Where I'm from

To grow up in this town really was the dream. Big backyards with pools and even bigger beaches with an endless ocean, available any day of the year. 

When you live by the coast it's always about the water. 

Watching tide charts to see when we could safely swim over to the sandbar then playing for hours until the tides turned once more for the return swim. 

Putting at 8 knots to the very end of South West Arm in the pursuit of fresh waterfalls, smooth rocks & an infamous rope swing then the sweet combination of adrenaline & pleasure as we wade around the warm river telling stories of sharks and all we knew about their feeding habits. 

Dad's longboard taking priority over passengers and having to duck down if riding in the 'second car with no roof racks'. Finding sand in the bed, shower & all creases of the car...even in winter. 

Owning a wetsuit. Feeling indestructible in a wetsuit. Not being afraid of being dumped.

The smell of the National Park as we drove for picnics by the river or through to Garie to check the surf. 

Being flung around the back of a boat on a donut, skis or wakeboard then refuelling at Atwells Boat Shed with homemade sausage rolls & a bag of red frogs. 

Summer holidays, deep, natural tans, being on the esplanade with other early risers as we wait for the sun to come up over the horizon. 

It's been 24 years now and things have evolved a little, 'cool' cafes & bars & restaurants have popped up and bring crowds in on their own merit. I ride my bike less, I've forgotten how to surf and am now afraid of being dumped when the swell is big. When I go for a walk I usually motivate myself to do so with the promise of a soy latte at the end of it. Work takes me away most days of the week and by a Friday afternoon the commute kills me. 

But the simplicity and perspective that comes when standing, or more importantly living, alongside a large body of water is profound. I'm still here and above all else what's keeping me is the water. It's always about the water. 

Photos: A Guide to Cronulla for Broadsheet Sydney by Rachel Kara

The Grounds

Words by Hannah Rose

"Some places - (and people, and things) - really are overwhelming. You finally make it there after an epic 30 minute walk during which you are sure you went around in at least two very large circles and you barely get a moment to stop and take in the place around you before you are thrust right into the madness.


 


 Servers rushing around with plates of steaming egg-and-bacon rolls, hoards - and we really mean hoardes, there was an hour's wait for a table at 10.30 in the morning and a good 20 or so people lining up for takeaway - of people peering into the windows of pastries lined up for purchase, from danishes with sour cherries and rich, oozing custard to a distinctly un-breakfast like carrot cake with a potent hit of ginger. 


   


Everywhere we looked something was happening: those beautiful green cups, those doubled-up coffee counters, that open kitchen with the wide granite benches and the coffee roaster and that tantalising view onto your future breakfast, lunch, tea. There simply was too much to see.





 We're not saying this to deter you from going. You should go. Often and regularly and with us, preferably. The madness of The Grounds is all part of the experience. It's the flavour of the month - and rightly so, rightly so - and that means that everything that makes it good (delicious food at incredibly reasonable prices, an impeccably well-designed interior that, believe us, is worth every single penny that was put into it and fantastically subtle, or rather subtly fantastic coffee) also makes it very, very popular. And it should be popular, because it's out-of-this-world (or at least out-of-this-city, it doesn't feel like any other place in Sydney right now) good. 




Any place that can render us completely speechless, despite being very hungry and very cold has got to be doing something right. Believe us, between that three cheese toasty ($7 and pretty damn good), those mouth-wateringly good pastries and a buzzing atmosphere that is one part coffee, two parts children [beware of weekend jumping castles if you're not so child friendly, the way I bang on about them I'm hoping this note is not needed for (m)any of my readers - Rachel], three parts unmitigated, unadulterated brilliance, there's not a lot that The Grounds are doing wrong."


 The Grounds, 2A Huntley Street, Alexandria




Photos: Rachel Kara

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