Ready to cool off? Sydney s beaches may be world famous but they are not the only place to take the plunge. Try one of these inland swims and experience a fresh way to get wet. From sandy river beaches to bush-shaded waterholes and soaring sandstone gorges, these freshwater favourites offer a deliciously different way to get in the swim.
LAP IT UP: KARLOO POOLS
From Wattamolla to Burning Palms, the Royal National Park is known for its beaches, but those aren t its only inviting swim spots. We love the pretty Karloo Pools for several reasons, not least the fact that you don t need a car to get here. Take the train to Heathcote Station where you can join the Karloo Walking Track– the turn-off to the pools is about halfway along the track, four kilometres or so from the station. Surrounded by rock ledges and fed by a gently-trickling stream, the clear green water is amazingly inviting. The largest pool is big enough to do a few laps in.
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DISTANCE 4km loop
Don t be fooled by the quiet suburban streets you pass through on your way to this walk: this is a remarkable big-city bush experience, and includes the largest remaining blue gum forest in Sydney. Allow up to two hours to finish the loop, which will take you along creeks, past sandstone caves and the Fishponds waterhole and through a fern-filled valley before you arrive back in suburbia just down the road from your starting point.
NEED TO KNOW
Don t have a car? Hornsby Station is only about a kilometre from the track s starting point.
FOLLOW THE LIGHT: THE CAPE BAILY TRACK
Study Finds 6,000 Years of Emu Mysteries
A recent study that is shedding light on the emu an Australian icon and its key behavioural patterns, has found it has been roaming around Australia for over 6,000 years.
Western Sydney University researcher Julia Ryeland, who along with researchers from Western Sydney University and the University of Tasmania, wrote the new study said that despite the emu being indigenous to large areas it is still regarded as something of an enigma to native fauna experts.
“They’re so widespread, but we really don’t know much about them,” Ryeland said. “We don’t even know basic things like lifespan.”
“Potential links to diplomats, aircrew and other people who may have had contact with international travellers have been investigated and no source of the Avalon cluster has been identified at this point,” a spokeswoman said.
She said all exit screening tests on people who had been self-isolating on the northern beaches during that period came back negative.
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“Questions around reciprocal arrangements with foreign governments overseas should be directed to the Commonwealth government,” she added.
Federal Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly has previously expressed confidence that the northern beaches strain derived from a female traveller in hotel quarantine who arrived in Australia from the United States on December 1.
MILK BEACH, SYDNEY
Sydney has somewhere in the region of about 100 beaches – both harbour and ocean, north and south – so it shouldn t come as a surprise to find there are still stretches of sand here untrodden by a million feet. Milk Beach is one of those locations, an inlet in a spectacular location in you-can t-afford-it Vaucluse, with views over the harbour to the bridge and the city skyline on one side, and a whole heap of fantasy mansions on the other.
There s only about 50 metres of sand here, so it s good thing Milk Beach is tricky to access: with no carpark or direct road link-up, you ll have to join the Hermitage Foreshore walking track from either Rose Bay or Watsons Bay. To find yourself a spot here for a swim and a sunbake is, however, well worth the effort.