When in doubt, adventure

Near the beach landing zone at Stanwell
Park. Launch is on the top of the knob.

Looking down while scrambling up.
Steep!

On Sept 28th, I headed to Stanwell Park, a coastal ridge soaring site a bit over one hour south from Sydney by train. I didn't bring my paraglider since the winds were predicted to be cross and too strong. I arrived armed with my backpack with laptop, gps, mobile phone, and a sweater. It wasn't too hard to find the landing zone, as a couple hang gliders had just finished folding up. I wanted to see the launch site though, and decided to eschew automotive transport and hike up. I wandered along the roads for awhile and then followed a rough trail into the woods. Quickly it forked with one direction going into a very dark underground tunnel with a broken gate that felt to me like an ideal criminal hideout, so I moved past it too quickly to even take a photo. After awhile of walking I was frustrated with not actually going up the hill, and took what I figured was an overgrown side trail that headed straight up the hill. After a few dozen meters of vertical scrambling I had to decide whether to go back down or keep going. 

Who left that here?  It was joined by
many broken beer bottles on the hike
from the beach to the top of the hill.

Up was a lot easier, and I judged the whole hill wasn't higher than a couple hundred meters, so no problem, eh? Scramble, scramble. I passed by a broken car embedded in the scrub that someone had recently committed to nature via high speed off the hilltop.

Arriving at the Stanwell Park launch.

Finally just after failing to clear some spiky plants which left bite marks on my hands, I arrived sweaty and tired at the top of the hill to the surprise of a local who was smoking in the strong breeze (more Aussies smoke than Canadians; probably the extra heat from the sun causes spontaneous combustion). I gave my recommendation that the scramble was one way and best avoided anyway. But, no blood, no adventure, so I was satisfied.

Bondi beach in the distance.  The
people weren't so pretty at 11AM, so
I took a photo from far away.

Tired from adventuring, I spent part of the next day at Bondi beach in Sydney mingling with the pretty people. As I result I have to update my Sydney summary: If you displaced Tofino with Vancouver, grew some real transit and pushed the density a bit, you'd have a very rough approximation of Sydney.

Since cities do not have night skies, we are left with the possibility of ocean, forests, and the mountains to cure city-induced mental ills. Save money on therapy and just move to a beautiful place and use our evolutionarily developed anti-depression medicine.