Palm Beach

This covers one of the northern limits of Sydney, the tip of the Northern Beaches. 

In this repeat from that page, Manly lies somewhere below the base of the photo.

Barrenjoey is a tough piece of sandstone at the mouth of Dee-rab-bin, named 'the Hawkesbury' by the invaders to honour a dishonourable and useless politician. Barrenjoey is what geographers call a land-tied island, just like North Head.

Here, you can see Barrenjoey as it can be viewed from the lookout at West Head in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. In this shot, Palm Beach lies out to the right, because the beach is, in fact, the tying sand.

As surf beaches go, 'Palmie' is fairly ordinary, but if you stay between the flags or swim in the pool at the southern end, you should be fairly safe.

Then again, you could choose to wander up to the lighthouse on top of Barrenjoey. If you do, walk along the sand on the western (Pittwater) side, and stay on the cleared track because there are paralysis ticks up there, and those can potentially be quite harmful. 

Look up MMA (Mammalian Meat Allergy), and if you do get a tick, the rule is freeze not squeeze. Look that up as well, as you hurry to the nearest pharmacist for a tick-freezing kit. Under no circumstances should tweezers (forceps) be used!

The view from the top is worth it:


How do you get there? It is about a 45-minute drive from Manly, and parking is limited, expensive and (I am told) ferociously enforced. It would be better to catch the 191 bus from Manly. That gives you the opportunity of bailing out near Barrenjoey House, walking to the the ferry wharf and catching a boat to Ettalong or even the Basin, one if the few chances to reach  Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park by public transport. From there, after a gruelling climb of 150 metres or so, you can visit an Aboriginal engraving site. I will get to  engravings later.

Food at Palm Beach is delicious, comes in overly-large servings, and is expensive.

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