I felt like taking a stroll down memory lane to a time before COVID-19. “B.C.”, I’ll say, for the purposes of this post.
We’ll travel back a mere 18 days, to a simpler time; March 11th, our third day here, when everything still seemed pretty normal.
We did The Spit to Manly Walk that day. We took the bus from our place in Sydney to what we thought was the start of the walk, but it turns out we got off a bit early which turned what would’ve been a 10 km walk into an 11 or 12 km walk. Here’s some of what we saw…
The hike actually started near a marina, on the other side of the Spit Bridge, rather than where we got off the bus. Whatever, we needed the exercise.
We weren’t walking long before it got interesting with rock formations and a little waterfall.
Then we saw a big bird in a tree, which we later learned was an Australian Bush Turkey. As it turned out, we saw loads of them over this trip, but I was pretty excited when I saw the first one.
The Spit to Manly Walk is known for its great view of secluded beaches. We caught our first glimpse of one about a half hour into the walk.
Then we saw so many, we couldn’t believe such beautiful beaches could remain so empty in such close proximity to Sydney. And remember, this was B.C.!
Empty beach on a beautiful day. But wait, there’s more!
One last glimpse of nearly empty, beautiful beach, all B.C.
The walk was nice, much like this a lot of the way.
Here are a few shots of local flora.
And fauna, excluding the bush turkeys.
The black and white bird on the right is a magpie, which we’ve learned from my Aunt Shelley and Uncle Peter can be sorta nasty, particularly if you’re unfortunate enough to ride your bike past a nest. You’re likely to get dive bombed seriously enough that you’ll bleed. Apparently they aim for around your ears. A friend of theirs was even knocked off their bike!
About three quarters through the hike, you get to the 1000 year old Aboriginal rock carvings! I couldn’t quite see the boomerangs in the photo on the left, below, but no doubt they’re there.
And I saw this fish-shaped one, but it wasn’t marked with a sign, so maybe it’s the work of local kids punking everyone?
The view from the peak of the hike was pretty nice. The pictures don’t do it justice.
See the houses built into the clifside?
The town of Manly came into view, which was good timing because we both had an ache or pain or two we blamed on the long flight.
As we approached the town, these signs were stenciled on the pathway.
We found out that, yes, indeed, penguins frequented the rocky beach and that local house cats and pet dogs were a real threat to their existence.
Manly is a really beautiful surf town, by the way. Loads of people carrying surf boards and enjoying what looked to be a healthy, beautiful life.
Manly Beach is huge and gorgeous.
And the town itself, as I said, is laid back and pretty.
We grabbed a quick bite in town, then caught the ferry back to Circular Quay in Sydney, which was pretty nice too!
Well, hopefully this took you back, at least for a little while, to a time B.C.
