Sunday 21st August 2016 - The Two Sides of Manly

It is forecast for rain over the next week and today was another perfect warm sunny Winter day. I was planning to go to Balmoral Beach again but the 257 bus did not show up at Chatswood, the Manly 136 bus did so I hopped on this bus - I have taken this bus before and know it takes over an hour to reach Manly travelking all the way through the Northern Beaches suburbs like Narraweena, Deewhy etc. I was able to do a bit of study ot reading online during my bus journey to Manly even take a nap.

When I arrived at Manly the bus travels along the "beach" side of Manly before turning off and terminating before stand A on the "wharf" side of Manly just outside of the ferry terminal. There is lots to see and do on both sides of Manly but where do I start? There are thousands of people enjoying a day out at Manly.

As soon as I alighted the bus I start walking along the "wharf" side of Manly in the direction of the crowds of people. I see a sign which indicates "North Head" scenic walk and start walking in the direction of the sign only to turn back after walking as far as the Manly Waters Private Hospital and feeling a bit lost as there were no signs indicating if I was heading in the right direction - all I could see was a high density of residential housing and apartment blocks barrow streets no through roads and a lot of cockatoos in trees probably scared off the grassy areas by domestic unleashed dogs roaming around.

I continued walking towards the "beach" side of Manly - now that's more like it, there was a definite stream of people all headed along the coastal boardwalk towards Shelly Beach and Beyond - past the beach promenade where the Sunday markets are held. You can see surfers, paddle boarders swimmers, life savers etc. The street along both sides of Manly are full of cafes restaurants hotels apartments douvenir stores clothing/sportswear stores abd places to drop in and get snacks like ice creams and coffee.

I continue my walk along the board walk with everyone else and stop to take heaps of photos of thd coastline - I dont get out to the "beach" side of Manly so this is an adventure for me. I a tually have no idea where I am heading with my walk.

I see sculptures, a batheing pool which was empty and a few strange birds - one sole bird was sitting on a rock surrounded by rocks. This bird reminded me of the "pooping birds" I saw when I was on a boat out at sea off Bruny Island in Tasmania. This sole bird remained on this rock until around 4 pm when I saw it fly over to another larger rock on my walk back to Manly to join another type of lone bird that had probably been sitting on that lager rock for most of the day as well.

There are snorklers and scubber divers and a lot of people climbing over the rocks along the coastline towards Shelly Beach or what is named Cabbage Tree Park Aquatic Reserve. It is important not to take any marine life out of this aquatic reserve area or to destroy any marine life in it. Signage is everywhere warning of this and fines imposed for doing so. The maine life in this area is precious even endangered hence its protection.

I went for a dip in the cold water upto my thighs as a form of natural cryotherapy for my right knee. There was no shortage of picnicers and swimmers that day.

I love seaching for and identifying marine life amongst rockpools  but I didn't manage to find much interesting marine life here amongst these rockpools. There were plenty of what I call "sea squirts" which didn't actually squirt any salt wster out as they were all dried out being too far from the tidal waves. There were plenty of limpets periwinkles etc all covered in a fine green moss which didnt even move - there was moss everywhere and an abundance of seaweed and algae ( not the blue green stuff thank goodness) - the water was crystal clear like Balmoral Beach and shallow however the sand was very rough and "shelly" in contrast to the fine light sands of Balmoral Beach. I found some gelatinous crimson blobs amongst the rock pools. I could not identify them. When you poke them they remain undisturbed.

After ha ing a quick cold shower to wash away the rough sand in my shoes I changed into warm clothes and started walking back to Manly's "wharf" side to catch a bus vack home . I stopped on my way back at the local supermarket to buy some groceries thinking the 136 bus service back to Chatwood ran its service after 5 pm. It was an error I made the last service had finished just before I arrived back at Stand A so I joined the queue of thousands of people making their way back to the city to Circular Quay on the next ferry.

I do catch a ferry from time to time to and from different destinations usually to and from Circular Quay but this ferry I boarded was massive - boarding was from 2 levels upper and lower deck. The size of the ferry itself was large enough to carry drive on vehicles - with automated wide ramps on either side of the ferry you could virtually drive your vehicle straight onto the ferry via these ramps but this is a walk on passenger only ferry and almost every seat on the ferry was taken. I think the "barge" crossing from Kettering to Bruny Island is in desparate need of one of these massive ferries!

Circular Quay - I run for the connecting train just making it only to find I got onto the wrong train and having to alight at Central to connect onto another train back one stop to Town Hall and then on to an M40 bus back home.