On to describe swims I had in the rock pools category! A couple of things to note: kudos to the writers of Ocean Pools. (Thanks to Colette for sharing this link, very much wish I could see the exhibit at Clovelly!) I’m already finding that it’s tricky to sort through photos of water and pools and keep them all straight!
Also, my analysis of rock pools is not going to include a ranked list, for a couple of reasons. I only swam in 4 somehow? and I already decided to put Bondi in the “laps” category (because my swim there was more of a focused workout). The three described below were delightful, but I’m going to need another research trip and repeat visits to some I didn’t make it to this time to even consider a ranking! So, in no particular order let’s look at Malabar, Mahon Pool at Maroubra, and Bronte.
This was my first time in Malabar and we went on a kinda chilly day when it was almost spitting rain. Miles was doing a lot of “scared of the cold” poses! However, the water was sooooo nice, and we had the pool pretty much to ourselves. It was super calm, had that warmth that happens when the air temp is a bit chilly. There were a lot of sea plants swishing around the floor, something I really like for visual interest and a reminder that I’m in the ocean. I swam a lot of laps at Malabar Pool in the end, zig zagging all across the pool and taking up as much space as I wanted. Afterwards, we walked to Malabar, taking the Artillery Track route. Below, we’re in the old railroad tracks area.
Mahon Pool at Maroubra delighted as always this trip! I ended up only swimming here once somehow – but it really can’t be beat for views, fun vibe, surrounding green space and cliff walking area, a lot of variation with the tides, and an overall wonderful swim. It’s pretty perfect!
It seems like we’ve visited Bronte’s rock pool before, but I wasn’t 100% sure. This time, Miles and I had a really nice swim, we did a few laps and a bit of hanging around chatting. We had quite a shock when a man hit the water right by us, causing a huge splash! We had no idea where he came from, but it turns out John captured him by chance in the photo on the right below – see the guy (creepily) emerging from the right upper corner? He jumped down into the water right after this was taken!
So all told, the rock pools in Sydney, notably all along the south east coast suburbs, were a really big highlight of our trip, and something so unique and fabulous about Sydney (or to NSW, as I’m learning from looking at the Ocean Pools book article!) Stay tuned for the third installment on swims in Sydney which will cover beaches and even more exciting, beaches with Rory!
Here’s some winter in Chicago to finish on. We had a bit of a thaw today and our little owl is no longer up to his eyeballs in snow!
The people of south-east Sydney are much happier now! It strikes me that Coogee was the missing piece rock-pool-wise. It arguably has four… one on the southern end; the small one by the surf club; the women’s only one and Wylies. I feel like we talked about Wylies but then it didn’t happen! Next time for sure!
Rock pools at coogee could be their own category! Definitely need to hit those next time.
Your hosts will put them on the list!