often institutionalised unnecessarily.

We wound  back to Punt Road having peered over the old walls, found the old gate,  stepped over intrusive weeds while earlier we had  appreciated the well built steel walkway which guided us safely along the lower cliff walk above the little bays.  

To sum up - it was an excellent exploratory walk, so pretty with clean clear Parramatta River water in the bays below, a couple of tiny almost hidden beaches, oyster encrusted rocks, wrens and willie-wagtails adding  delight. 

We chose to drive to Hunters Hill “la Village" for coffee, a cafe which was more or less on the way homewards.

Walkers: Moira, Pippa, Marie-Claire, Carolle