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| Sunrise over Narrabeen beach |
I’m flying solo today. I have no one else to apportion blame for the elevation, exhaustion and pain this morning. On the upside, what better place to agonize than for a second time in the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney? Adorned with a new pair of bright pink compression socks, my newfangled heavily discounted 2XU compression tights ( thanks to Caitlyn), Caitlyn's Garmin watch , a banana and one caramel Tim Tam bite, I departed at 5:30am. I was greeted by a beautiful red and golden sunrise peeping shyly over the ocean with the promise of a perfect day. The first few kilometres were tentatively taken, nursing some new stiffness in my hip and feet. As I warmed up, the lubrication of joints seem to take effect, or possibly, the other body parts deteriorated to establish equilibrium of sorts.
I ran through Collaroy and over the Long Reef headland. This is a magnificent outlook and, for me, one associated with many fond memories, including running with my family dogs and school excursions where we pretended to study the rock platforms that jut out a distance into the ocean. I dropped down onto the firm sand from Long Reef into Dee Why then began the hill climb to traverse the northern headland of Curl Curl. Forlornly, I ran past my chosen breakfast destination with 17km to go! I followed the boardwalk between South Curl Curl and Freshwater beach (as mentioned in last week’s meanderings). The swell was quite big, however, not deterring the few rock fishermen throwing caution to the wind and waves. I cut across behind Freshwater Beach and heaved myself up the uneven and tough stair climb up over the Queenscliff headland. The view looking towards Manly beach was a comfort to weary limbs. The Garmin confirmed that the road signs are correct in their distance of 12 kilometres to Manly from Narrabeen. Did I have another 12 kilometres in me? I wrestled off the temptation to bail into the emerald ocean by joining the early morning ‘Bold and Beautiful’ ocean swimming group. The sheer terror of admitting that I am entered in a marathon in just seven weeks was motivation enough to keep me moving forward.
I continued around the Fairy Bower to Shelly beach, perfecting the consumption of my banana while running, then returned back around to the Manly Cove and crossed to the harbour side. There is a spectacular trail from Manly to the Spit that is 11km long and follows the harbour foreshore through bushland and beach. I made a small indent on the more gentrified section of this path towards Fairlight. I turned around at 17km and retraced my steps towards the Manly beachfront, hoping for a miraculous surge of energy from my mini Tim Tam (it wasn’t too bad and easier to eat than jelly beans while running). I don’t need much excuse eating chocolate and thought it might be worth trialling on one of the training runs. Queenscliff headland and more steps were encountered at the 19 kilometre mark. I dropped down onto Fairlight beach and it’s hard packed sand accompanying the low tide and made my way around the rocks and a little path towards the ocean pool. The final few kilometres involved sheer grit to reach the target of 24km. The best part of the run was the soothing dip in the South Curl Curl ocean pool at the end. I did lend only a moment to considering whether my fancy tights were intended for saltwater.
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| Gustos location |
Sometimes the food really does take a back seat to the location and Gusto on the beach is one such example. This café sits within the South Curl Curl surf club right on the beach. They could be serving mediocre food and people would still line up for the view. The menu is interesting with a hint of pretension and prices. Caitlyn, having completed a neat little 10 kilometre run, ordered the Breakfast Burrito ($12), a well-priced
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| Breakfast burrito |
multinational affair of Brazilian black beans and Portuguese chorizo, scrambled eggs and guacamole. It was heartily consumed and declared to be quite tasty. Julie-Anne, a long-time friend, joined us for breakfast and chose one of the current breakfast stalwarts -‘smashed avocado and tomato salsa with some bacon on the side ($14 +$4.00). It was the prettiest dish of our three with goats fetta crumbled on the top of soy and quinoa sourdough. Julie-Anne and I both felt there was a lack of seasoning and hearty flavours to our dishes. I had the two ‘Baked Eggs’ with ‘shakshuka’- a tomato, chickpeas, capsicum, rocket and goats curd with grilled soy and quinoa sourdough. The dish looked enticing but didn’t quite round off with the flavours.
Gusto’s is an exciting five star location that BOTR will likely revisit for its proximity to the big blue more than for the palate. A greater focus on seasonings rather than spicy superlatives would really set this location on fire.
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| Smashed avocado |
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| Baked eggs |
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