Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Darelle and Sally's Swimming Adventures - Cronulla Ocean Pools. 8 Nov 2016

This pool opened in 1932. Like so many of the NSW coastal rock pools, a product of Great Depression public works schemes. It was a training facility for local lifesavers.
The pool is 50m in length.
Two "slack molls" 45 years later!

Cronulla - home of PubertyBlues, but for these two mature "slack molls", we had no boys for whom to collect chiko rolls from the North Cronulla Surf Lifesaving Club kiosk. In fact, I checked the menu, and there were no chiko rolls! So we settled in for a flat white. We weren't going surfing, thought we did have a look at the results chart for the weekend's Sydney International Women's Pro surfing event. Silvana Lima from Brazil defeated Newcastle, Australia's Philippa Anderson.

The surf club is also the nearest (250m or so walk) change and toilet facility.

Forgot to charge my camera battery, so the closest the pics came was the weed covered, and fairly slippery metal steps. But, yes, we got in, and swam. It was a case of "beautiful once you get in". And it was. 

This pool has a sandy bottom, the water was really clear. It's not very deep. Apparently it gets filled up a bit much with sane from time to time (see article below) 

Pretty much a case of leave your stuff on the rocks....we left the beach chairs in the car, and it was a long way down to the sandstone rock platform into which the pool is built. We repaired to a nearby park-like bench after our swim. 

There is an open-air rinse-off shower on the rocks. 

There are two pools along the walkway between Cronulla and North Cronulla. We swam in tis one. This is looking south towards Cronulla.

A school group arrived as we were leaving

We were both pretty captivated by the Hokusai-like wave on the rubbish bin

The second pool is built down into the rock rather than above. It was a bit of a choppier proposition today. 

Along the Esplanade, Cronulla is a land of residential flats (well, now apartments). Older style 2 and 3 storey red and blonde brick walkups are being replaced by larger concrete and glass developments. This staircase had been propped up by  a brick pillar. We were pleased to see that access is now barred. 
There's supposed to be an upgrade to the pool happening between April and August this year, including non-slip and disabled access. I didn't notice today that that had happened. Click here. 

There are other ocean pools in Cronulla - at Shelley Park and Oak Park 

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