Manly Beach & Sydney Nightlife

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We had a quiet evening on the Friday as Jo had spent some time working, which meant we were up early and ready for action on the Saturday… it actually made a nice change from waking with a hangover!

We decided that as the sun was shining it was time to top up our tans and check out some of the famous Sydney beach spots this weekend. Today was Manly Beach.

We packed ourselves a picnic, loaded up on Factor 30 and headed down to Darling Harbour, which is about a 10min walk from the flat. We thought we would be able to get a ferry direct from from there to Manly, but it seems all the Ferries direct to Manly leave from Circular Quay so we carried on walking around to Circular Quay. When we arrived at the Ferry terminals it seemed that we weren’t the only ones who had the idea of heading to Manly Beach on this sunny day, as the queues were pretty big! But we got our tickets and hopped on the next Ferry… managing to secure ourselves a spot to stand outside on the deck and watch the sites. The Ferry passes the Harbour Bridge, Opera House as well as quite a few millionaires’ houses with their private beaches!! It was quite a breezy day so there were a fair few sail boats having fun in the Harbour too, one of which nearly had a very close encounter with our Ferry. It was only when the Ferry sounded the horn that they made a quick dash to hall the ropes and change direction!

As we arrived in Manly we walked through the main high street and headed straight to Manly Beach, to set ourselves up in camp for the day! Manly Beach has a tree lined promenade for a stretch across the top of the beach which means that in the afternoons there’s quite a bit of shadow cast in the middle section of the beach, so there was a few strategic manoeuvres throughout the afternoon as we tried to make sure we had prime sun baking positions. After a few hours soaking up the sun and picnicking on the beach we headed back on the ferry to get ready for the evening’s entertainment.

Sarah (Jo’s friend) came around to see the flat in the evening for some pizza and wine before we headed over to Elizabeth Bay to check out Gazebo wine bar. A few cocktails later and we headed onwards, taking a walk through King’s Cross which was a site in itself, with our next stop at Hugo’s. A few more glasses of wine on the balcony at Hugo’s and we moved on again to Darlo’s – this time the drink of choice was Jaeger Bombs!

Next stop was a take-away chicken shop to find some food to absorb the nights drinking… but not before passing an Aussie Fire Station and taking the opportunity to get some photos with Aussie Firemen. Will politely declined the offer of a photo with a Fireman and instead appointed himself as photographer. As the night was now fulfilled it was time to head home for some much needed sleep!

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