Inspired by Eileen, Rodd and I kicked off a new project to walk all the way around Sydney Harbour – 80km / 50mi. š„¾āļøš
Month: January 2025
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Homemade pan pizza
The reward for all that walking: the Snookās homemade pepperoni pizza! ā¤ļøš
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Manly to Bondi Walk – Leg #1
One of my focuses for 2025 was on getting healthy. I’ve been slowly recovering from a hip injury last year (when we moved house) that’s kept me from riding my bike, so I was looking for a more gentle athletic endeavour that would get me out of the house. Meanwhile, one of my college besties Eileen has been working on a project to walk across all of Rhode Island, broken up into day hike chunks. That inspired me to suggest to the Snook that we set a goal of completing the Bondi to Manly Walk.
If you don’t know our fair city, Manly is an ocean beach on the North Head of Sydney Harbour. Bondi is an ocean beach far south of the South Head of Sydney Harbour. Walking from one to the other means hiking along 80km / 50 miles around lots of little harbour inlets and across the a couple bridges, most notably the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There’s an ultramarathon every year where people run this in one go, but it’s much more common to break it up into chunks. The official website offers several different itineraries, and we’ve opted to go with the 7 day version. And just to be contrary, we decided to start at Manly and end at Bondi.
So today, we headed to Circular Quay and caught the ferry to Manly to do our first leg of around 10km. From there we walked down the Corso to the beach, stopping at a cafe for some lunch. We were well-prepared with water, sunscreen, bug spray, hats, and even light jackets. At the beach, I hit Start on Strava and we headed off towards the south end of the beach.
It was a good day for it – not too hot with a nice breeze, and clouds that occasionally let the sun through. As we neared Shelly Beach, we saw signs about protecting the water dragons, and it didn’t take long to spot a real one!
We were also amused to see brush turkeys right there at the beach. This guy was the first ofĀ many that we’d see on North Head.
Above Shelly Beach, we found a nice lookout.
The Shelly Beach to Barracks Precinct section felt like a proper hike, scrambling up roughhewn rock stairs or walking along dirt trails. We spotted a huge termite nest up in one of the trees!
At one point, we had to go through a gate in a big stone wall, which let us into the National Park. The trails were wider and easier to follow here. There were constantly seaplanes buzzing around overhead, taking tourists on joy flights. (You can see one above Rodd’s head here.)
We were happily surprised to come upon the Old Quarry Swamp, a “hanging swamp” up really high on top of the Headlands.
But OMG – the spiders. We saw so many huge orb spiders making nests in the trees, sometimes right over the trail we were walking on. In many cases the tiny male was there alongside the ginormous female. There’s one visible just in the center of this next photo.
During WW2, the Aussie military built and manned gun emplacements on North Head in case of Japanese attack. They were actually only ever fired once, and not even at an enemy. You can see the remains of some of the emplacements along the track.
As we got further south towards the Barracks Precinct, the land got wetter and swampier. The track turned into a well-maintained metal grate.
Finally we made it to the Barracks, the former School of Artillery. As we walked in and across the parade ground, Rodd remarked, “I’m pretty sure this was where one of theĀ Biggest Loser seasons was filmed.” Turns out he was right! (They also host concerts up there.)
Once inside, we headed southwest and found a lookout back towards the city. It felt very weird to think we would eventually walk all the way there!
Another “attraction” up on North Head is the old Quarantine Station. For 150+ years, this station was used to reduce the risk of ship-borne diseases coming into Australia. Nowadays it’s got a ghost tour, a restaurant, and even accommodation. We didn’t go there, but we did stop for a break near this quarantine cemetery we passed along the track.
As you get further south and closer to the end of the headlands, there’s a Memorial Walk that honours those who have served and supported the defence of Australia in peace or in war. You can nominate a family member who served and pay to have a brick dedicated to them.
The Fairfax Walk is a small loop right at the top of the Headlands with spectacular views. Apparently sometimes you can even see whales? This was the view from Yiningma Lookout, looking north.
And here’s the view from Burragula Lookout, looking back towards the city.
