Whitsundays to Sydney - Afternoon in Manly

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We finished packing up and Lauren, Andrew and John headed to breakfast, leaving Sonia one final attempt to get a great photo of the cockatoos. Before coming to join us at breakfast, Sonia was informed that the weather was too rough for the seaplane to fly and we would need to get back to Hamilton Island by boat. While not a big disappointment, the boat was leaving sooner than we had planned for, so it set us into a bit of a scramble to finish breakfast and snatch a few pastries for Sonia. The boat ride was luxurious but quite bumpy due to the stormy weather and we were quite happy when the one-hour trip to the airport was over. We arrived at the airport with just enough time not to be rushed. We arrived in Sydney mid-afternoon, checked back into the same hotel with the great view of the harbor and immediately headed out by ferry to Manly. This part of Sydney, 30 minutes by ferry from Circular Quay, came highly recommended by friends who lived there for a few months. We arrived to a bustling bar scene on this late Sunday afternoon. A short walk across the peninsula led us to Manly beach just at Sunset. We walked along and checked out the surfers as the sun sank low in the sky. Andrew noted that this was this first time since being in Australia that we had seen surf; elsewhere the beaches were too shallow for significant waves. We also noticed the presence of dogs along the walk, something that had been largely absent in the city of Sydney and in our travels near Cairns, the rainforest, and on Hayman Island. We headed back along the pedestrian Corso which was filled with people and very loud lorakeets and made a treasure hunt of finding one of the restaurants from the list John had copied from TripAdvisor. After wandering as much as we really wanted to, we sat down for dinner at Garfish and had a lovely and unusually early dinner. The conversation was especially great tonight, and we discussed what moment on the trip each of us found the most challenging or frightening. We have had a lot of crazy adventures these past 16 days– the Harbor Bridge Climb, the Blue Mountains, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, exploring the Daintree Rainforest in 4WD, exploring the savannah of the Wetlands Reserve, and finally the Whitsunday Islands where we flew in a sea plane and helicopters, watched groupers eat and cockatoos play.

For the kids, their moment of anxiety was at Reef World when they looked down to see a very large grouper and several large and fast moving Travelly just beneath them, with no one else near them on the reef; for Sonia, it was when the family approached the Daintree River Crossing (Ferry) after dark upon return from a day of exploring the rainforest, to find the Ferry on the other side of the river and no way to make contact (which turned out to be unnecessary); for John, he claims it was when he thought his shoes were lost at Blue Pearl Bay, but Sonia knows it was really when he was lost at night in the rain in Sydney while struggling to drive on the left.



Tomorrow we head to the airport for the long trip home. With our opinions of Australia altered by the reality of experience, we are all quite ready to get back to our usual lives with the comforts of our friends, extended family and pets. Another great vacation! We are already talking about where we will go next year.

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Photos

Butterfly in the Hayman Rainforest Garden
Thousands of butterflies are raised for this garden and either hang in groups from the trees, or flutter about as you walk through. This, among other things on Hayman Island, make great practice for photography.

Cockatoo Playground
A flock of cockatoos inhabits the island and appear to be aware when they are being watched. This photo was taken as a small group of them played in the trees during a high wind, doing flips and surfing and clearly having a ball.

Cockatoo Watching People
The cockatoos like to interact with people, though we are told that they will steal your belongings, and if they get into your room (easy to do through a slider onto a deck) they will rip your belongings to pieces before you can get them out.

Ready to Pounce
So much fun to watch! They clearly play to the crowd. We have newfound respect for these birds, and after watching them frolic and fly, can't imagine clipping their wings to keep them as pets!

Waves on the Sun Goddess
The fast moving Sun Goddess pounded the choppy waters of the Coral Sea on this blustery day.

The Harbor Near Manly Beach
Beautiful!

Sydney at Night
Taken on the return ferry from Manly to Circular Quay