We had arranged to meet Oli at around 11:30 at Circular Quay as we all fancied a trip to Manly. Nicola and I had previously been advised (by a friendly chap in Joe's Ice Cream, Swansea on our last day in the UK) that we should go and visit Manly when we are in Sydney, as it was supposedly quite breathtaking. On a side note, we were also told that a lot of people from Swansea have settled in Manly. Manly is situated across from Sydney CBD on another side of Sydney Harbour (Sydney Harbour, or Port Jackson for it's original/official name, is the name for the entire sea area around Sydney including all the many bays etc and is not just where the Opera House and Bridge are located; it's MASSIVE).
We set off from our hotel on our new favourite route, through the Botanical Garden, and made it just in time for the 11:30 ferry to Manly (in fairness the ferries ran every 30 minutes so we wouldn't have been stuck). The ferry to Manly only took 30 minutes, which was a nice surprise because it made us realise how accessible the other areas around Sydney are, also, on a longer term line of thought, you could live in Manly and commute to Sydney CBD for only $14 return day. The ferry was quite busy, with plenty of other people taking advantage of the glorious weather and heading across the bay to Manly.
On arrival, the signs were good. We had a look around the square outside Manly Wharf and were pleased to find it less built up than Sydney, with smaller roads and fewer people milling around. The Wharf to the beach is a short 5 - 10 minute walk and is easy to find - pretty much follow the chaps with surfboards. There were plenty of surf shops, cafes, bars etc lining the streets and with the people riding past on skateboards with surfboards under their arms we had our first taste of (what I anyway) considered to be a stereotypical Australian beach town.
We arrived on the beach and were silenced by the beauty of Manly, the only coherent words from our mouths were along the lines of "wow"...an not much else. The beach stretched for miles to the left of us and ended around 200 metres to our right with a rock outcrop. The sand was white and very fine, and the sea was clear blue. It felt like stepping into paradise. Oli, Nic and I looked at each other, looked across the beach, returned our gazes and nodded silent approval...this is why we came to Australia.
After we recovered from our initial sensory overload, we took a seat on the steps leading on to the beach and absorbed the majesty of our surroundings. We spent a good 30 minutes sitting and chatting on the steps, watching surfers and swimmers jog past as we relaxed and soaked up the sun and good company. Nicola and I then went to dip our feet in the sea, which was a little chillier than expected but was probably owing to the poor weather over the last few days (it snowed in the Blue Mountains near Sydney for the first time in 45 years - Oli happened to be there at the time).
After we boarded our ferry and landed at Circular Quay, we said our farewells to Oli as we were heading in different directions from here on; Oli was heading to Cairns and we were heading to Melbourne. We wished each other the best of luck and Nicola and I headed back on our familiar path through the Botanical Gardens and even stopped off for another Harry's pie (I had a "Curry Tiger", beef curry pie with mash and peas - amazing - and Nicola had a chicken and mushroom pie with mash and peas) before we arrived back at our new hostel (as a small oversight we had booked our original hotel for 4 nights when we would be in Sydney for 5) and rested ourselves before our trip to Melbourne in the morning.
We set off from our hotel on our new favourite route, through the Botanical Garden, and made it just in time for the 11:30 ferry to Manly (in fairness the ferries ran every 30 minutes so we wouldn't have been stuck). The ferry to Manly only took 30 minutes, which was a nice surprise because it made us realise how accessible the other areas around Sydney are, also, on a longer term line of thought, you could live in Manly and commute to Sydney CBD for only $14 return day. The ferry was quite busy, with plenty of other people taking advantage of the glorious weather and heading across the bay to Manly.
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| Manly Wharf |
We arrived on the beach and were silenced by the beauty of Manly, the only coherent words from our mouths were along the lines of "wow"...an not much else. The beach stretched for miles to the left of us and ended around 200 metres to our right with a rock outcrop. The sand was white and very fine, and the sea was clear blue. It felt like stepping into paradise. Oli, Nic and I looked at each other, looked across the beach, returned our gazes and nodded silent approval...this is why we came to Australia.
