90th birthday nostalgia tour – Karyn + Margaret 20.07.25

Karyn organised the 90th birthday nostalgia tour on a trike, for her Mum. She designed a route which took them around the Eastern Suburbs and past various houses Margaret had lived in. Karyn’s husband and son followed on his motorcycle.

Watsons Bay

Our trike rider picked the passengers up at the Watsons Bay Hotel. Originally called the Palace Hotel, the grandest in the area was built in 1886, in Victorian Italianate ‘Boom’ style.

Watsons Bay sits on the end of the South Head peninsula and takes its name from the sheltered bay and anchorage on its western side, in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour). It provides views across the harbour to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Gap

Opposite is “The Gap” . The view is towards North Head and out to the South Pacific Ocean. The Gap is an ocean cliff which faces the Tasman Sea, and is located in the suburb of Watsons Bay. Although the cliff is a popular tourist destination, it is infamous for suicides.

Gap Park is located on a coastal escarpment on Sydney Harbour’s South Head. It has spectacular views of both the harbour and the ocean. A weather worn memorial to an officer killed in the Boer War, is at the entrance to Gap Park.

Macquarie Lightstation

Next, they rode past Macquarie Lightstation / lighthouse. Completed in 1818, Macquarie Lighthouse was designed by convict architect Francis Greenway for Lachlan Macquarie, the Governor of NSW. Owing to crumbling foundations, it was reconstructed in the 1880s. Standing at 26 metres tall, the replacement tower was designed by the state’s Colonial Architect, James Barnet, to closely resemble Greenway’s original. It’s where this photo was taken. Already the 90th birthday nostalgia tour on a trike was showing our locals some interesting sights.

Bondi Beach

Heading south, they drove past the world famous Bondi Beach, both the north, middle and south side. This is the beach where Bondi Lifeguards of the Bondi Rescue TV series is filmed. When in Sydney it is one of the places you should visit. The beach is seriously nice (but not our favourite) but it’s good to say you have seen it. Bondi Beach is one of the most visited tourist sites in Australia. Bondi Beach is recorded by the Australian Museum that Bondi means place where a fight using boondi sticks (nullas nullas or fighting sticks) took place.

They stopped near the Lifeguard Tower to have a look and take photos.

Tamarama

Riding further south, along more beautiful, though possibly less well known, beaches. The suburb of Tamarama has a small ocean beach about 1 kilometre south of Bondi Beach and a couple of hundred metres north of Bronte Beach. It is an extremely narrow beach and deceptive for its size. Tamarama Beach is often referred to as Glamarama (or Glamourama), owing to the alleged abundance of glamorous people who sunbathe (often topless), on what must be one of the smallest strips of sand in the state (Wikipedia).

Bronte

Next, they rode further south to Bronte Beach. Bronte Beach sits on Nelson Bay, surrounded by Bronte Park. Bronte offers scenic cliff-top walking paths south to Coogee via the Waverley Cemetery and north to Tamarama and Bondi Beach. So far, the 90th birthday nostalgia tour on the trike has been fun, informative and memorable.

Bronte-Coogee Aquatic Reserve

Then, it was even further south to the Bronte-Coogee Aquatic Reserve. This extends from the southern end of Bronte Beach to the rock baths at Coogee Beach and out to 100 m offshore. It covers an area of approximately 40 hectares and includes 4,000m of coastline.

The objectives of the aquatic reserve is:

1. conserve the biodiversity of fish and marine vegetation
2. protect fish habitat
3. facilitate educational activities
4. facilitate scientific research

Clovelly Beach

Further south to Clovelly Beach. Clovelly Beach is a small and tranquil beach, located the mouth of a narrow bay between two rocky ridges.

Coogee

Lastly, they rode past Coogee Beach which is more chilled than its northern neighbour Bondi. It’s a beautiful beach and slightly more famous than most other beaches, due to the well known hotel in Coogee. The name Coogee is said to be taken from a local Aboriginal word koojah which means “smelly place”. Another version is koo-chai or koo-jah, both of which mean “the smell of the seaweed drying” in the Bidigal language, or “stinking seaweed”, a reference to the smell of decaying kelp washed up on the beach. Coogee was gazetted as a village in 1838. The first school was built in 1863, and the building was converted into the Coogee Bay Hotel in 1873 (Wikipedia).

However, the 1.5hrs was almost up. Our trike rider turned around and rode back to Watsons Bay via the house Maragret grew up in as a child.

In conclusion, the 90th birthday nostalgia tour on a trike, in Eastern Sydney was a fun and memorable experience. A trip down memory lane!

Feel the Freedom!

or just email trevor@trolltours.com.au and tell us what you would like to do.