Our Weekend Getaways

Garigal National Park is just 20 km away from the Sydney CBD and provides many tracks popular with both hikers and mountain bikers. We did not do much homework on which track to follow and decided to play it by the ear and ended up following the track from Flat Rock Beach to Davidson Park.  One thing we did not realize is how big the Garigal NP is. It is 2000+ hectares irrespective of being so close to the CBD. I thought when the destination was set as Garigal NP, the GPS would direct us to the main entrance from where all different tracks start. That was proved to be wrong.  GPS first took us to an entry to a track, but we were not convinced it is the right destination. We again drove back to the main road and then GPS directed us to the end of Killarney Drive. We decided to follow the bush track that started from there. If you are planning to visit the Garigal NP, it is better to do a bit of research on which track to follow and find the track entry point beforehand. The track starte

Botany Bay coastal walk from Kurnell to Cronulla is one of the best hikes so far. Kurnell is where Captain Cook first landed on Australian soil and tried to make contact with the indigenous Gweagal people. So the area  is particularly important in the history of modern-day Australia and  full of monuments related to the early European explorers. The coastal views were magnificent, the sandstone cliffs were majestic and the historic monuments took us back in time. The track is not particularly challenging but you could make it quite long if you want to. The main track starts from Cape Solander. However, we parked at the Silver Beach car park and took the monument track which led to Captain Cook's landing place, Joseph Bank's memorial, the meeting place, small freshwater stream from which Captain Cook took water for his ship Endeavour, etc.  If that sort of history is of interest to you, we highly recommend spending some time exploring this area. We of course spent close to an ho