Manly Adventures

Manly beach was so named by Governor Phillips because of the manly nature of the Aborigines he met there. They were so manly, that one of them stabbed him in the shoulder to avenge a blood feud on Collins Beach.

So, of course, we decided that we should visit Manly. Especially since we had such a good time on Bondi Beach, we were really looking forward to the trip.

We made our way down to Circular Quay via Hyde Park:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

and got on one of the Manly Ferries in good time.

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

We chose the starboard side so we could see the bridge on the way out. Unfortuneatly, a fellow stood right in front of Doreen's window as we were leaving:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

He left before too long, though, as it got rather breezy on the deck.

Manly didn't seem quite as nice as Bondi was. The Corso, or the walk between the Ferry Wharf and the beach, was mostly souvenir shops and backpacker hotels. They don't seem to think too much of backpackers, though:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

The other strange thing is that the Corso has all these interesting buildings, but they have elaborate false fronts that completely obliterate the original facade:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

But we got to the beach none the less.

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

Then the adventures began.

We walked along the beach, and then decided that it would be nice to walk on a path that led off of the beach. This is what we saw:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

and we kept following the trail.

Little did we know that this would lead us to the Manly Parkhill Reserve, and we would see NO people for at least the next two hours.

Here Doreen is, setting off:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

and here is the first warning sign we encountered:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

I guess that should have given us a clue as to what would lie ahead.

Things like this:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

and here we are, laughing at danger:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

But we kept charging up the trail:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

even after we found a burned out section of the Bush:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

We did see some interesting plants:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

and some nice views:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

Sadly, we saw no Bandicoots:

From Manly Beach and More in Sydney

But we did see a Kookaburra! He was sitting in an old gum tree.