ANZAC Day Bridge Climb and Manly Beach

Panoramic Picture: Twilight Bridge View From Manly Ferry

Getting Out Of The Flat

We had all started to wind down now that the end was nigh. With only 2 weeks left, our attention towards our work was becoming increasingly unfocused and we started to feel the need to seize the day in order to make the most of our dwindling days in Sydney.

So, in true seizing-the-day fashion, on Tuesday night we ended up.........going to the cinema! It's the cheap cinema night in Sydney on a Tuesday if it's any defence and we ended up seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was worth the price of admission alone for the ridiculous Dracula puppet musical which still had me laughing several scenes later. The rest of it was fairly so-so, but had enough funny moments to keep it ticking over. On a more sad note, our popcorn turned out to be far too salty.

For Wednesday, we headed to the North Annandale Hotel for their quiz night. Due to the fact it wasn't really a backpacker place or anything, I knew that we'd be outclassed by seasoned pub quiz vets, who seem to pepper a lot of old man pubs every week for these quizes. My prediction turned out to be true as we triumphantly came in second last (it was a one man team that came in last!), which had a prize in itself. It was a fall from grace after our Neighbours night quiz. We managed to win a few other small prizes for random questions asked during round intervals and it turned out to be a really good night. The questions weren't too ridiculous, if a bit Aussie centric on the sport ones although this had to be expected. It was discovered though that Megan has been secretly harbouring an encyclopediac knowledge of Spice Girls tunes. It's also not often you get to incorporate a passing awareness of these guys into any sort of scenario, but that's the great thing about pub quizes. That and the alcohol of course.

Climbing The Coathanger

We had Friday off work (public holiday), which is something we still have mixed feelings about due to the lack of any benefits we have when temping.

The occasion was the "solemn" tribute of ANZAC day (Australia & New Zealand Army Corps), marking the offensive of ANZAC at Gallipoli in the First World War (check out the Mel Gibson film). It's the equivalent of Armistice Day back in the UK, but treated quite differently.

It started off very respectful with dawn services everywhere and some big marches and parades, with a bit more fanfare than in the UK. This is possibly because Australia doesn't have as rich (or poor?) a history in regards to war as the rest of the world, although the services definitely do serve as a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives. With the whole country off work though, the afternoon turns into a complete boozing sessions with pubs packed to the gills with betting games of Two Up and unfortunately some lager louts. As fun an idea that it is for Australians to turn any occassion into a party, it seemed a little too much of a clash for this day after what had gone on in the morning.

We didn't really take part in the festivities partly due to funds, but mainly because we booked the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb for the morning. We got up early and headed into town, hoping that a couple of the ominous dark blue clouds weren't going to give way during our climb. Arriving a little bit of time before our designated slot, we were moved to an earlier group as they had trips leaving every 10 minutes for ANZAC day. After being breathalised and introduced to our guide (who had just come back from living in Glasgow for a year and she even loved Chips & Cheese w/ Coleslaw), we met our group and went through the various safety procedures of the climb. It was very professionally done and we had to wear jump suits with a belt that had a zip line thingy (to attach to the side rails on the climb lest we fall) and some other handy items such as a hankerchief, a beanie hat and rain/heavy wind gear. We also had nifty hearing devices for our guide to speak to us on the climb that transmitted the sound by vibrations to your ear drums, which worked amazingly well.

The climb itself took around 3 hours and was great fun and definitely well worth the expense. We had been debating whether or not to do it ever since we'd arrived in Sydney as it is costly, but at the same time it did seem like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. We worked our way through the lower arches under the traffic at first with some informative commentary from our guide, before climbing 5 near-vertical ladders up past the roads/train tracks onto the arch itself. From there, it was a moderate climb on the arch to the summit where the flags were flying half mast due to ANZAC day. For safety reasons, we couldn't take any belongings with us which meant no cameras, but we got a few taken by our guide which we bought as physical prints. So none are on the blog I'm afraid.

The wind blowing on our faces felt amazing and the views were absolutely breathtaking as they took in the whole city, the harbour and you could even glimpse as far as Bondi and Manly. At the top though, we noticed some of the scenery becoming hazier which at first seemed strange, until we realised that it was rain on its way. It ended up pouring down but our rain jackets proved to be invaluable and it added to the whole experience. The rain only lasted about 20 minutes and by the time we climbed back down, we were completely dry thanks to the stiff breeze. We ended up going down the other side of the arch and again were told interesting stories about those who constructed the bridge.

After we settled back onto the ground again, we headed to Pancakes On The Rocks, a lovely pancake restaurant for an extremely tasty lunch. We headed back to the bridge afterwards and went to the museum (we got free entry with our bridge climb) in one of the bridge turrets which gave us nice views of the bridge and some more details about it. It was late afternoon by the time we made it back to the flat exhausted and after having a nice dinner of Mexican fajitas, we settled down to watch some rented DVDs, although we fell asleep before long. It had been a brilliant day!

Manly - Sydney's Best Beach

The weather on Saturday was amazing, especially since we're now deep in Autumn here. Emma, myself and Megan decided to head to one of the last places on our to do list: Manly Beach. More of a surfing community than anything else, it is situated a bit out of the city to the north. We headed to Circular Quay and bought a ferry ticket which took us on a picturesque trip through the harbour and up the coast to Manly. Upon reaching our destination, we embarked with food on our minds and we found a great Fish N Chips shop and bought some tasty fish and crabsticks. Emma is yet to be convinced with fish, although she is starting to have bigger nibbles.

Oddly enough, the name Manly is derived from as silly an explanation as you could think of. Having already landed at Botany Bay and Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), the early white explorers ventured north to the area that is now Manly and faced some opposition from the local Aboriginals. Due to a misunderstanding, an Aboriginal speared the Captain of the ship which actually provoked respect from him instead of anger or retaliation. They deemed the Aboriginals here to have "manly" behaviour, in a comparison to the more curious locals they had encountered beforehand. They made peace with them anyway and it wasn't until later on with the arrival of aggressive land entrepreneurs that the problems would start.

The main beach at Manly looked extremely encouraging, although we had arrived a bit too late to really catch the sun due to some very tall trees that line the beach. The tide and current were stronger than even Bondi, so the lifeguards were vigilantly patrolling the edge of the water. The swimming area was restricted to an area of around 15 metres due to the rip and tide and I couldn't resist going in to catch some of the waves. It was pretty busy though due to the small designated area. Elsewhere, there were hundreds of sufers of varying abilities down this fairly long stretch of beach. It won't be too long until it'll be us unable to stand on our boards!

As it grew chillier, we headed for a walk, through the street markets and then into the New Brighton Hotel to claim a free drink from the vouchers Megan & Stew had picked up from the Funk House a couple of months earlier. For the first time in a good few years, I had to produce my ID to purchase drinks as they apparantly ask anyone who looks under 25. It was a very refreshing pint though and the ferry ride back to Sydney at twilight was the perfect way to end the day.

We ended up having a relaxed day on Sunday as we took a walk to pick up various items we needed for the rest of our trip, this being our last weekend in Sydney. Not sure when the next blog will be up as after we leave, our schedule is jam packed. So, until then....

---

---

---