Today was blowy and considerably cooler, so not a day for lying on the beach. Our friends Vladimir and family had a great suggestion though of walking the coastal path from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, passing several small bays on the way. We had the entertainment of Julia and Boris (4 and 2yrs) Vladimir and Tatiania's beautiful children. We got a lot of enjoyment out of seeing them run across the sand on Bondi and scream and jump as the surf crashed around our feet. The waves at Bondi were huge today - a few brave souls were out surfing but it looked pretty scary to me. As we headed up towards the coast path we looked down on Bondi Beach pool - a sea water pool. The waves were crashing over the wall into the swimming pool buffeting the poor souls trying to complete their lengths. I felt it couldn't take much for the waves to take a swimmer out to sea and was surprised at the lack of netting to prevent such an incident. As we watched this spectacle a plackard on the path detailed the events of Black Sunday in the 1930s, when 3 huge waves had washed 100 people off the beach and 30 or so lost their lives.

It felt good to stretch our legs in the fresh sea air and we got some great views as the coastal path climbed up and down. We passed Tamarama Beach where we had a welcome cuppa, and then had a playground stop at family friendly Bronte Beach. We learned that once you become parents life revolves around where the next playground is. Having spoken to my parents on skype this evening they also told me that when we were kids in Australia the situation was exactly the same!

We next reached Clovelly, which made me smile as I considered how far we were from Clovelly in Cornwall, and also how different the place felt. Here the beach was an interesting set-up with a narrow gully inland towards the beach and steps leading down on either side of the gully or channel creating the effect of the sea being a huge choppy swimming pool. It must have only been 30 metres or so across, but watching some swimmers attempt it it was not an easy crossing! A few snorkellers tried to take in the underwater world and my mind went back to snorkelling with dolphins in NZ. It wasn't anywhere near as choppy there as here in Clovelly, yet still I'd had mouthfuls of sea water as the waves went over. I felt for the chaps in the water but they didn't seem to mind.

It was 3.30pm by the time we reached Coogee. We'd heard good things about this place, and I have to say on first impressions it was more pleasing on the eye than Bondi. Bondi seems a bit over hyped to be honest, although I guess if you're a surfer you're in heaven. We wandered round the shops and food outlets at Coogee, and our Russian/Serb/Aussie hosts kindly treated us to a late lunch/early dinner. At 4.30pm and a bus journey later we were back in our hotel room and exhausted after all that sea air. Our last night in Sydney and we were far from hitting the town (not that our budget would allow given that a pint of beer here costs £8!). Instead we had a relaxing evening in preparing for our flight to Bangkok and then Ho Chi Min City tomorrow. We have really enjoyed our time here in Sydney - it s a lovely relaxed city and felt much less hectic to me than London.