08.01.10 Manly

The ferry to Manly takes you up the harbour past the mouth with views out to the Pacific Ocean. We pass exclusive residential suburbs on the banks of the peninsulas each with it's own golden sand beach and yacht moorings. It takes 1/2 hour sailing to reach the port of Manly and another 10 minute walk through the town to cross the arm of the peninsula to reach the surf beach on the sea coast. The waves here are bigger than at Bondi and Greg especially is in his element boogying over them on his board.

The water's fresh but by no means cold. There's no real threat from shark attack here. Although they are known in these waters controversial nets are in place and helicopter pilots touring the coastline are trained to keep their eyes peeled for that infamous black shadow in the water. The nets are invisible from the beach as they're about 1km offshore and don't come up to the water's surface. Many marine activists protest against them because they are responsible for the deaths of innocent fish including dolphins which get tangled up. It's an agonising death. And they try to convince swimmers they're thousands of times more likely to be in a car accident than attacked by a shark. Other technologies such as sonar sensoring are in the pipeline, but the confidence of visitors swimming at the beaches will unfortunately cause the continuing need for some kind of full proof system, even though many are probably unaware that the nets only partially cover the length of the beaches. The sun reveals itself, the temperature rises and the crowds start pouring in. We enjoy another boogie board session then get dried off and take a walk along the prom taking in the sights- serious volleyball tournaments, gangs of Sydney teenagers whizzing by on colourful chopper bikes and skateboards and hundreds of young families having picnics and kids running around in their special UV protective vests. The heat sets in for the day and, although I enjoy it, at times it's uncomfortable and I find myself scanning the pavement for areas of shade. Carrying our foam boogie boards proves annoying because of their size so we have the genius idea to marker pen a price on each and sell them on the beach. It doesn't take long before a couple of lads approach us and eagerly take them off our hands, pleased to be able to try it out along with everyone else. We walk out to the north head of the peninsula to look back at views of the distant city centre before catching the ferry back.

view from the Manly ferry back towards the Sydney skyline