Sydney, New South Wales

Second day at Sydney and we were exhausted from walking yesterday. We figured we walked about 12 miles on the VivoFit bracelets that Jeff and Ali have. Today it was off the Manly on the north end of the harbor to the beach there. The ferry from the main terminal "Circular Quay" was about $13 dollars round trip. Manly is a great little town/community that is on a bay with a large beach and a lot of little beaches around the larger inlet. The surf was really up from the gale force winds out in the ocean so the surfers were having a great time and it was very dramatic. We walked up the headlands in the National Park and got lost on the trail and finally found our way to the campus of a small college that used to be some prominent persons house in the area. We wondered the grounds and then down into town to eat at some natural food bar. We are so used to the small portions on the ship that we can barely eat a meal even when we split it when we go out. The dinner that we had at the Opera House was catered by one of the local area restaurants and was way to much food for us.
The ferry ride back from Manly turned into a amusement park ride. The waves coming into the entrance were coming in straight from the ocean and hitting an outgoing current and standing up very tall. We had a two deck ferry and the at one point we turned into the waves and they were much higher then the boat. We got launched over one of the waves and everyone on board screamed just like a roller coaster as the boat came crashing back down into the face of the wave. Water didn't quite get into the upper deck where we were but I don't think anyone could have been standing on the outside deck below us.
Rest of the day was spent walking the downtown and then having a fantastic dinner before we got the the worst of the waves. It looks to be a bad one tonight.Read more