Birkenhead to Cabarita

Day 4: Birkenhead Point to Cabarita

Ever more Sydney Harbour secrets beyond the postcard views. Today’s Warrane - Sydney Harbour Wanderings uncovered a few great spots along the foreshore trail from Birkenhead to Cabarita. No matter how far or how wide I wander these shores, there’s always something new to discover on the 200 mile/300km maritime jigsaw of Warrane Sydney Harbour.

Today’s walk was 16km for normal folk (a little further with my no bridges rule). Dawn at Birkenhead, around the road to Drummoyne Wharf for sunrise, followed by a stroll under the mighty concrete span of Gladesville Bridge (once the largest in the world) and an admiration of the views from where the ‘harbour meets the river’ at the Old Gladesville Bridge Pier.

Howley Park, The Esplanade, Taplin Park, Russell Park and Lysaght Park then provide a great waterside track before a bit of a road walk around to Chambers Reserve and Chiswick Baths and Wharf.

Next up was Little Armitage Reserve and then a wander along Fortesque St - where the latest episode of NCIS Sydney was being filmed. Chatted to the crew who told me that this is now one of the highest rating shows on US television (CBS) despite being originally made as a straight to streaming program. Pretty obvious to me that shots of Sydney Harbour are always an easy sell!

Then it was brilliant Figtree Bay and Wire Mill Reserves. Great waterfront walking and the delightful ‘Chocolate Factory House’ (actually Abbotsford House, named after Sir Walter Scott’s UK one) that forms part of the redevelopment of Abbotsford Cove.

A bit more road walking around to Abbotsford Whart before the foreshore walking resumed at Battersea Park. Next up was the lesser known but delightful Quarantine Reserve. Many of the old animal and administration quarantine quarters have been preserved here and it is yet another wonderfully quirky harbourside parks.

Next up was Henry Lawson Park - the poet died in 1922 in a nearby house on Great Northern Road. He was a great poet but a tortured soul – he got around though did poor Henry – there’s a cave on the northern side of the harbour where he used to go to ‘dry out’ and numerous houses around and about where he ‘once lived’.

Captain John Hunter named Hen and Chicken Bay in 1788 when charting Port Jackson, so it is one of the few place names that has remained unchanged since that time. The name comes from two sandstone boulders near the bay’s entrance, rather than its shape – although it does kind of look like a hen if you squint.

You can walk around almost the entire bay on walking paths, with just a few streets as you near Cabarita Swimming Pool. Cabarita Park is yet another fantastic foreshore park – a pleasant beach, a harbourside Olympic Swimming Pool, plenty of picnic tables and free BBQs. Sydneysiders are so spoilt. It made for a great spot for a swim and some lunch before topping the day off with a River Cat ferry back to the city and home.

I’m heading ever westward until the headwaters of the Parramatta River before turning back eastwards along the northern shore.