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Published: September 9th 2008
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Woke up at about 8am this morning, which is late for me. Eileen and Vic were both up and dressed, so I thought I’d better get up too.
We started the day off, with a long morning walk to Narrabeen beach, which I suppose was about a brisk half-hour walk away. Narrabeen Beach is famous in it’s own right, being the only Australian beach mentioned in the lyrics of a Beach Boys song!
On the way back we walked along the picturesque Narrabeen Lakes, and go to the local supermarket.
It was to be a nice day today, and it was already very warm and humid.
Bryan and Damon came round after lunch and today’s aim was to do the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. We drove southbound through the Harbour Bridge, and started the Eastern Suburb drive at Vaucluse.
Vaucluse, between the harbour and the Pacific, is home to the romantic Vaucluse House. It’s open to the public, and it was built between 1827 and 1850 by the explorer and politician William Wentworth, for himself and his large family. It is set in beautiful gardens.
Next up was King’s Cross, the backpackers’ district of Sydney.
As I mentioned earlier, King’s Cross is home to many of Sydney’s top night-spots. However, it has also earned a reputation for being a notoriously seedy and vibrant district. During the day, it is much the same as most of Sydney’s bustling suburbs. A famous feature here is the unique El Alamein fountain.
After King’s Cross, we came to Watsons Bay, where there were some great views of the South Head, the harbour entrance and Sydney. We drove along Old South Head Road from Watsons Bay, and arrived in Bondi, home to the world famous Bondi Beach.
This mile long curve of golden sand, is popular with visitors all year round, and had a very English and old-fashioned feel to it.
We drove along Campbell Parade, which runs alongside the beachfront. On one side the glorious sand, and on the other, pretty Victorian houses give it the feel of a fashionable resort. It is very cosmopolitan and commercialised, and as it is only 15 minutes from the city centre. It is also very popular with backpackers.
After Bondi, we passed Bronte Beach in Bronte, through Clovelly and onto Coogee. Coogee is Bondi’s little brother. Another long-popular
resort, but less commercialised. It was still very popular though, even if the beach is smaller compared to Bondi.
We passed through La Perouse, which took it’s name the 18th century explorer Laperouse, and finally arrived at Botany Bay.
Botany Bay, with its sharks, is more suited to boating and sailing than to swimming. The Botany Bay National Park covers 460 hectares, and lies 16 km (10 miles) south of the city centre. Botany Bay was given its name by Joseph Banks, the botanist who accompanied Cook on his voyage and found numerous new species of plants here. We went for a stroll here around the park visitor centre, in between the pretty Congwong Bay and Frenchmans Bay, and watched the aircraft coming into land at the nearby city airport.
We’d come as far south as we could go, and if we wanted to be back home that same day, we decided to turn back city-bound.
Kensington was the first place we came to. It is home to the prestigious University of New South Wales, where Danielle had taken her teaching degree. A short drive and we passed Centennial Park on our right, where the cycling
events had taken place during the Olympic Games.
Within an hour we were back home, and Danielle and myself decided to ‘have a night out’. We asked Damon along, but he didn’t feel up to it, which was a shame. We all had dinner, and then we both got ready. Clubbing in Australia starts later than it does in England, usually about 10pm. Danielle drove us into Manly, where she parked the car down the main parade. On the way, I asked her what she preferred to be called: Danielle and Danni. She said she preferred Danni, and that was what her friends called her, so from then on, it was Danni.
It was raining tonight, but it was a nice warm rain. Danni had decided the best place to kick the evening off at was in the Charlton Bar. This was a large one-room bar/dance area. It was playing ok music, some modern, and some classic. It had a nice atmosphere, and seemed very popular with everyone, as it was quite packed. I tried my hand at my first drinks order. In Australia, they have different drink measures to England, and also different brands. There are two
major beers sold in Australia: Toohey’s New and Victoria Bitter, which is also known as VB. The various measures, sold in bars include stubbies, tallies, kegs, schooners, pints, jugs, cans and so on. I plumped for a schooner of VB. Most bars sell schooners, which are just under a pint, or stubbies, which are the same size as the smaller beer bottles. If I remember rightly, schooners were about $2.50 (about 80p), so drink was much cheaper.
We saw some of Danni’s friends from work, and also some of her pupils. They were all very welcoming, and we were chatting about many things.
After about an hour in here, we moved on to the next destination. This was a club called ‘The Steyne’, which was situated in a seafront hotel named ‘The Steyne Hotel’. This was a large club, that played all the old classics. We stayed in there a while, but to be honest it would have been an ideal place to end the evening in, but it was too early to be in there, and the music was irritating.
On leaving here, we were greeted with heavy rain, so we had to dash to our
next venue, ‘Ivanhoe of Manly’. We had to queue up here to get in, but luckily Danni had spotted some friends that were halfway down the queue, so we managed to get in with them. We entered the club, and on the ground floor was a large bar, decorated with a large amount of sports memorabilia - flags, framed photos and trophies. It was obviously homage to the local Aussie rules football team, whose name escapes me, Manly Seagulls or something similar.
Danni said that the best floor is the second, and top floor, but we had to negotiate the main staircase, which took us through all the floors. On the ground floor was the main bar, which also had large video screens playing non-stop sports coverage. The next floor again had a main centre bar, and also a dance floor, with ok house music. It was, as with the ground floor, packed to the rafters, and there was no way we would have felt comfortable there. It was too hot. We then quickly made our way up to the second floor, and I must admit the atmosphere here was different to the other floors. Unlike the other floors,
where there was just music being played over speakers, this floor had a live DJ pulling the strings. This was much more like it. The music was thumping, but not too loud, and the DJ mixed it up good and proper. Danni had earlier told me that she isn’t normally into this sort of music, but she had to admit she was having a good time. Once again, we saw some of her friends, so we had a few chats throughout the evening, but I’d like to think we both had a great night. We danced right through till about 3am, when the DJ finished his set. The club wasn’t closing but the music wasn’t the same once the DJ had finished his set, so we decided to call it a night.
We got back to Bryan’s and said our goodnights. Lorna was staying overnight, so I had my bed set up on the lounge floor which didn’t bother me, as I was too tired.
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