Day 54 Pylon lookout , ferry to Manly, Shelly beach

Fri 23 feb

We had free entry to the Pylon Lookout from our bridge climb so caught the trusty 377 into Sydney and went to have  a look. Its a reasonable replacement  for the climb at a much cheaper price (normally $15 instead of the $300 it is to climb- pictures cost extra) as it gives you those stunning views over Sydney and also information on boards on the landings as you climb up. I got talking to an ESOL teacher originally from Essex who moved out to Sydney 8 years ago and loved it. He was guiding a group of Chinese students and then taking them on a walk across the bridge ( which is totally free).

360 sphere here

360 sphere here

It finishes with an exhibition of some of the basic tools used in the bridge's  construction and a film of photographs showing the bridge being erected and set to the stirring Jupiter music from the planets suite.

stained glass window inside the pylon showing some of the crafts needed to build the bridge

I almost left my sunglasses behind but luckily Jono rescued them for me. We had rucksacks with our snorkelling masks and swimming gear with us and caught the ferry across the harbour to Manly. This was only $7.35 on our opal card and gave us a 30 minute trip to admire the harbour. Manly had just been voted in the top 20 beaches of the world, something Australians were not very happy about as they reckoned that 1) no way did Brighton beach beat Manly and 2) there were even better beaches than Manly in Australia and they didn't  appear in the list at all.

After getting off the ferry we had lunch in one of the cafes that abound the area which had a delicious vegetarian wrap including beetroot.

Then we strolled to the beach. Surf was pounding in and the beach was fairly busy. Luckily our final aim wasn't actually  Manly  but Shelly beach, a small sheltered cove to the southern end of the beach which was calm and where we knew regular snorkelling trips were held.

Manly beach (yes this number of people counts as busy)

It was beautiful. There was a rock swimming pool called fairy bower about half way along the walkway with its own changing rooms and toilets.

Then, once past these the walkway down had little statues on the rocks every so often.

More changing rooms, toilets and a cafe were down by the beach. We found a spot, shoved on our factor 50 sun lotion and headed for the sea.

Fabulous snorkelling here, lots of fish to see. We let another English couple try out our masks after our first snorkel but we couldn't  stay on the beach long, it was roasting hot, the only sensible place to be was in the water. At one point a very expensive and sleek looking boat called Ghost came into the cove, the 3 crew members we could see manoeuvring the boat  let a man and a woman off for a swim while the boat backed off. This caused quite a sensation on the beach with people standing up to look and mobile phones coming out. We went for another snorkel  and by the time we were out the boat and its mysterious (rich) occupants had disappeared.

We really really liked Shelly beach.

On the way back a disabled man tried to catch our attention, when we went over to him he excitedly pointed out a water dragon sitting on the walkway, he then took us a few metres further on where another one was sat high above our heads on a ledge just poking his head out. We would have missed them both without him.

On a whim we decided to have dinner in Manly, we came across a restaurant which had a Friday special- anything on the menu for $19 so Jono had fillet mignon and I had barramundi.

It was noticeable as we got back to the ferry that everyone coming out of the station was in shirt and trousers or business wear and everyone going in was in beachwear! Our ferry fee was capped on the way back, we'd  finally made enough journeys in one day to hit the daily cap so any other journeys we made would be free. On top of that as we had made 8 journeys every journey we now made would be half price for the rest of the week. Bargain.

We sat on our ferry at the front with a good view, the ferries coming the other way were packed with commuters including bicycles stored on their own special racks. As we approached Sydney bridge and opera house there was a surge of people positioning for selfies against the ferry rail.

The chinese figures were beginning to be lit up from the inside for the evening adding an extra dimension to the harbour. We caught our free bus home and had ice cream at the apartment.