Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk

For my two nights in Sydney earlier this month, I stayed at Wake Up, a hostel in the city centre. The hostel offers lots of social events, during the day and in the evening. I enjoyed the group Coogee Coastal Walk, an iconic 6km wander along the water’s edge.

As the hostel offered lots of events, the entire building felt quite social and it was easy to get chatting with fellow travellers. I spent the entire walk rotating in conversation with different people. We had the usual exchanges about how long we’d been in the city, where we were going next, where we’re from…which led to me discovering that someone I’d met works with my dad! We are a long way from home, but connections still manage to be all around us.

Walking along one of the cliffs, we looked out over the wooden fence to see several fins popping up and disappearing beneath the waves. We watched, cameras raised in the air, and after a moment of stillness where we wondered if they’d gone, lowering our lenses, all four dolphins appeared above the water in a beautiful arc. There was a communal gasp of awe and delight, followed soon after by the groans of almost everyone who had stopped recording. If anything, that made the moment all the more special: the surprise of it, the one-time only factor. 

We reached closer to Bondi, and saw signs for an ongoing filming. Around the corner, we saw it in action opposite a lookout point. At first people were taking pictures of the ocean, but after the cameras started rolling and Glen Powell appeared mid-stunt, everyone turned the other way. We saw several famous faces who waved hello – it was all very friendly! We saw the stunt several times before we moved on (the third was definitely the one, team!).

As we reached the beach itself, we saw the waters of Bondi’s Icebergs, a pool on the edge of the ocean. We didn’t join for a swim, but for only $9 in that stunning location we were pretty impressed. Instead, we admired the waves and the elegance of the surfers that rode them.

I was really glad I joined the walk that morning, and so impressed in our timing to catch the dolphins and the filming in action. The scenery itself almost faded into the background... almost.