Today we venture to the majestic southern shore of Pittwater, peacefully secured an hour’s drive north from the hustle and bustle of the Sydney CBD. Our journey there takes us over the Harbour Bridge, through the North Shore’s suburban streets, and alongside the soaring trees on the edge of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. By Ingleside’s extensive lawns and mansions and down the twisting hills of Bayview we go – until, finally, we burst out onto paradise.
We’re welcomed by panoramic sights of towering vegetation
over golden coastlines. They stretch before bobbing boats and yachts scattered
in their hundreds atop an azure sea, extending all the way across the length of
Pittwater to its mouth at Broken Bay.
Pittwater is Sydney’s northernmost open body of water - a
tidal estuary often considered a bay or harbour. Bordering the tip of the
Northern Beaches peninsula and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, it separates
greater Sydney from the Central Coast. On its southern end, in the suburbs of
Bayview and Church Point, seven beaches lie awaiting.
Starting from the west, Bothams Beach sits on McCarrs Creek
underneath the sloping hillside. Access the 300-metre stretch of sand via steps
down from McCarrs Creek Road through a thick bush of Grey Ironbarks and River
Red and Spotted Gums. A spot on the shore awaits us amongst stored dinghies and
fallen logs. Meditate here on the sound of wind rustling lightly in the
branches over gently lapping water. When you’re ready, turn your eyes out over
the crystal-clear creek sparkling in the sunshine. Give into seduction and submerge
yourself deep down into divinity.
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| Bothams Beach |
From here’s ideal to launch a kayak and paddle up the creek, darting through perched sail boats, to merge into Pittwater’s open sea. Church Point Beach welcomes us, resting around the corner. Here, footed sand prints swerve amongst tethered rowboats, motor dinghies, and an old corroding kayak, before disappearing across the seafloor out to Scotland Island.
Dark, amber-coloured rocks lead the way back up from Church
Point’s shore towards the coastal fringe of land, where outstretched gums
dominate over sprouting tufts of grass. We lie here in the shade engulfed by the
sounds of afternoon chatter and an acoustic guitar trickling over from a nearby
restaurant.
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| Church Point Beach |
But let’s not diddle-daddle here entranced too long - three more beaches are now calling us south-eastwards. Their sands spring sporadically like skin shredding from the serpentine Pittwater Road as it slithers along the shore. One falls off just below the Church Point carpark, another round the bend by a small marina, and the final on a bay dominated by the headquarters of the Bayview Yacht Racing Association.
Each lies still, unassumingly, only slowly growing in size
as the late afternoon tide reluctantly withdraws. We chase the tide as we
follow the beaches, navigating our way through tangled dinghies, recently
afloat, now buried into the sand. Quick dips, waste high, are all that we can manage.
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| Beach on Pittwater Road |
Perhaps we’ll find a more suitable swim at Bayview Baths further along. Added to the wharf in 1915, contiguous with the shoreline, the structure is one of Bayview’s earliest items still intact. Featuring timber piles and vertical steel bars, it used to serve as vital protection from the biting sharks once prevalent in Pittwater. Still a popular hub for the community, it continues to offer safe and easy access to the Pittwater estuary for those who wish to swim and wade.
Alas, our bad luck continues with the retreating tide; today
the baths are little more than a pool of murky, shallow water. Better to settle
ourselves on its sloping concrete steps for views of darting speedboats in the
distance, resting a while before our final destination.
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| Bayview Baths |
Bayview Dog Park, located at the south-eastern most edge of
the estuary, is where the real action is at. Tread carefully though, for raucous,
unleashed packs hurdle across the fields. Their eyes are fixated on one thing
and one thing only: buckets of bouncing balls fleeing from slobbery deaths in
the jaws of the canine killers.
Barks, howls, yelps, and growls follow the most desperate of
the balls stumbling off the grass onto the spit of sand that curves into the
water. Some balls burst through with a last hurrah into the swelling sea,
praying the tides will carry them off to distant lands of safety. Persistent
pups are not afraid of getting a little wet, however, paddling with all fours,
nose forward, past leisurely swimmers and stand-up paddle board goers, in hot
pursuit.
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| Bayview Dog Park |
It's amongst this chaos we take our final plunge. Drifting away from the balls and pooches, we merge with the vast depths of sea below and sky above. Fading together from orange to pink to purple hues, we float endlessly away from Pittwater’s shores - on into the evening.
Total beaches: 86/175
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