The shortcut from Potts Point to Wooloomooloo by pchamlis
When we first began thinking of visiting "Mrs. MacQuarie's Chair" and the Royal Botanic Gardens, I was perplexed to see that going to the end of Victoria Street, which seemed the logical direction, might not work. You see, Victoria kind of dead-ends up above the Wooloomooloo Bay area.No worries, said Chris Bahr, owner of the Victoria Court Hotel. "Just take the stairs". Well.... I didn't see anything on my map about any stairs, but we took Chris at his word and headed down Victoria Street.
Voila! At the end of the street over on the left are "The McElhone Stairs", a long series of cement stairs leading down from Victoria Street to Cowper Wharf Road, which runs along Wooloomooloo Bay/Harbour.
During our time in Sydney, we made great use of the stairs, using it as our shortcut on walks to MacQuarie's Chair, The Domain, The Botanic Gardens, The Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the Circular Quay.... you get the idea. It became our favorite Aussie shortcut.
And, climbing all those steps numerous times each day certainly added to the fitness program. : )I remember making a remark, on about the ten thousandth time we walked the stairs, that went something like this..
"I wonder how many of these stairs there are?"
Bonnie says "120", matter-of-factly. So, if you ever have this question in Trivial Pursuit, there are 120 steps in the McElhone Stairs of Potts Point, Sydney.