Manly - surf city

We checked into the Novotel in Manly and immediately upgraded to an ocean front room so that we could watch the waves crashing on the beach from our terrace which made it a special location for John’s birthday week. The huge room could definitely be described as ‘minimalist’ since it contained nothing much apart from a bed and a TV and could comfortably have accommodated a sofa and a table and chairs! The view was great and wandering out onto the terrace at 7am to see what the day was looking like, you could watch the energetic Ozzies bobbing around in the surf like so many seals, or playing volleyball, running, cycling and all manner of active pursuits. You don’t seem to see lots of hugely fat people or incredibly skinny ones either so they must have a good balance between active lifestyles (you get run over by joggers if you’re walking round at lunchtime) and plentiful supplies of very yummy food. Everywhere you go there are constant snacking opportunities and even buying a small ice cream cone you have to say no to offers of (free) chocolate dipped cones, whipped cream and toppings. I managed to find time to start running again whilst we were in Manly and enjoyed running around the surprisingly hilly town though with lots of walking as well my muscles were soon screaming in agony.
Tuesday morning was drizzly and grey so we decided to go to the pictures to see The King’s Speech which was every bit as good as we had been led to believe. We managed a walk in between showers and another chance to watch the surfers. Wednesday was absolutely beautiful so we headed up the coast, along the Northern beaches to Palm Beach. A lovely spot with a harbour and calm water on one side of the peninsula and a golden surf beach on the other side finished off with a bush covered headland and lighthouse. We walked along the beach and up through the bush and cliffs to the lighthouse which was very steep but worth it for the view. Whilst John wasn’t so keen on the incline I was rather more bothered about the very evil looking spiders which had spun webs above the path. Palm Beach is famous as it is where they film ‘Home & Away’ and they were filming on the day we were there. However, since I’ve never seen the programme the significance was rather lost on me! We headed back to Manly and down to the surf beach – Manly has two, one on the Pacific coast and one overlooking the harbour, complete with shark nets. We had fun bouncing around in the waves and sitting on the sand – not really swimming and definitely not surfing but great nevertheless.
On Thursday we headed into the CBD to hand back the hire car. We wandered around Kings Cross – similarly seedy like its London namesake and caught the train back into the centre where we spent a lovely few hours walking in the Botanical Gardens and along the harbour front. After a reward of beer and Yum Cha we then caught the famous Manly Ferry back to our hotel. A fun half hour ride across the harbour.
Friday was John’s birthday and I’d booked us a beachfront table at Doyle’s On The Beach, a famous seafood restaurant in Watson’s Bay. We took the ferry to Circular Quay where we had a coffee and a wander before catching a second ferry to Watson’s Bay. As the crow flies, Manly and Watson’s Bay are really close together but as they are at different sides of the harbour entrance and a water taxi quoted 150 dollars one way we decided that getting there was at least half the fun and took the long way round. It was absolutely pouring with rain but we sat under an efficient plastic awning to drink Louis Roederer and eat fish and chips (for John) and snapper with macadamia crust (for me) and had a wonderful lunch. Having no need for further food that day we spent the rest of John’s birthday relaxing and drinking the complimentary bubbly which the hotel gave us in honour of the occasion.
The next day it really rained – proper soaking Sydney rain and we were very glad to be heading to Melbourne where, despite constant disparaging comments by Sydneysider’s, the weather was warm, sunny and a lovely 24 degrees.