Manly and Sydney Harbour

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Today I was up bright and early. The sun was again shining, and it was another ideal day to do some driving. The main destinations for today were Manly, North Head and South Head.

The suburb of Manly, is on the north side of the harbour entrance (North Head), and it can be reached from Sydney by ferry or hydrofoil, or the much longer road route. Its main tourist attraction is Marineland, a large aquarium featuring shark feeding and other shows.

To the north of Manly is a string of popular beach resorts extending up to Palm Beach and Barrenjoey Head, on Broken Bay, the estuary of the Hawkesbury River.

Back to the North Head, and Bryan had to park up as we were now in the Sydney Harbour National Park, which had restricted driving access.

We walked along the ‘Fairfax Walking Track’ which led us to the three best view points. As we got closer to the North Head, the wind had built up and, on arriving at the top of North Head, where we had an unobstructed views of the gateway to the Pacific Ocean, or as the locals call it ‘Tasman Sea’, the wind had become gale force in strength. So my rellies said, they had never experienced the wind as strong as that there.

On our way back towards Manly we drove past North Fort, which is in the middle of the National Park. This is a military reserve, which is the home of The Royal Australian National Artillery Museum. It also consists of a system of tunnels built underground into the headland.

Another short drive on and we passed the old Quarantine Station. In the early 1900's, people with diseases like the plague were kept here.

Then we drove on to Balmoral Beach. We walked along the beachfront, and through the palm-filled grassy Hunter’s Park, which also has a bandstand, often used for Sunday jazz concerts and Shakespearian recitals. We had lunch from one of the small sandwich bars.

As it was school holiday time, the beach was quite crowded, and was obviously a very popular beach with everyone.

We then drove past Sydney’s major zoo, Taronga Zoo in Mosman on Bradley’s Head Road. A short drive on an we arrived at Bradley’s Head. Bradley’s Head is home to the enormous mast of HMS Sydney, a WWII battleship. From here, we had some excellent views of the city. We also noticed lizards in around the stonework here.

Another short drive, and we arrived at Kirribilli Point, which is home to Kirribilli House. This is the official residence of the current Prime Minister, John Howard. Next door is Admiralty House, the Sydney home of the Governor General. It is also where any British Royal Family stay whenever they visit Australia. Both of these buildings overlook Sydney Harbour, and have excellent views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

We then drove to Berry Island Nature Reserve, via Luna Park. Luna Park is on the north shore, near to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is home to an amusement park, which originally dates back to the 1930’s. It includes its very own ferris wheel and Big Dipper, and is still open for public use even now. Though when we saw it, it had been closed down temporarily for redevelopment. It supposedly holds real nostalgic value for many of the local residents.

Next stop was Berry Island, which is a small island reserve and is home to some Aboriginal engravings. A short walk through the trees led us to the engravings. It was a sheltered spot here and very hot. I could hear many birds, and saw small lizards scampering around the undergrowth. One thing we always had to be aware of around any greenery, were spiders. I guess it’s become a way of life out here, though.

As time was getting on, we decided to make our way back home now, and on our way home, drove through Wollstonecraft, and back to Narrabeen, where we dropped Eileen and Vic off.

The weather today was a modest was 19ºC (66°F) and cloudy with sunny intervals, though it seemed slightly warmer the further in land we went.

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