The Saturday Morning Sunshine

There is nothing better than a glorious Saturday morning at Balmoral Beach here in Sydney.

Yesterday was just that, stunning! The water is amazing right now too; a lovely temperature and it was super clear too....aka bliss!

A Manly Sunrise

I took a sunrise photography course at Manly a week ago, and shot the below pics...

ANZAC Day in the Blue Mountains

Last Thursday was ANZAC Day here in Australia, and I headed up to Mt Wilson in the Blue Mountains with a couple of friends. It was lovely to see the autumn colours in the trees and best of all was the gorgeous weather; lots of bright blue sky! We walked from Mt Wilson to Wollangambe Canyon, which is about a 6km round trip. There is a gradual hill to climb on the way back and the path is quite narrow at times, but it is really beautiful. We also popped into a lookout on the way back to Sydney which gave us some stunning views of the mountains. A little tip for the journey back is to stop at Bilpin for a piece of delicious apple pie!

Mona Vale's The Armchair Collective

Yesterday was a really miserable day here in Sydney pouring with rain. Luckily today was gloriously sunny! Despite yesterday's weather I decided to drive up to Mona Vale and check out a cafe plus homeware store called The Armchair Collective. A few friends have told me about it and said it was really great. I too enjoyed the atmosphere of the cafe and ate a lovely tomato & chorizo soup for lunch. The cafe was buzzing even whilst it was raining. It's not massive and the chairs and other homewares around the store are lovely. It's located about 100 metres from Mona Vale beach on Darley street East, so it's easy to combine a visit to the beach and cafe. There is both indoor and outdoor seating including a couple of big communal tables as well. Check it out! More details here: http://www.thearmchair.com.au/

The Balmoral Boatshed

Just recently refurbished and situated at one of my favourite Sydney beaches is the Balmoral Boatshed. For me probably the most exciting thing is that the cafe now has a bar! The refurbishment has turned the cafe into a true beachside cafe open all day and located on the wharf at the southern end of the beach. Check it out!

Yes, I Will

For most of this year I've had an idea in my head. I had decided that I wanted to run the City2Surf fun run. It took place yesterday; Sunday 12th August.

The City2Surf is an annual and very famous fun run in Sydney. It is 14 km's in total and starts in Sydney city at Hyde Park and ends at Bondi Beach. It includes a scary, steep and long hill which has been nicknamed Heartbreak Hill.

So my plan was to train myself and to run the whole way. I had never run further than 10 km's in one go. But I decided I wanted to give it a go.

For the past two months I have been running a few times a week and I would do a long run every weekend. I just kept building up the distance and my last long run was about 11-12 km's, including many hills!

This year in the race there was about 80,000 people who registered for the City2Surf including my brother and I. We decided to run together. There are multiple groups that all leave at different starting times.

The weather that we experienced in Sydney for the couple of days prior to the run was really wintery. It was extremely windy, raining sometimes and very cold; in terms of a Sydney winter! So we were hoping that it wouldn't rain or that it would be really windy.

It wasn't really raining, although while we waited to start it was trying! The wind was around though. In certain parts of the course that were not very protected we felt strong gusts of wind.

The atmosphere was fantastic! Every year some participants dress up, wearing all sorts of costumes including as guerilla's, pirates or even spiderman! Also a lot of people take part and support a charity. We were running for the Australian Red Cross.

We started off slowly with so many people all leaving at the same time. This wasn't so bad though as it was a good warm up and then we were off. I have to say I really enjoyed running with my brother and having someone to share the experience with. He supported with some good motivating whilst we ran up Heartbreak Hill, although I actually wasn't wanting nor felt like stopping. It is a long hill though! When we reached the top of the hill we had reached half way. There was a drink station at the top also with either water or Lucozade. I decided to have the Lucozade and it was exactly what I needed! The second half of the race went much faster than the first and the course wound down a hill into Bondi. From a far it looked like it was raining at Bondi but it was only when we got closer that we realised it was the spray from massive waves crashing into the beach.

As I approached the finish I was choking up a little. It hit me that I had accomplished my dream and this big goal. I was really happy to have kept going, to have run the whole way and not given up. Happy and proud.

Below is a photo that I took at the starting line and the second is one I took last night of the beautiful Harbour Bridge and city scape.

Easter on Beautiful Heron Island

In April I went with a couple of friends to Heron Island for a one week holiday. We went during Easter so it meant just a couple of days off work! Heron Island is situated at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland. The closest mainland town is Gladstone. The island itself is tiny, and you can walk around it in about 30 minutes. It’s well known because of the nature and wildlife found on the island and the reefs surrounding it. Perhaps mostly for the turtles which arrive during I think January – May to lay their eggs, and then after this for the just born hatchlings to make their way into the sea and to start their lives. The journey for these hatchlings is harrowing to say the least. Seagulls watch their every move as they head down the beach to the ocean and once in the sea reef sharks are waiting. The figure of 1 in every 1,000 baby turtles surviving sounds incredible, but honestly when you see what they have to do just to get into the sea, it’s quite understandable.

The holiday was wonderful. It was so relaxing, and just really nice to be able to do nothing, go snorkelling or read on the beach. There is one resort on the island, and the staff and amenities are all great. Definitely the most memorable thing though is the nature and wildlife. I in particular loved the snorkelling where we saw turtles, of course the most magnificently coloured fish, reef sharks, rays and the beautiful coral of the reef. I’d go back anytime!

The website for the island is found here: http://www.heronisland.com/

Here are some pictures…