The Spit to Kirribilli

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RETURNING to Wynyard, I took the bus back up to Spit Bridge, quite a quick trip in the morning and with nowhere near the same excitment as crossing the harbour on the ferry. The sky was sunny and mostly clear as I set off following the black and yellow fish signs along a footpath following a side road above the water now heading down the other side of Middle Harbour.

After a brief stop looking at Parriwi Lighthouse almost hidden in the bush, the trail steeply dropped to Chinamans Beach which I walked along before following the footpath around Wyargne Point and dropping to Edwards Beach. The path followed just above the beach and passing Rocky Point before reaching the long Balmoral Beach. It was quite crowded here being such a nice sunny morning. Upon reaching the end of the beach, I followed a long stairway through Balmoral Park heading to the top of the hill to join the Headland Park Walking Track.

The trail passed the Balmoral Naval Base before continuing to Middle Head, where I discovered more military remains including gun emplacements and bunkers. The point divides Middle Harbour from the main Sydney Harbour, with a clear view of the harbour entrance quite close to the heads.

From Middle Head, I followed the track back a short distance before following Obelisk Bay Road above a new track currently under contruction. There were a couple of narrow tracks down to Obelisk Bay but I stayed following the road until reaching George Head to a new lookout followed by the remains of a large bunker and an old watchtower before descending to the Chowder Bay military village where the submarine corps were based between 1890 and 1922. The track descended the village to the very pretty golden beach and followed it before entering the bush on the other side. The track followed above the coast rounding the next headland and into the pristine Taylors Bay. The track was in great condition and I saw many water dragons sunning themselves.

After passing Taylor's Bay, the track continued through the bush continuing for quite a while before eventually reaching Bradleys Head with its distinctive military style lighthouse, an amiptheatre and an old wharf where several people were fishing from. I headed down to the beach beside the wharf for lunch. From here I had a great view to the city and the harbour bridge under the sunny sky.

After my break I continued following the track heading into Mossman Bay. The terrain was more rugged on this side of the headland but the track was still in excellent condition. It was not long before the track was passing under Taronga Zoo, where several lions had escaped a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure there won't be any problems today. I continued following the track before reaching the entrance to the zoo where a ferry comes over from the city. Passing the wharf I saw a long queue getting into the zoo and took the nearby main track heading back into the bush. There were a couple of track diversions to some historical camps but otherwise I continued along the track before descending to Sirius Cove Beach.

After resting at the beach the track followed a footpath along several roads until reaching Curraghbeena Lookout at the point before doubling back along the next street to Mossman Wharf and continuing along the coast crossing the back of Mossman Bay at Reid Park. From here the path continued along the side of the bay before cutting across Cremorne Point (the short track to the end of the point was closed due to storm damage) and following several residential streets above Neutral Bay, and passing a couple of parks before dropping to Milson Park, and rising to Kirribilli from where I followed Broughton Street beside the approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the lookout along the harbour bridge across to the city.

Here I stopped to finish today's official walk before walking back up the road to Milson's Point train station to catch the train just a couple of stops back to Town Hall Station.