Everyday Adventure to Nielsen Park

With CZ at 15 months, and a growing comfort in Sydney, we are finally venturing further than Centennial Park and the CBD on bicycles.  We recently made the trek to Nielsen Park, Watson’s Bay, and back through Bondi Junction.  Read along to benefits from our experiences, and start planning your next everyday adventure.

EZ is a planner, and in our family she is THE planner. She plans the meals, she planned Tassie, and she often plans the weekends.  However, she recently told me to plan an outing because my adventures are generally things she “wouldn’t choose, but always enjoys.” I immediately thought about one of my colleagues at work who mentioned that riding to Nielsen Park on weekend mornings is one of his favorite activities.  I seized this opportunity for an epic family bike adventure (He lives a tad closer than we do).

My planning consisted of the following:  confirm ride-time (~50 minutes) to Nielsen Park, check weather forecast, and … that’s it.  The night before, we did take the time to gather most of the items because the plan was to leave early and hope CZ was up for a 1 nap day.  Fortunately, she was up for sleeping on the bike, and actually kept her normal sleep schedule during the day.

The route is an important part of the planning, and we love to leverage the bicycle routes functionality in  Google maps.  However, this occasionally puts us on busier roads than we prefer, so we almost always cross-reference the latest Sydney Cycleways map. For this adventure, Google offered two routes, so we decided to take the route through Darlinghurst to get there, and ride through Bondi Junction on the way back. Ultimately, we ended up taking a few detours partly out of curiosity and partly to avoid a busy stretch of New South Head Rd, and largely because of not being able to hear the GPS from my pocket. We are considering a handlebar mount for the phone, to help with this situation next time. We also vow to pay better attention to elevation changes (Heartbreak Hill was unavoidable, but Darling point certainly was).

View from the top of Darling Point.

I like to maintain that my little exploratory detours are part of what makes these outings an everyday adventure.

After a good, long ride, we made it down Vaucluse Rd to the park entrance, and found a spot to lock the bikes together and throw down a picnic blanket. There is plenty of space on sand and concrete steps to get a tan, but there is twice as much shaded grass for a break from the sun and water to have lunch. It is a perfect spot for an afternoon of family fun. So far, Camp Cove in Watson’s Bay is our favorite beach because of the calm water and high concentration of of families. However, I think Shark Beach has a chance at taking the spot once we perfect our route.

Shark beach, itself has plenty of space for Cecilia to play in the sand, even at high-tide, and the light waves make it feel more like a bay.  There is also a decent outdoor shower for rinsing off the sand and seawater, although we didn’t find it until we were leaving.  It is tucked away among the boulders at the rocky end of the beach in the picture below.

We took a lap around the Greycliffe House, which is part of the park. It is a neo-gothic Victorian home, but what stood out to us, was how awesome it would be to have that huge yard for CZ to play. After snapping a few photos of the house, we decided to ride on to Watson’s Bay for a fresh salad lunch and a ferry ride home – although things did not go quite according to plan.

The ride from Nielsen Park to Watson’s Bay, was very pleasant, save one lung-busting hill and a stretch of residential road lined with cars cars in either direction. CZ managed to have another sleep, that lasted through our lunch (eating without feeding the little one is a major win, as all you parents know). We are big fans of the take-away shop at the Watson’s Bay Hotel, and very much enjoyed the smoked trout salads.  Once CZ woke up, she devoured her treats of fish and chips, minus the chips we stole.  Unfortunately, Erin left her Opal card at the house, so the ferry ride was out. Fortunately, the salads and CZ’s chips revived us enough to tackle the ride back through Bondi Junction and Centennial Park.

Tips for your everyday adventure:

Always bring your Opal cards, as you never know when you may want to hop on public transit wth the bicycles.
Plan your route, but be flexible. Leverage local cycleway maps, but leave yourself enough buffer time to do a little exploring.  Our detour through Darling Point was a bit of climbing on loaded bicycles, but we also rode through Double Bay for the first time, which was beautiful.
Bring reusable water bottles. It seems obvious, but sometimes the cool air temperature tempts you to leave them behind.  We prefer these nice Camelbak bottles, but any bottle will do.  Thankfully, Sydney is littered with taps for filtered water.
Finally, smile! Smiling can make all the difference.  We definitely get turned around, flustered, and frustrated the first time we start working on a new everyday adventure, but between the three of us, one smile is all it takes to start a chain-reaction.

Where was your last family bike ride?