As we’d spent a day around the Harbour on our previous brief visit to Sydney, we decided to spend our first few days getting to know the eastern suburbs and the coast around Sydney a bit better. We took a walk from Watson’s Bay along the coast to Bondi Beach, which also had some nice views back across the bay towards the city. At Bondi we arrived quite late in the day, but the beach was still full of buff, bronzed bodies jogging up and down the beach or working out. There were also plenty of surfers out and we promised ourselves we would have a go later in the week. We had a quick swim in the sea to cool off and saw that the waves looked good (especially for beginners like us).
The next day we went on the popular ferry to Manly, leaving from Circular Quay to cross to the northern side of the bay. We walked through the forest to a small cove where we had a quick swim before continuing through more forest before reaching the headland. As we walked around the headland to Manly Beach, we saw a very nice lizard (or maybe a dragon) on the rocks. We watched more surfers, before it suddenly turned very cool and we took the ferry back to Sydney as the sun was setting.
During the evenings we would make use of Ashling’s back yard, where we would chill out with a barbeque and catch up over a glass of wine. Her housemate Ed was full of suggestions on what to go and see to make the most of our time. Thanks to Ed and Johnny’s passion for sport (if not Ashling’s) they had all the sports channels, and so we were able to spend breakfast time watching the test match against New Zealand.
After a couple days out in the burbs we walked in the other direction from Paddington through Woolloomooloo and around Farm Cove to the Opera House. Up close it looks very different, and the surface of the tiles resembles a snake skin. We continued around the quay up to The Rocks, and visited the observatory. The view from the garden was nice, the building itself was pretty, and inside were some interesting telescopes, metal models of the solar system and old pictures of nebular and galaxies. The museum explained how they used to use the stars to tell the time and inform ships out in the harbour.
The next day we went to Paddington market on Oxford Street, and it was ‘all very Notting Hill darling’. It was full of women selling scones for the price of a fry-up, girls selling designer clothes and men selling black and white pictures of Sydney icons. Then it was time for us to go back to Bondi and catch some waves. After a walk around the cliffs from Bronte to Bondi beach, we hired a long board for an hour and tried our luck. It was hard work getting out past the breakers (without sliding off the board), and when we did we were frequently getting our weight all wrong when the good waves came. We had trouble judging the right place to be as they were breaking at different distances from the sure. Yes, those are our excuses for not being very good and only catching a couple of good waves before swiftly falling off (but falling off in style it must be said). It did wet our appetite though, and we’ll definitely try it again (if not on this trip, then back in Cornwall or Lacanau in France).
On Sunday we chilled out a bit with Ashling and Shelley. We walked along the coast and to the Botanic gardens again before stopping in The Rock’s for a beer and then we headed back for another barbie, and this time we cooked the local speciality ourselves. Our kangaroo kebabs were slightly on the chewy side, but not bad for a first attempt.
That was our last night in Oz, we’d stayed longer than planned and it had surpassed our expectations. We had great hosts in Kavi and Ashling and were made to feel very welcome by the locals too. It was now time to leave the east, and go west, by travelling east, and flying 12 hours to land 4 hours before we had taken off (confused?). Off to Sudamericano we flew.
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