Sally and Ann's Excellent Adventure 09: The Trek

The initial aim of this trek was to swim in every ocean pool between Palm Beach and Manly. This was pool number one, Palm Beach Ocean Pool. From it is a fabulous view of Barrenjoey Head and the lighthouse.

Sally and Ann's Excellent Adventure 04: View from Barrenjoey Lighthouse

The sandstone Barrenjoey Head was cut off from the mainland by rising sea levels about 10 000 years ago. The subsequent build up of sand forms the spit (or tombolo) between the Head and the settlement of Palm Beach.

Looking south from the lighthouse, on the left hand side you can see the surfing beach of Palm Beach, on the right, the calmer waters of Pittwater.

The headland at the southern end of Palm Beach is called Little Head, which separates Palm Beach from the next beach, Whale Beach. The larger headland further south is Bangalley Head, where we will venture in a few days.

Palm Beach is where popular TV soapie, Home and Away is filmed.

The southern end of the Palm Beach is marked as Cabbage Tree Boat Harbour on a map of 1832. It was latter named Palm Beach after the nearby cabbage tree palms.

The view to the north takes in Lion Island, the entrance to Broken Bay and the national parks and beaches of the Central Coast

Sally and Ann's Excellent Adventure 03: Inside Barrenjoey Lighhouse



The light(above) looks like a Dalek! And if you don't know what a Dalek is, you had better click on this link.

The signal flags and charts and other necessary paraphenalia are still all in existence.

See yesterday's blog for more information about this lighhouse.

Sally and Ann's Excellent Adventure 02: Barrenjoey Lighthouse

Barrenjoey Lighthouse - one of four Sydney lighthouses outside Sydney Harbour. The others are the Hornby lighthouse at South Head (entrance to the harbour),  Macquarie at Vaucluse- Australia's first and thus longest operating lighthouse (see previous blog here) and Cape Bailey, at the entrance to Botany Bay.

This was the third light on the headland, and was completed in 1881. The first report of any light on the headland was in 1855 when a fire was raised in a basket to assist mariners during stormy weather. In 1932 it was converted to automatic operation. It is now under the control of the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service as part of Kuring-gai National Park.

Barrenjoey is made of magnificent sandstone.

Tomorrow a look inside!

Sally and Ann's Excellent Adventure 1 : The Beginning

Come with us on a 5 day, 50 kilometre walk from Barrenjoey Lighthouse to Shelley Beach at Manly. The aim was to swim in every one of the ocean pools along the coast: Palm Beach, Whale Beach, Avalon, Bilgola, Newport, Mona Vale, North Narrabeen, Collaroy, Dee Why, North Curl Curl, South Curl Curl, Freshwater, Queenscliff and Fairy  Bower.

First, a stop at West Head in Kuring-gai Chase National Park, to look out across Pittwater at our starting point: Barrenjoey Lighthouse on Barrenjoey Head (Sunday 6 January, 2013).

Kuring-gai was named after the Aboriginal people of the area, the Guringai, who owned the land from Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) north across Broken Bay.