AUSTRALIA DISPATCHER
It's no Bondi Beach, but Pondy, or Penrith Beach, has become a welcome relief from the city's sweltering western suburbs.
Christine Carroll plopped down in the only shade on the beach—a triangle cast by a makeshift lifeguard station—and slathered her freckled skin with sunscreen.
Squinting in the blazing midday sun, she glanced at her 8-year-old daughter, Zoe, who had already plunged into the blue-green water without hesitation. “She’s a water baby,” Ms. Carroll said.
The Pacific Ocean, which gives Sydney, Australia, its famous coastline and some of the world's most enviable beaches, was nearly 50 miles away. A flock of pelicans floated by, coots waded nearby, and not a seagull was in sight. A sign cheekily warned of waves of 2 millimeters — less than a tenth of an inch.
This is Pondy Beach.
No, not Bondi, glittering backdrop of reality TV, backpacker's dream and epicentre of Australia's church of surf and sand, but Pondy, as locals call Penrith's humble, man-made beach.
Created on a lagoon site in a former quarry at the foot of the Blue Mountains that mark Sydney's western edge, Pondy, pronounced Pond-ay, isn't quite postcard-worthy like its namesake Bondi Beach. But it has become a welcome refuge for those who live an hour or more from the coast and pay hefty tolls to get there.
