Bondi to Coogee

Looking for something to do while Margaret was bread-winning in Sydney, I set out to find some aboriginal rock engravings said to be located near the golf course north of Bondi Beach. I didn't know that Bondi (pr. bond-eye) is a famous beach destination.
 
I shot this photo thinking it looked pretty nice, but I kept moving. My destination was the top of the peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean at the top of the picture.




The Bondi Beach Golf & Diggers Club is a wind-swept 9-hole affair open to the public -- for golfing or ancient art hunting. I believe the Diggers Club is for Australian military veterans. The term dates to the trench diggers of World War 1.
 
Despite rules 1 and 13, I was allowed to go without my own clubs, or any clubs at all.

I got some rough directions from a local mate sitting outside of the karate studio the golf clubhouse shares space with. He was more worried about me getting hit by a stray tee shot than my ability to find the engravings.













I found the engravings along the fifth fairway not far from this out-of-bounds marker. It's a straight drop to the ocean beyond the custom-made sign.

Aside from these obvious fish, the only other form I clearly recognized was of a human male. All I'll say is the artist made a big deal of accentuaity the figure's significant maleness.

The town council took significant grief for re-grooving the engravings in 1964, but it has since been determined that the aborigines did this periodically over the centuries to keep them from weathering away.

We returned later in the week when Margaret took some vacation time. She knew all about Bondi Beach and wanted to make the cliff-top walk from Bondi to Coogee. A sculpture exhibition was just getting underway. The art was beautiful...

fun...

colorful...

and whimisical.

But it was tough competing against nature's show. Such is life for the well-healed Sydney suburbanite.

We finished off the week roaming the downtown Sydney's party zones like The Rocks and Cockle Bay, shopping in the tres chic clothing boutiques of Paddington and taking in a first-rate performance of Rigoletto at the most photographed opera house in the world. Just so you know I haven't gone completely feral, Bill.