After we recovered from our initial sensory overload, we took a seat on the steps leading on to the beach and absorbed the majesty of our surroundings. We spent a good 30 minutes sitting and chatting on the steps, watching surfers and swimmers jog past as we relaxed and soaked up the sun and good company. Nicola and I then went to dip our feet in the sea, which was a little chillier than expected but was probably owing to the poor weather over the last few days (it snowed in the Blue Mountains near Sydney for the first time in 45 years - Oli happened to be there at the time).
After we dipped our feet in the sea we went for a coffee and lunch at a nearby cafe. Oli and I had a breakfast wrap (scrambled egg, bacon and some leaves in a wrap) which was delicious and Nicola went for a croque monsieur (french ham and cheese toastie basically). The cafe was called "3 Beans" and was really nice, we were even given a complimentary bottle of water - a nice touch given the heat.
Following lunch we went for a walk along the beachfront (which seemed to become more beautiful with every passing step) until we reached another rock outcrop. We opted to go for a walk up the hill to see if we could find ourselves a spot for a nice panorama photograph. Initially, we seemed to be following a path as we headed up the hillside but pretty quickly it became overgrown and less obvious as to where we had to walk. Oli had to get the 16:00 ferry back in order to attend an all you can eat dinner at the revolving restaurant, so we decided to walk what seemed like a relatively short walk across the peninsular and back into Manly. However, after 30 minutes of walking (and entering Sydney Harbour National Park via a hole in a brick wall) we seemed no closer to getting back to Manly. Frustratingly, we could see Manly from our viewpoint in the hills but owing to the scrub land on the hills between us and Manly (and any potentially deadly animals/birds/lizards/everything that was living in the scrub land) we could not cut across via a shortcut. As quickly as we were starting to worry about time (I say worry, we were so laid back at the time we were almost horizontal) we stumbled onto a main road that would take us through the residential area and back to Manly Wharf. We walked along this road for approximately 30 minutes, passing along the way many beautiful homes that we all stopped to admire and imagine ourselves living in, before we arrived in Manly and stopped off at Aldi (they have Aldi in Oz) for a drink to cool off (and for Nicola to buy 1kg of apples!) with as we sat under a tree waiting for our ferry to arrive. The whole time spent on Manly had been wonderful, we spent the day in paradise, knowing that we had made the right decision in coming to Australia...no regrets.
Following lunch we went for a walk along the beachfront (which seemed to become more beautiful with every passing step) until we reached another rock outcrop. We opted to go for a walk up the hill to see if we could find ourselves a spot for a nice panorama photograph. Initially, we seemed to be following a path as we headed up the hillside but pretty quickly it became overgrown and less obvious as to where we had to walk. Oli had to get the 16:00 ferry back in order to attend an all you can eat dinner at the revolving restaurant, so we decided to walk what seemed like a relatively short walk across the peninsular and back into Manly. However, after 30 minutes of walking (and entering Sydney Harbour National Park via a hole in a brick wall) we seemed no closer to getting back to Manly. Frustratingly, we could see Manly from our viewpoint in the hills but owing to the scrub land on the hills between us and Manly (and any potentially deadly animals/birds/lizards/everything that was living in the scrub land) we could not cut across via a shortcut. As quickly as we were starting to worry about time (I say worry, we were so laid back at the time we were almost horizontal) we stumbled onto a main road that would take us through the residential area and back to Manly Wharf. We walked along this road for approximately 30 minutes, passing along the way many beautiful homes that we all stopped to admire and imagine ourselves living in, before we arrived in Manly and stopped off at Aldi (they have Aldi in Oz) for a drink to cool off (and for Nicola to buy 1kg of apples!) with as we sat under a tree waiting for our ferry to arrive. The whole time spent on Manly had been wonderful, we spent the day in paradise, knowing that we had made the right decision in coming to Australia...no regrets.
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| Off exploring... |
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| The entrance to the National Park |
After we boarded our ferry and landed at Circular Quay, we said our farewells to Oli as we were heading in different directions from here on; Oli was heading to Cairns and we were heading to Melbourne. We wished each other the best of luck and Nicola and I headed back on our familiar path through the Botanical Gardens and even stopped off for another Harry's pie (I had a "Curry Tiger", beef curry pie with mash and peas - amazing - and Nicola had a chicken and mushroom pie with mash and peas) before we arrived back at our new hostel (as a small oversight we had booked our original hotel for 4 nights when we would be in Sydney for 5) and rested ourselves before our trip to Melbourne in the morning.
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