Manly

As in the place in Sydney, rather than an attribute of character....

We've ben to Sydney before and although we could quite happily re-do lots of the things we've done before, we had decided to do some new stuff this time - it's not as though we've done everything worth doing , we haven't been that often. For some reason the OH had got it into his head that he'd like to go to Manly, so off we went.

Like so many places in Sydney, you can get to it on the ferry so that's what we did. To be honest it was nice to be on the boat and get a bit of a breeze, because the weather was hot, hot, hot all the time we were in Australia and although it wasn't nearly as hot in Sydney as it would get when we flew up to the NT, it was certainly hot enough!

 

So Manly is famous for its coffee culture

 

 

would you believe when we went into this place  there were two policemen sitting at the front having coffee and doughnuts?

 

and the surfing

 

 

This is where I paddled

 

 

Have to say it's difficult to take a picture of your own feet when it's very sunny and you're burdened with a large chest. Lack of clear visibility all round!

 

The OH also dipped a toe in the water

 

 

 

He has to be careful with unfamiliar stretches of water. He went into the Mediterranean once and came out with a shocking allergic reaction, quite scary. Fortunately it seems the Pacific is safer, we'll remember that next time.

 

We did a short walk round Cabbage Tree Bay which was fun. Stopped to rest on a bench and when we got up to go on the people on the next bench motioned to us to turn around. Guess what had been just behind us while we sat calmly unaware of its presence...?

 

 

 

Yup the blue is the back of our bench - and that's an Eastern Water Dragon. Quite fun, harmless and a protected species. We saw quite a lot of them while we were on the walk. The OH was well taken with them, he loves lizard-y things.

 

There's some fun wall art along the Cabbage Tree Bay walk, not graffiti, but little metal sculptures and line 'drawings' let into the wall of local features. Here's one of them, with swimmers. I should have taken more of these really.

 

 

Obviously Manly is quite up-market and there were some beautiful houses. I was quite taken by the blue one here, although now that we've lived in Orkney for so long where our nearest neighbours in all directions are at least a field away, these are all a bit close together for our taste. That said, if someone left it to me in their will I wouldn't say No.

 

 

We had quite a fun day although after we got back to the hotel the OH did confide that he thought it wasn't  quite as nice  as he'd expected it to be. I suspect that was partly because we were hot and bothered: on a cooler day when we had more energy and if we took our swimming things I think we could have a great day there. So maybe another time we'll go back.