On a sunny Saturday morning, prior to jumping the ferry to Bundeena, my friend Jules and I decided to first fuel up at Pigrims Vegetarian Cafe in Cronulla. With a second floor vantage over the park at South Cronulla, Pilgrims was all blue sky and coastal pines peeking in through the large windows lining the beach-facing walls of this bright cafe. With interiors of rustic wooden furniture, white and blue/grey walls and pops of colour from the likes of pot plants and  milkshake cups.

All the surrounding large mugs of creamy caffeine had me ordering a soy latte, which was as satisfying as it sounds. Detoxing Jules got a green tea. I made a note to order one of the many juices next time, such as Bob’s Reef (carrot, orange, ginger), Black Rock (orange, apple, strawberry, banana), Green Island (grapefruit, apple, celery) or Bombie (carrot, apple, beetroot, celery, ginger) – all the tried-and-tested favourites with cool coastal names. If I was to come later in the day, however, I may reach for a sangria or Carona to match the Mexican fare they serve post-brekky.

The service was friendly, albeit a little clumsy – I ordered my eggs over easy and they came sunny-side up (which kind of grosses me out – is it just me?) and Jules ordered no bread, so they gave her gluten free bread (she was all like ‘no, no, still don’t want bread’) and they were apologetic. Everything was really fresh though, and I think serving lemon with pretty much anything is a good idea, so a bit of zest for my sourdough eggs was welcome. Nearby I spied the buttermilk pancakes with butter & organic maple syrup which made my mouth water as well.

We didn’t have time to linger, as we had to rush down to Gunnamatta park to jump on the ferry bound for Bundeena where we would begin our coastal hike, but I would return to this cheery cafe next time I find myself Shire way – which will likely be when it’s swimming weather!