Day 8: Parramatta to Hunters Hill
Sydney Harbour saunter: Parramatta to Hunters Hill | 25 km 6 hours
Day 8 of #WarraneWanderings took me the length of the Parramatta River. Sauntered along its northern bank, all the way to Hunters Hill at the mouth of the Lane Cove River, the official transition point from the 'harbour' to the 'river'.
The northern side of the Parramatta River has Sydney's most extensive harbour/riverside user friendly path. It's 12 km and mostly flat, wide and perfect to Kendall Bay. It does continue to Morrison Bay Park, if you dont mind a steep hill and some road walking. Perfectly suitable for bikes, wheelchairs and prams as well as saunterers who fancy a flat, easy, accessible stroll. Plenty of picnic areas, filtered water, cafés and rest stop possibilities. Just a fine urban stroll with plenty of interprative signage and lots of little boardwalk detours into the mangroves and saltmarshes.
Quite a few ferry stops (including Sydney Harbour's last remaining car ferry from Putney to Mortlake) along the way too, if you want to shorten the walk.
Putney Park has the former home of Banjo Patterson - Rock End Cottage - and is yet another gorgeous riverside spot. Just like our poets, the cottage could do with a bit of TLC. But then again Clancy of the Overflow, the bloke who waltzed Matilda, and the man from Snowy River were not, perhaps, TLC kinds of guys...
Some lovely hidden bays and bush tracks to explore between Putney and Hunters Hill - somewhat complex to explain, but if you just stick as close as you can to the water and follow your nose you'll discover them all. Google Maps is your friend, and always remember that, in our little bit of paradise, no-one privately owns land below the high tide line - technically the mean high water mark (MHWM).
I digress. Then it was around Bedlam Point and its gorgeous historical institution for the shell-shocked and the wearisome - open if you're on foot and an intriguing place to wander.
Onto Hunters Hill, a magic little peninsula (for the few who still fancy a bit of pedantry, 'peninsula' is a noun while 'peninsular' is an adjective), with many grand old homes for the nouveau riche and some exquisite pockets of bushland for all the rest of us. I'll post more about it in the next section of the walk, but it would be an easy place to spend a whole day exploring on foot. Roads, bridges and cars have taken away our sense of how it was back in the day when boats were the key form of transport - but you can still feel a bit of maritime magic when you wander around this part of Sydney.
And then, it was sublime to wrap up the day with a beer at the gorgeous Woolwich Pier pub, followed by an always delightful ferry ride back to the city.
Lane Cove River coming next - a couple of days diversion inland due to my no bridges or artificial water crossings rule so plenty to look forward to.
But for now it was yet another awesome Warrane wander around our magical, mystical harbour...