On a windy afternoon, we set off to test the waters of Botany Bay in the south of Sydney. The water was really warm, and clear, so we had no trouble immersing ourselves. There have been king tides lately, so the water was right up to the wall in the swimming enclosure so we chose to swim outside.
There's a cafe/restaurant right at the baths, plentiful picnic facilities, shade from Norfolk Island pines and casuarinas, and further down towards Dolls Point, there's a couple more cafes.
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| A VERY windy afternoon |
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| Windy day video |
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| I've never seen the beach completely covered with water, but Darelle reminded me it is the season of king tides |
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| Obligatory selfie...and then we swam for quite some time |
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| Jet skis are common in the bay, much to the annoyance of a lot of people. Some jetskiers seem oblivious to other people. and do seem to set out to irritate and intimidate. This fellow was not hooning around when we saw him, and very slowly brought his vehicle up to the beach. |
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| Looking south from where we swam, towards Dolls Point |
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| A bike track goes all the way along the bay from up near the airport at Kyeemagh, to Dolls Point and Captain Cook Bridge. |
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| Plenty of picnic shelters, grass and shade. There are also pretty good toilet facilities all the way along the shore. On crowded days there IS a lot of rubbish left behind, but there are also plenty of bins. Some people are just litterbugs and idiots! Today it was all very clean. |
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| On to Dolls Point where we had refreshments (no pic). This used to be a swimming enclosure, but it seems that the sand has conquered the baths for the while. |
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| I was quite surprised that mt local Council was telling me to "fear everything" !!! |
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| Here's what we are meant to fear : boating traffic, slippery surfaces, submerged rocks, sudden drop off deep water, recreational craft, strong currents, large waves and sharks. |
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| I think the sign may well need repair! |
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| We certainly weren't going to be swimming left OR right of the sign today! Unless sand swimming is a thing. |
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| Lots of free council-provided barbeques (and bins) |
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| Some people prefer to bring their own charcoal barbeques, and in the past piles of hot charcoal left behind has been a bone of contention. So now there are charcoal bins as well. |
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| This pile of charcoal was about 20 metres from the bin....the people who left this just couldn't be bothered... |
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| Impressive murals on this toilet block at Dolls Point |
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| The mosiacist-muralist |
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| Playgrounds are also plentiful along the foreshore parks. |
