Day 44: City Walking

Today I went hiking, but it was a bit different than my previous hikes had been, as this one went through the city.  I would be hiking from the hotel, across the Harbor Bridge, and along the foreshore, into coves, and finally ending up at Taronga Zoo, where I could take the ferry back to the hotel.  I did not know when I would get back, so I said goodbye to Mary and Madi before I left, as they were flying out this afternoon.

The walk across the bridge was neat.  I walked through the historic section of Sydney to get to the bridge, then climbed the steps and was walking along.  From the bridge, there were good views of the city, though the fences were quite large and thick, blocking some of the view.  When I got to the other side of the bridge, I began following the instructions I had gotten online to walk from the Bridge to the Zoo.  I walked along the foreshore on walkways for a while, and when they ended I walked along residential streets.  The residential areas were very nice, with many historic style houses and very few cars on the roads, only people walking their dogs and getting their mail.  There were plenty of them, too.  For my entire walk, I went through residential areas, weaving past coves and walking down roads.  Luckily, a bit less than half way through, the walk came to a foreshore walkway, where, for the rest of the walk, I went between the houses on my left, and the harbor on my right.

I could see the Opera House as I began to climb up to the bridge.

The bridge walkway

Along the way, I got great views of the city across the water.  When I couldn’t see the main city, I was deep in a cove, where hundreds of boats filled the water.  On the last section of trail before I reached the zoo, the trail actually turned to dirt and went through some forest.  Finally, I reached the ferry and headed back to the start.  Before going back to the hotel, I walked around a bit more in Sydney’s historic district, The Rocks, which I had gone through to get to the bridge.  It wasn’t very exciting but for the old building, but I did get a snack at a nice little German restaurant, as there had been no food across the water.  I think I prefer walking through nature, but a city walk was a nice change of pace.  In total, I walked about 17km (10.5mi).

One of the many great views along the walk.

Admiring the view.

Deep in a cove

A dirt path

I made it a long way.