Manly Beach - Monday, September 7

In looking at the weather today it was going to be our hottest day in Sydney so we decided to take a ferry to Manly so we could relax and have a beach day.  So we bought the "Opal card", to make it easier than purchasing tickets for each trip.  As it turns out they have a great set up that the maximum you have to spend on any given day is $15 dollars and you can ride any Sydney Ferry, buses, light rail, Sydney trains, NSW train link/Intercity trains and the Stockton ferry.  They also have a cap on Sunday's of $2.50 it's great.

What a brilliant journey on the ferry.  It takes about 1/2 but as you leave Cicular Quay in Sydney harbour you pass the famous Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge is just to the left is beautiful.

Since Manly is North of Sydney you get to see all these amazing homes and small towns which are all part of Sydney.  Manly is on the point and beyond is the open ocean.  We arrived and started to walk along Manly Corso toward the beach.  We where captured by the Aboriginal Dreamtime Fine Art Galley we loved Kudditji Kngwarreye work....but the costs.....

We had a lunch reservation at The Pantry Manly restaurant, which looked beautiful, but we changed our mind as we wanted to go for a walk and not have to be back by 1:30.

What a gorgeous beach!

 As we continued to walk we found this amazing salt water pool at the ocean.

We stopped at Shelly Beach sat down at a picnic table and struck up a conversation with a bloke (man).  Among other things we talked about Australia's Medicare, which is a publicly funded health care system.  They even have reciprocal health care agreements with other countries like England so Aussie's can get FREE health care even if they are in England and many other countries.

Along our walk we also saw some Water Dragons

Onward and upward we continue our hike with some ace flowers

We finally got to the top and saw this old Third Quarantine Cemetery where they buried people who had small pox, the bubonic plague or other diseases like these.....but what a incredible location!

By now we where starving....and it happens there is a Cafe at the top called Bella Vista.  We shared an Arugula salad and an Gnocchi pasta...it was awesome.  It was a perfect day for a beer so I had the local Manly 4 Pines Pale Ale....nothing better the a beer on a hot day!

Since we had walked about 4 miles we decide we'd take the bus down the hill. However we found out it only came up to North Head every 2 hours.  While we were waiting we took in the view and chatter up a nice bird (women).  She took off for a drive and when she was leaving she saw us waiting at the bus stop and picked us up....these Aussie's are BRILLIANT, ACE!!

Some sunset photo's on our ferry back to The Rocks.