Manly Beach

Surfing Manly Beach

On our last day, we decided to take the Ferry to Manly Beach. This little town is on the peninsula between Sydney Harbor and the Tasman Sea. The beach here is famed for surfing. While Mary relaxed near the beach, I took a quick hike along the seashore to Sydney National Park. There were quite a few scenic views of the beach and the rock cliffs as well as flowers blooming in the bushes along the path. I had a pleasant one hour hike, but you could have made a good 4-5 hour hike of it. We had a great lunch at the Jellyfish Restaurant along the beach and continued to watch the surfers and beach volleyball players. The weather continued to be beautiful in the low 70s, but as it started to cool late in the afternoon, we returned across the harbor to Sydney. A nice, relaxed day.

Hiking Sydney National Park

How would I summarize the trip? As you’ll recall, the weather was interesting, while it was fairly cold in Tasmania with some rain and snow and we had a fierce rain storm in Adelaide, about everywhere else, the weather was quite pleasant. Only two weeks earlier, it would have been quite hot (80’s-90’s) in Alice Springs and Port Douglas. I think we got a good feel for the variety of Australia. Everyone here was quite friendly, we had quite a few conversations with the Aussies as we toured around. The highlights had to be Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, Alice Springs and Uluru, and the Great Barrier Reef and Rainforest around Port Douglas. We also enjoyed every encounter we had with the animals, plants, and birds, particularly how marsupials predominate here. Not surprising, given that we prefer nature to big cities. It was quite interesting hearing the stories and history of the Aboriginals and the early colonization of the country. As usual, we appreciated Wayne our guide from OAT, he’s been doing this for over 20 years and his knowledge and humor were appreciated. In particular, going to an Aussie Rules Football game was fun! We also enjoyed meeting our small group of travelers, those of us who went to Tasmania together seemed to bond together particularly. A good trip – now we just need to see Western and Northern Australia. Lastly, I’ve never eaten so much fish and chips in such a short time.

If you'd like to see more pictures and videos, there is a 22 minute video available on youtube.