Birthday swim at Coogee's McIver's Ladies' Baths

As a birthday present to myself last week I went for a swim at McIver's Ladies' Baths.

I had visited the Coogee pool a few times before but this was the first time I was diving in.

Mid-week, McIver's is a peaceful spot where breaststroke is the preferred style or a leisurely backstroke.

A few also don caps and goggles and lap close to the chains where the waves wash in.

Others channel Valerie Taylor in their snorkels and masks and gaze at the underwater treasures.

When I pushed off into the blue-green water I did a slow breaststroke to the northern end where I stood on a submerged rock and looked back to Coogee Beach. 

I watched a surfer paddle by just outside the borders of the pool, and delighted in the white water gushing in and out and moving me about. 

And then I brought my camera into the pool and snapped all the beauty that abounds above and below the water.

As I dried off after my swim, I talked to a woman who told me it was also her first time at this cocoon-like, women-only pool.

"I can't believe I've lived in Sydney all these years and only discovered it now," she said.

For more about McIver's Baths read my earlier blog here.

The magical moods of Maroubra's Mahon Pool

The beauty of ocean pools is that they change each day according to the weather and the patterns of the sea.

Last week huge waves lined up outside Mahon Pool and crashed over the chains.

Sometimes there was so much water the pool disappeared completely from view.

It was mesmerising watching the rise and fall of the sea and the sun shining on the sandstone.

And seeing a face appear in the curves and lines of a rock.

More than most of Sydney's 100 ocean baths, Mahon Pool is at the mercy of the worst waves and weather as it doesn't get protection from the south-westerlies. Built in the early 1930s on the rock platform north of Maroubra Beach, at high tide the pool often merges with the sea. In the 1930s and 40s my mother and her sister swam there often especially when the surf was dangerous at Maroubra Beach..

A month ago I was greeted by a much more tranquil scene than last week's big seas.

It was the day before winter but almost like a summer's day so I was ready for a swim.

Near the steps leading into the pool, I met a man who swims there all year round.  

"You never get sick when you swim here each day," he said. "I am 71 but I never get the flu; you get that on the bus. And today it's the best," he said. "It's 21 in the water."

As I swam along olive green plants fluttered in the water like Reconciliation hands and close to the edge where the waves wash in I spotted a fish.

 

On the rock platform, the grey-brown boulders looked like crocodiles, hippos, whales and sharks; their half-opened eyes watching me and the other swimmers in the pool. 

It was beautiful in and I started to have that familiar feeling like I wanted to stay forever in this pool.