Today’s trip took us to a place that more people probably know of by its TV name. This is Palm Beach also known as Summer Bay – to fans of the TV soap opera ‘Home and Away’.
Palm Beach and the TV Soap Opera
This is a beautiful spot. Although very crowded today being a Sunday. The amount of ‘essential travel’ never ceases to amaze me around Sydney. The roads were full of them. How do these roads cope without a virus lockdown?
There are probably more people in the UK that watch Home and Away than there are Australians. Now there’s a scary thought eh? I have seen it a couple of times but that would have been many years ago. I knew it was filmed somewhere near Sydney but have never been a fan of the show so not particularly interested in this place for the TV show. This is just a really nice little area with a real village feel. And of course the beaches and scenery are fantastic.
About an hour drive north of the city centre (traffic allowing) this time past Narrabeen beach to the tip of Barrenjoey Head. If you stay on the east coast from Sydney this is as far north a you can go. Then you hit the Hawkesbury River and series of bays and headlands. Geographically similar in some ways to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour). They do Hawkesbury river cruises/trips. At least when allowed to. I would like to take one of those.
Pittwater and Palm Beach
The actual bay on the TV soap opera is Pittwater. Calm waters with Station beach and Barrenjoey beach sitting either side of The Boathouse cafe/restaurant (Alf’s in the TV show).
Palm Beach is the ocean side of this headland. Rust coloured sand almost like Narrabeen beach. Popular with surfers and busy enough.
Dani evened the score with the Pacific Ocean – or so he says. This time he was a lot more wary… Basically staying well away from any big waves. All waves!
Long Reef Point
On the way back we stopped at Long Reef Point where Dani was in awe of a para-glider who was swooping up and down like a bird on the cliffs overlooking Dee Why beach and beyond.
All in all, another interesting exploration in to the northern beach areas of Sydney. The only downside was that the Barrenjoey lighthouse was closed off. We were not even allowed to walk up to it. The views from there would have been fantastic.