From there we completed the loop back to the Barracks, passing through another hanging swamp. Rodd was trying to spot a frog he could hear croaking when I spotted something slithering next to the metal grate path. “SNAKE!” I said, jumping backwards. We both recoiled at the sight of a long, slender green snake disappearing into the grass. Rodd’s pretty sure it was a tree snake (not venomous, thankfully!), also looking for the frog. It certainly got the heart rate up! š
Once we passed back through the Barracks, we started heading downhill along a winding road towards Collins Beach. It was lined with some very beautiful Sydney red gum trees as well as many other eucalypts.
We emerged from the trees at Collins Beach, a sheltered little harbour beach. I couldn’t believe we made it all the way down to sea level again.
From there we were in much more residential territory. We walked down to the Little Manly Point Park and then around to Little Manly Beach. It has a nice enclosed baths area, and there were some families taking advantage of it.
From there we headed north to Manly Cove. Finally the end was in sight!
Rodd was entranced by some little crabs chilling on the rocks below.
Tired, sore, and sweaty, we finally made it back to the Manly Ferry Wharf, our designated stopping point for the day. I took a photo to commemorate the milestone and hit Stop on Strava. Then we caught a ferry and began the journey home.
Here’s our Strava map for the day. We recorded a slightly higher distance than the official 10km for that leg, which is probably due to GPS weirdness and with us wandering and backtracking a bit. I’m not sure when we’ll get to Leg 2 – I’m going to need a bit of time to recover! š
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Fika
Weāve been meaning to get out to Fika in Manly for some time, and today we finally had the opportunity. The cafe claims to be Sydneyās first Swedish eatery, and itās certainly the only one Iāve ever seen that wasnāt in an IKEA! We had sandwiches for lunch and bought some Kanelbullar (aka cinnamon buns) to take home. Everything was very tasty! šøšŖ
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How to grow old ā¢ Buttondown
A few years ago, I read an article about how FOX Newsā goal was to make people afraid to leave their house. (I apologize for not remembering where I read this.) But that line stuck with me. Make people afraid to leave their house. Make people believe that the unknown is scary. Make people believe that otherness is scary.
Source: How to grow old ā¢ ButtondownI loved this piece about staying curious, about being open to new experiences, and about the need to protect our entire community. “Even if, and especially when, some of it might have become unfamiliar to us. Because those might be the places where our curiosity takes it tomorrow.”
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Coffee Velvet ā CWA 1965 Cookbook
It’s time for another recipe from 1965! Continuing our vintage cooking experiment, we chose a tasty looking recipe from January 19 – Coffee Velvet. Sounds good, right? However, it resulted in our first unmitigated FAILURE. First, the recipe:
The very, very vague instructions:
3 cups milk, 4 tablespoons coffee made from essence, 1 dessertspoon lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons cornflour. Bring milk, sugar and coffee essence to boil, stir in dissolved cornflour, add beaten egg yolk, cook until thick and smooth. Turn into pyrex dish, make meringue of beaten egg whites, 4 tablespoons sugar, lemon juice. Spread on top and bake in moderate oven. Serve hot or cold.
Okay, first up: coffee essence. We went with Bushells Coffee and Chicory Essence as it’s an old-fashioned Aussie ingredient, used in many traditional baking recipes. We opened it up and yowza, it’s basically very strong, very sweet coffee syrup. Here it is with everything else.
First I had to make the custard. You would notĀ believe the debate we had about the coffee part. I argued that “4 tablespoons coffee made from essence” meant that I needed to make up a cup of coffee essence plus water as if I was going to drink it, and then take 4 TB from that. However, I could not find a single recipe telling me what ratio of essence to water to use. (The bottle label recommends you put it inĀ milk to make a milky drink with whipped cream.) The Snook however argued that I should use the ratio on the bottle to simply add enough syrup for 3 cups of milk, as if I was making a pot of that drink. His way would’ve involved a lot more syrup, so we settled on starting with 2 teaspoons and then eventually adding a third. I also cut back on the sugar a bit as these recipes are always way too sweet.
The recipe also has you pour beaten egg yolks straight into very hot milk, which seemed like something we should alter. I decided instead to temper the eggs by adding a couple spoonfuls of the mixture to the eggs. That seemed to work well, and eventually I had it all coming together in the pot. My only concern was the amount of cornflour, which seemed pretty low. (I dissolved it first in a shot glass of water.) I started to worry it wouldn’t set… which, as it turns out, was a valid concern.
