Palm Beach

Today I went for a day trip to Palm Beach, which is about an hour's drive north of Sydney and very famous among the high society who lives or has a weekend house there, I was told.

Palm Beach itself is a nice beach but not much different from the other beaches, except it's maybe less commercial. The ocean surf makes swimming impossible (only body surfing, between the flags), so there are mainly surfers on surfboards there.

The much nicer beach, I found, is the lesser known Station Beach which is on the inland side of the Palm Beach peninsula, called Pittswater, which you see in this picture. It is quiet there, not a sound, and very peaceful. All of a sudden I felt like on Fiji, a few months ago. However as far as swimming is concerned, Station Beach is not suitable for it either, because of sharks and jellyfish.

From Station Beach you can walk up to the lighthouse on Barrenjoey Headland. There are two walking tracks up to the lighthouse which have an interesting history: the steep and narrow track was built by two convicts in 18-something. A second way, which is wider and paved with massive stone blocks, was built for King George VI of the UK, who had planned to come to Australia in the 1950s and visit this place. But then the king's visit was cancelled for health reasons and the "King's Highway" was left in a half finished state.

From the lighthouse, which was built in 1881, you get a magnificent view of the area. This last photo is looking South (towards Sydney), with Palm Beach on the left, facing the Pacific (you see the surf) and Station Beach on the right (with the calm water).

I was told this spot was great for whale-watching, and this was currently the right season, so I looked out for whales but didn't see any.