Manly to Spit

Ever since I arrived in Sydney, one of the things I’d been wanting to do is the walk from Manly Beach to the Spit Bridge. Of course it became one of those things I had PLENTY of time to do… until I had just a few days left Down Under. So I finally made a point to do it. Melvin and I took the 10:30 ferry to Manly, and it was my last Sydney ferry ride… my last sweeping views of the harbour from a boat. The day began super hot and sunny, but that didn’t stop me from getting some organic coffee at Manly. It was Melvin’s first time at the beach, so we walked around for a bit, browsed some shops, and watched people surf and sunbathe. Then we took a quick busride uphill to North Head, part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. We walked a-ways down a road and pathway that led us to the cliff edge on the outermost point of the harbour, across from Watsons Bay and Gap Bluff. By now, the sky had become completely cloudy, and it was super windy. But that didn’t take away from the amazing views that North Head provided. Looking outside of the harbour directly out at the Pacific Ocean, we admired the cliff views, which were much like the ones at Royal NP. We even saw a whale just offshore, and it jumped out of the water several times! Of course as soon as the whale watching boat came out to see it, the whale had disappeared. It was awesome. On the inside of the harbour, we could see the skyline and harbour bridge in the distance, even though it was so cloudy. Doing all these harbour walks gives you a much better idea of how big Sydney harbour really is, and how it’s shaped.

We walked down from North Head back to Manly Wharf, which took almost an hour. On the way, we saw some exotic-looking birds outside of a house in the bushes. So pretty! Once back at Manly, we began the walk to The Spit, which we were advised to devote 4 hours to. At this point, it was nearly 4:00, so the plan was to walk fast and don’t stop. As it turned out, we only needed 1.5 hours to do the walk, and it wasn’t even a rushed pace. The walk was amazing, of course. We walked across from North Head and Watsons Bay and then along an inlet within North Sydney. The sky went fron cloudy to dark cloudy, providing some great lighting. The walk ended near a private little beach near the Spit bridge. We had to walk along a busy road with apparently no crosswalks or stop signs, at which point I got mud all over my shoes for no apparent reason.

We then caught a bus back to the city and had dinner at City Extra, a diner right on Circular Quay. I had some delicious apple crepes. Overall we were pretty pleased, even if it wasn’t Pancakes on the Rocks [which had been closed since August for renovations and should have reopened 2 months ago]. After dinner, we just traipsed around the city with our cameras and I completed my Sydney night shot collection. At this point, it was FREEZING and we were wearing t-shirts and shorts. But we barely felt it because we were too jazzed to be illegally climbing up the giant cruiseship platform and getting money shots of the skyline, bridge, and Opera House. Gorgeous. I have no idea why I never got around to shooting Circular Quay at night, but this was definitely the perfect time to do it.

After that, we walked up George St through the city, took a few more pictures, and rushed over to Star City casino solely to snag my 3 free drinks of the day… some hot chocolate to warm us up. I went in and got the drinks, and then we sought shelter from the unforgiving wind while sipping on the hot chocolate in tshirts and shorts.