I set off yesterday to view 'Sculptures By the Sea' between Tamarama and Bondi in Sydney's east. Unwittingly, I chose the day that Prince Frederick and Princess Mary also decided to take a squiz. I joked I had to search so far west for parking, I may have reached the eastern suburbs of Perth. In the end I gave up and decided upon Adventure Plan B- La Perouse.
I hadn't visited this area in years. Sure it had it's tourist attractions in the nearby sewerage treatment plant and Long Bay Gaol (I can make these jokes- I grew up in Kurnell.),but somehow almost twenty years have passed since I had been there.
La Perouse was named after a French navigator called Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (!)and is at the northern headland of Botany Bay. On the southern side, at Silver Beach in Kurnell, La Parouse was the thing you preferred to look over the water at, rather than the airport, the shipping docks or the huge oil tankers in the bay. As a kid, you visited La Perouse to watch the reptile show (done by the same family since the 1920's)or to watch the boomerang demonstration and then beg your dad to buy you one, which never flew again except away from you.
The place actually has a really fascinating history with a great museum. Bare Island (which I thought was filled with bears as a kid) is a small island with an old military fortification on it, attached to the headland by a wooden bridge. The waters around the area are thick with scuba divers. Apparently the area is considered one of the best off-the-shore dive sites in Australia. You learn something new every day.
I had a really lovely visit. There are several sweet little beaches nearby and also good food (in my non-gourmet opinion)and coffee. Next time I would try book a tour of Bare Island and make a day of it. Perhaps give a nod to La Perouse himself and take a little picnic of french wine, crusty bread and some suitably stinky cheese.
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