Day 17: Manly

Off through the botanic gardens again today to get to Circular Quay.
Weather much better - bright sunshine.

Outside the opera house there was an open air performance of an acrobatic piece called "Swoon!". Four performers balanced on the top of 20-30 foot poles that were very flexible. They they did a 20 minute performance to music that was just amazing - though it did make me feel unwell at points, particularly when the poles bent backwards, almost horizontal to the floor.


We really wanted to see Sydney from the water so got a travel ticket for the ferry and headed off to Manly. Too many jokes to avoid going there! This is a longish ferry ride right out through the harbour, past the harbour mouth and on. The swell coming through the harbour mouth was immense and everyone on the front of the ferry got pretty wet. This was such a light weather day as well, terrifying to think what it could be like in a storm.

Manly is a big surfer place with the beach on the other side of the ferry terminal very long and with big waves. The town was a mixture of lots of restaurants and standard shops mixed in with a suprising number of tattoo parlours.

Got the return ferry back to Sydney harbour, then got another one to Darling Harbour, which took us under the bridge. First stop was at the fun fair underneath the bridge. Terrifying. Like something from the mind of Stephen King. The ferry then headed further up the harbour to the development at Darling Harbour which looked amazing - lots of glass fronted buildings over several levels, lots of lights, lots of people. Plus some really interesting water features set in as well, including one that had four concentric spirals of water that looked like they were strobing as the water flowed down.

In the evening we went back to the hotel to start plans for the final couple of weeks.

One of the big things in Sydney is Harry's Cafe de Wheels - a 24 hour pie shop based in an old caravan sort of thing. We can actually see it from the hotel window, so it felt rude to not have at least one pie while we were here. Eventually got one this evening at about 10.30 which seems to be a very popular time!

Tomorrow: the drag to Melbourne