Today’s exploring was to the North Shore of Sydney. This is an area of suburbs and beaches north of Sydney. But amazingly, most of the area is within the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. That’s where we spent a lot of time driving through the bush along windy uphill/downhill roads. We saw lots of damage from flooding and the storms that passed through last weekend. At some points, the roads we traveled had been closed due to downed trees and flooding, but today was a fine day and the roads were open.
We left Lou’s in Bensville and first stopped at a friend’s house to drop off some things. Lou’s friend Margaret lives in a little cottage that literally hangs off the side of a mountain and has a fantastic view up one of the creeks into Brisbane Waters. We might visit her again, and if so, I’ll be sure to take a few photos.
We then traveled on the M1 motorway south towards Sydney. And per our friend Eve’s request, here’s a map of our adventures today so you get an idea of our route.
We left the freeway in Wahroonga, a little town that looked very English to me. It was 79 km (about 44 miles) to Wahroonga. Lou drove us through some beautiful neighborhoods that had huge trees with canopies arching over the residential streets. It was clearly a very posh neighborhood with large homes and well-manicured gardens.
We made our way through several suburbs and then into the Ku-Ringa-Gai National Park. I don’t really know what there is about Aussie bushland, but it is so fantastic. Our forests are great, but these forests are almost magical with subtropical areas, some conifers, lots of shaggy bark oak, and of course many, many varieties of eucalypts.
We arrived at a wonderful lookout called West Head Lookout, or also Commodore Point. On the map above it is located at the end of the road that’s to the left of Barrenjoey Lighthouse. This lookout provided a fantastic view across Broken Bay, Lion Island to Pearl Beach and Umina Beach. We could even spot the Mt. Ettalong Lookout where we were yesterday. Mt. Ettalong Lookout is at the end of the road between Pearl Beach and Umina Beach on the map above.
This was a fantastic viewpoint and gave us a view of the entire area we were going to be traveling all the way around Broken Bay and Pittwater across the spit of land to Palm Beach.
Panorama 
Looking down to the bay 
Across Pittwater to Coreel Bay and Newport 
Spit of land from Palm Beach to Barrenjoey Headland 
Barrenjoey Lighthouse
We sat in the shade at West Head Lookout for quite a while. It really was a wonderful spot. We then drove back to the road loop that heads toward Cottage Point. We stopped for lunch at the Akuna Bay marina. You may remember this name from the post about spending the day on Gloria and Alex’s yacht. We boated up the Coal and Candles Creek that day and turned around at Akuma Bay. After lunch we wandered around the marina. Lou had his boat at this marina and so he talked a lot about the fun he and his family had out on his boat, which he no longer has. We also ogled the large cabin cruisers, which Alex has in mind to buy one when he sells his sailing yacht.
Akuma Bay marina 
Boat storage shed 
Boats in storage 
Alex may get something like this 
Lou, Christine and Banjo 
Coal and Candles Creek
We completed the loop road through the national park and then headed to Palm Beach. We drove through lots of little communities around Pittwater including Bayview where Lou and his family once lived. Many Sydney residents have holiday places in this area and water activities are the main draw. There are boats everywhere including parked along most streets.
Driving out the peninsula to Palm Beach looked very much like any other string of beach communities, but this area is not flat. There are lots of fairly significant hills and the houses get built higher and higher on the cliffs, some looking like they are suspended off the side of the cliff. I guess people will do anything for a water view, at least people with lots of money!
The spit of land out to Palm Beach and then on to Barrenjoey headline is bordered by Pittwater on one side and South Pacific Ocean on the other side. The ocean beach is absolutely beautiful.
One of the draws of Palm Beach is that a very popular Australian soap opera, Home and Away, that has been on TV since 1988 is filmed here. We’ve watched a few episodes with Lou. Most of the outdoor beach scenes are filmed at a little restaurant and jetty at the end of the peninsula. It just so happened that they were filming today and so we watched for a little while. Bus tours from Sydney bring people out to watch the action on filming days. We saw two of the stars, Lynne MacGregor and Samantha Frost, getting filmed walking along the beach. They did that take about a dozen times. I didn’t get any good photos of the stars, but this is what we saw.
Cameraman on deck 
Lynne MacGregor and Samantha Frost 
Director talking to the 2 stars
When we watched an episode of Home and Away when we arrived back home later, we were thrilled to say, “hey, that’s where we were and what we saw.” When the filming is done down the beach the lighthouse is clearly a part of the scenery.
Australia has the most beautiful beaches and Bilgola Beach lookout provided a fantastic view north and south.
View from Bilgola Lookout 
Beautiful coastline
After a wonderful day of sightseeing, we made our way back towards home. On the road from Mona Vale we spotted a dome and wondered what it was. We pulled into the parking area and found the Baha’i House of Worship. What a wonderful place!
I knew nothing about the Baha’i community. The Temple has its foundations in the teachings of the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah (1817-1892). The Temple is a sacred place open to everyone, regardless of their beliefs, background and world view. The Temple is intended to foster unity among people and to inspire them to play their part in creating a peaceful global society. As with all Baha’i Temples (there are 7 others around the world including one in Chicago) the building has nine sides and nine entrances, symbolically representing unity. Baha’is believe in the unity of the human race under the one God, and the essential unity of the world religions.
Inside, the temple is quite plain, but one immediately feels a sense of serenity and spirituality.
One of nine sides and entrances 
A very peaceful setting
We obtained a brochure from a very nice man from the information center, and I was very struck by the 12 Baha’i principles which include equality of women and men, universal education for all, the independent investigation of truth, and the abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth. Really wonderful foundations for being. I am impressed and intrigued by the Baha’i Faith. What an interesting stop this was.
After a long day of touring, we were happy to be back home. We covered a lot of ground but what is fun is to be able to see the same thing from several different vantage points. We are getting to know our way around Brisbane Water and the Central Coast and can now pick out places we’ve walked and been. Today’s adventure gave us a very good long view of Broken Bay and all its wonderful sights.