But anyway, once it was thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, I poured it into my pyrex dish and set it aside to cool a bit.
On to the meringue! I’m not an expert meringue maker, but I did know to make sure my bowl was clean and free of any fats. I did not know, however, that I should whip the eggsĀ before adding the sugar. I don’t think it made much difference though.
See? I still got stiff peaks.
The custard was stillĀ very liquid, so I sort of floated islands of meringue on top until I could smooth them out and cover it completely.
Next mystery: what’s a “moderate oven”? I did some googling and consensus seemed to be about 180C / 350F. So I preheated the oven and set the dish inside to hopefully start solidifying.
We obviously had no idea how long it would take to cook. I checked on it after 25 minutes and EEEEEK. š± The meringue was gettingĀ very brown, but I could tell by moving the dish that it was still essentially just hot liquid underneath. I turned the oven down to 150C / 300F and moved the dish to the lowest shelf, hoping that would keep it from overbrowning while it continued to cook.
Eventually it became clear after nearly an hour of baking that no solidification was happening, so I pulled it out. Maybe, I reasoned, it would work better chilled? So after it cooled down, I put it into the fridge for a few hours. Later that night once it was thoroughly cold, I pulled it out to give it a try.
Folks, it was Not Good. Well, actually it tasted all right. It’s basically coffee-flavoured milk and sugar, right? But the custard had completely split in the oven, and it was like grainy scrambled eggs in there. It never solidified at all.
So, THAT was disappointing. But as with our previous experiment, the Snook was inspired to try to modernise and improve on the recipe. He did some research and discovered something called a Flan PĆ¢tisserie, which is basically a French custard tart. He looked at several recipes for it and realised that they were all pretty similar to the ingredients called for in our 1965 book, just in a different ratio. He then came up with his own recipe for a small serving:
1 egg + 1 yolk ~70g
80g sugar
28g cornstarch
~ 1.5c milk
Tiny pinch salt
40mL espresso
Pat of butterĀBake 180 fan. 40 minutes. Then top with meringue:
37g egg whites
75g powdered sugar
Dash lime juice
VanillaBlow torch.
He documented his process for posterity. First, he weighed out 18g of beans, which is what he uses for a 40mL double shot in our machine.
Then he started heating up the milk gently…
…while he whisked the eggs, sugar, and cornstarch together.
Then it was time to make the coffee! He ground the beans and pulled a 40mL double shot.
He then added the coffee and salt to the milk mixture.
He then used the hot coffee milk mixture to temper the egg mixture, eventually pouring all the milk into the eggs.
That went back into the pan and over heat, where he cooked it until it thickened up.
His custard ended up WAY thicker than mine! The secret, he said, was “way more cornstarch.” (He was supposed to stir in a pat of butter at this point, but he forgot.)
He filled two small ramekins with it…
…and baked in 180C / 350F fan-forced oven for 40 minutes. When they came out they were puffed up, but then sank as they cooled.
He mixed up his meringue, and as he is an expert meringue maker, he knew to whisk the egg whites first and THEN add the sugar. š
His meringue definitely looked more luxe and glossy than mine. He also added a bit of vanilla.
He topped the ramekins and then blow-torched them.
I mean, there’s really no contest, is there? Old and busted vs new and improved!
Also, his tastedĀ delicious, of course. The coffee flavour wasn’t as pronounced, but the texture was firm and creamy throughout. (If he’d made them in a springform, I reckon they may have even held their shape on their own.) It reminded me very much of the texture of pumpkin pie. The meringue was like a rich vanilla marshmallow on top.
So ultimately the Snook was able to rescue Coffee Velvet from the jaws of defeat. If you want to make it, I definitely recommend you use his version!
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Finishing my rug
And here I thought weaving in knitting ends was the most tedious job in the world! This is going to take me foreverā¦
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Shared today on Facebook
Acquiring a new skill! This weaving business is addictive. Iām starting to regret not having enough room in my house for a floor loomā¦ āŗļø
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Korean food
Spicy cold noodles (bibim naengmyeon), made by me! With soba noodles, radish, cucumber, kimchi, and poached egg. š š°š· (recipe)
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Weaving
Acquiring a new skill! This is addictive. Iām starting to regret not having enough room in my house for a floor loomā¦ āŗļø