The best* walks in London and Sydney
*according to me
Coogee to Bondi (3.5 miles)
It’s not Sydney’s ‘best-kept secret’. There’s no short-form video “I’m a dermatologist and I refuse to gatekeep this skincare hack” pretence. Sometimes, good things are just good. And while I’d still maintain a wide berth during December and January due to the throng of tourists, the landscape speaks for itself.
It’s not necessarily the most spectacular in Sydney, let alone the country. But the fact that it is only a few miles from the city centre — which Australians adorably call the Central Business District (CBD), as if life is one long Edexcel GCSE Geography course — and you can take in pretty much all the main Eastern Suburbs beaches along the way (Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly) is the clincher.
The only major life decision is which end to start. My view is it depends on whether you prefer to leverage the Coogee Pavilion, home to the southern hemisphere’s best chips, as fuel or reward.
Hackney to Hackney via Regent’s Canal (8 miles)
A bit more Blue Peter DIY vibes here. The route goes something like this: Haggerston Park > De Beauvoir > Upper Street > Barnsbury > Coal Drops Yard > Regent’s Canal back to Hackney.
The dining options are justification alone. The De Beauvoir Deli pain au chocolat, the Islington Gail’s sausage roll, The Coal Office’s everything. This is not a way to get healthy.
The regeneration of the place is also a wonder. My mom described learning to drive around King’s Cross in the 1980s and being mistaken for a kerb crawler, such was the area’s somewhat sketchy reputation. Today, there is a COS and Google’s London headquarters.
The only problem is the cyclists, who have a habit of treating the towpath along the canal like a segregated highway rather than a shared space. Yes, I was born at the age of 52.
ABC Pool to East Balmain (5 miles)
It isn’t Spit to Manly or the Cremorne Point Walk, but dammit this is my list. Start with a dip (and something of a display if you’re feeling cute) at the Andrew “Boy” Charlton Pool, where you can take in sun, sea and 2.5-3.5% of GDP on defence.
Then it’s through the Royal Botanic Gardens, over the Pyrmont Bridge on Darling Harbour (it swivels to open which is very cool the first time you see it in action, but gets progressively more annoying on each successive occasion you have to wait) and onto the Anzac Bridge. Nowhere near as famous as its Harbour cousin, it is by some distance my preferred crossing, day or night.
And then you wind your way along to Balmain where the more basic among you can enjoy this particular view.
Richmond to Rotherhithe (20 miles)
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