While I was in Sydney my time was mainly divided by doing work-y things in the CBD and in Bondi Beach, because, beach ❤️. One weekend though a friend and I took a little trip to get me out of my newfound comfort-zone. Destination: another beach. More specifically Shelly Beach, which is a short walk southeast from Manly Beach, for some snorkeling. At the beach. How many more times can I say beach before you get sick of it? Beach, beach, beach.
Ahem. I’m done.
Our first plan of action: find a ferry that would take us to Manly. Thankfully, Watsons Bay is not far from Bondi and we could take a ferry from there. You can easily take a bus (the 380 will get you to the bay in a little under thirty minutes), but because we’re impatient people an Uber was hailed instead.
There are a couple little restaurants and bars right by the water in Watsons Bay that looked inviting (but pricey), and Doyle’s famous takeaway, but we weren’t in the mood to try it as we’d had a pretty late brunch before leaving Bondi. There are some walking paths we also could have strolled along (probably also nice), but that’s actually not why we were there. We were on a mission to catch a ferry!
Of course we arrived at the harbour just in time to see it leave, so we ended up having to wait thirty minutes for the next one. Instead of walking the paths and risking missing yet another boat, we opted to sit on the beach, apply some sunscreen, enjoy the sunshine and the view of Sydney’s harbour in the distance.
Finally the ferry arrived and we were on our way.
I had a weird feeling of déjà vu as the ferry pulled up to Manly Warf. You might notice there are pine trees lining the shore. I sure did, and for a split second I thought we’d magically crossed the Pacific and I was back in Canada. I was pretty happy we didn’t…
At any rate, after we disembarked we did some wandering and window shopping as we made our way to the beach. Manly first because it was right there.
Fun fact: Manly Beach was named as such because Captain Arthur Phillip, upon discovering the place in the 1700s, decided to name it after the strong, confindent, and “manly” behaviour he saw of the indigenous people living there at the time.
White sandy beach and high-rises aside, doesn’t this look a little bit like cottage country? No? Maybe it’s just me then.
I’m a sucker for sweet graffiti.
Your standard beachy-type view.
It was a little on the windy side so we ended up throwing our towels down in the sand where it was sunny, just for a little bit, and so we could say we went to both beaches. That’s when I promptly fell asleep. When I woke up it was even colder than before and the beach was dark. Not like nighttime darkness, but it certainly wasn’t sunny. I closed my eyes for maybe twenty-five minutes. What the heck happened? Where did the sun go?? Oh wait, it’s behind all those buildings, hence the enourmous shadows covering the entire beach. Ah.
That was when I learned that since Manly beach faces east, after around 3pm it gets no sun. The beaches on the other side of the peninsula, like Shelly for instance, are just fine however… as we would have found out if we’d felt like sticking around or going straight there, which was our original plan. ROOKIE MISTAKE.
On the bright side, we were able to watch the sun set on our way to Sydney harbour (no photos as I was inside… it was cold and windy, soz). On an even brighter side, we ended up having pancakes for dinner. Delectable, fluffy, perfect pancakes. They were so good I am seriously thinking of devoting a separate post to them. Seriously. Yum.
So I can always take another ferry back to Manly. Next time I’ll make a point of leaving MUCH earlier. Lesson learned. More importantly, I used the word “beach” twenty-one times in this post.
-C
PS. Beach.
