by John New
Do you know who wrote the sentence: "It was a dark and stormy night ..."? Did you say Snoopy? These words, in fact, were written by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton from the 1830 novel, "Paul Clifford", and are widely held to start the worst opening sentence of any novel in the English language.
OK, what has this got to do with our February 2007 Sniffing Around Sydney walk? Only that it had been dark and stormy the night before our walk, and it looked wet and windy right up to the start of the walk. However, there was no way a bit of rain was going to put off the small group of 15 walkers and 11 beagles who gathered at the John Fisher Netball Courts, North Curl Curl!
Before our walk, we had a group photo taken by a bassett owner who happened to live across the road from the netball courts. Then we set off. We used a nearby footbridge to cross over Greendale Creek, then walked along a bicycle track and some open grassy areas to Adam Street Grounds, an off-lead dog park. There was lots of serious sniffing here, the wet grass probably enhancing all the wonderful smells.
We reached the North Curl Curl beach front, where it started to rain quite hard. Fortunately, the Surf Life Saving Club wasn't far away, where we stopped under a sheltered area for a welcome cup of coffee from the kiosk. The rain stopped, the sun almost came out, and we continued on our way toward the Harbord Diggers Club. Probably the main benefit of the rain (for our walk) was that it reduced the number of people along the footpaths. They were narrow, and the beach front is normally very popular with walkers, joggers, swimmers, etc, particularly on Sunday.
We circled around the club, which has impressive ocean views, and returned along our original route. At the off-lead dog park most of the beagles were allowed to run free. As always, it's lots of fun watching beagles rushing around enjoying themselves. We crossed over Greendale Creek at a different footbridge, which had a duck viewing area. It's doubtful whether the beagles realised there were ducks, they were so busy with noses to the ground!
We finished the walk back at the netball courts, where everyone agreed that it had been a good walk in spite of the rain. Hope to see you at the next one.
See if you pick out the Bassett from the pictures below!
