This past Sunday we finally got ourselves over to Manly to take the scenic walk and see some of the Northern side of Sydney. It's just a ferry ride across the harbour and is a much more low key suburb area outside the city with some amazing views.
Starting off in the Harbour I'll show you the 15-20 minute ride we took on the ferry over to Manly. The day started out kind of cloudy but as you'll see it cleared up great for us when we got going on our walk.
Fort Denison out in the middle of the Harbour. As I said before it's supposed to be when of the best places in the world to enjoy a New Years celebration and watch the Sydney fireworks while having dinner.
The Northern-Side of Sydney
Sydney CBD (Central Business District)
And a pretty good shot of the Bridge and the Opera House that connects the two.
A look back at the city as we round the bay for Manly
The skyline of Manly
Beginning to pull into Manly. One of the marinas lined with sailboats. On a nice day the Harbour is packed with sailboats just cruising the bay and soaking up the sun. Wish I had that pontoon boat down here more than anything Mom and Dad...
Pulling into the Manly Wharf
Part of the Bavarian Bier Cafe (we'll see more of this later)
Candy anyone?
We finally got our way down to the beach
It was a really cool beach and completely packed with surfers. I don't think there was one person in the water that wasn't surfing when we were there.
The weather finally starting to clear up but we decided to stop for a couple beers to let the sun fully come out.
This was the worst beer I may have had since coming here. So if you're ever in Sydney, avoid bluetongue. This day kind of turns into a beer tasting day so I'll give you some good ones later haha.
This for instance is Fat Yak. Pretty good stuff. I just couldn't leave the flavor of bluetoungue in my mouth so I had to cleanse my palate with one more before we headed off for the scenic walk.
When coming back outside and seeing these blue skies with two beers in my belly we knew it was going to be a good day.
This picture didn't capture these houses as well as I wanted but these are yet more unbelievable homes with incredible views.
The fairly private little beach in the cove out front of the homes I showed you in the previous picture.
Matty leading the way
On our way up to the top of the rock straight ahead. The walk itself wasn't actually that impressive but the views in the beginning when we reached that point were pretty incredible.
Oh yea and these were EVERYWHERE! Literally hundreds that just hung over your head across the trail during the entire rock.
When reaching the top of the rock this was some of the view. The water is actually as blue as it looks and the cliffs that all jut out into the ocean look unbelievable.
Not totally sure what this place was but it was a pretty neat looking castle that sat on top of the hill we climbed.
Continuing on our way up the trail there was one more point we got to that had some amazing views back towards Manly.
This was the highest point we reached. The wall in the middle ran all the way back to the castle like building I took a picture of earlier.
On top of the hill there was this cool little wetland that we ran into. It made for pretty neat mirror images of the trees in the water.
These strange looking plants were running along a lot of the trail we walked.
A visitor center at about the half-way point of our trail. Probably a good thing it was there or we may have had trouble finding our way back to the Ferry.
Making our way back down the other side of Manly
A small private cove we walked by. There are so many of these that we've come across in Australia so far. They'd be awesome places to have a home.
Some fishermen out on one of the bays leading into Manly. Makes me look forward to this summer and some fishing up at the lake.
Making our way back around to the Manly Wharf. After that rigorous walk I was craving a beer. I'm not going to lie I really couldn't get that Bavarian Bier Cafe off my mind once I saw it when we first arrived.
Back at the Wharf
And headed to quench our thirst
We decided to get the 5 bier sampler. Great decision as this was the best beer we've had since coming here. Even though we don't drink it very often because of the price but we didn't let that hold us back today.
And it starts
We weren't sure how to drink them. So we just tried each one together first.
And saved the best for last haha
Here's what they were all called and what was in them. Might need your help on some of the pronunciation Gram... My favorites were the bottom 2 and top right. Not sure if I could give you a definite order though...
So we figured we had to try some more
1L of beer. Instead of getting my favorite from the sampler I just took a chance with a new one. Good choice though because it was delicious. And you'd be crazy if you thought I wasn't going home with this souvenir after the tab I ran. Thanks to a little help from Paul and his fanny pack.
Starting to loosen up a little bit. You got understand that Paul (on the left) isn't much of a drinker and weighs about 130lbs. Although they're only drinking the 500ml glass, after the sampler and the second one of these to follow... Well you get the picture on what state he might of ended up in.
Just gotta dive in
Enjoying our beers and starting to watch the sun go down over Manly. Apparently at OceanWorld (straight ahead) you can dive with sharks. Of course it costs a fortune and you have to sign your life away. No surprise there...
Just one more. This was the Franziskaner Hefe Weissbier Hell from the sampler but had a Mango twist with it. Pretty girly sounding I know but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't delicious.
And the sun finally set
After one more beer (that I somehow forgot to photograph) and the night officially here, we decided to call it a day and find our way back to the ferry to get home. But with 4-6 Happy Hour where you can upgrade to a 1L for the price of a 500ml I'm sure we'll be back.
We made it! I think it's safe to say we had ferry happy day.
And to cap off our day trip to Manly I'll leave you with a couple of my favorite pictures again. These are courtesy of Paul and his awesome camera on our ride back into Sydney.
