Sydney Walks: The Spit to Taronga Zoo

Here is the Sydney Harbour Trust map of the Taronga to Balmoral stretch of the walk.

I took the bus to my starting point The Spit Bridge. Then walked around the foreshore, past the boats and the cute ducks at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club .


ducks
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

The map said ‘low-tide route only’, but I think you could make it around the rocks at any time. A beautiful old white wooden dilapidated house, with balcony (and hammock) overlooks the harbour – with lovely rusted rails of a boat ramp stretching into the water.


white house
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

A lone windsurfer sailed up and down Chinamans Beach. Walk continues up Hopetoun Avenue, over Wy-ar-gine Point. Down to Edwards Beach and Balmoral Beach, where I found a lone discarded valentines rose.


Disposable Love
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

Then up the stairs over Middle Head, past the HMAS Penguin Naval Depot .

Amazing views of the Harbour Heads from Sydney Harbour National Park at Georges Heights. Army bases were situated on Georges Heights for over 100 years, initially as harbour defences, then barracks, a World War I hospital and transport depot. On Georges Head there is now a restaurant, “The Tearoom”, in the sandstone gunners barracks.

Down to Chowder Bay Historic Site. Chowder Bay got its name from the whalers who once sheltered there and made fish chowder from the oysters and pipis. From the 1890s it was a base for the Submarine Mining Corps, which laid a string of defensive mines across the harbour.


Chowder Bay
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

Currently docked at Chowder Bay is the North Korean heroin smuggling cargo ship, the Pong Su. It was seized in 2003 on suspicion of importing 150 kilograms of heroin and has been anchored in Sydney Harbour ever since, while Federal police work out what to do with it.

The walk then continues around the beach at Clifton Gardens and up over Chowder Head. The evening was drawing near and I was starting to get bitten by mosquitoes while loitering in the undergrowth taking macro photos of flowers. So, after rounding Taylors Bay I took the shortcut over Bradleys Head, past Athol Hall , and back to the Taronga Zoo Wharf for my ferry trip home.