It is different than Western Australia. It is humid and more lush and tropical. There are people everywhere – we were getting used to towns of 200 and Perth wasn’t even that big. I guess it isn’t surprising when the whole population of Sydney (about 4.3 million) is nearly double that of the whole state of Western Australia.
When we arrived in Manly, we still had a few hours to kill before we could get into the apartment. We decided the best way to stay awake would be to hunt for nearby geocaches. Our first wasn’t too difficult but it was on a pier in a pretty busy place so we just had to keep looking out for muggles (non-geocachers). The second was more challenging. Dylan’s phone died so we couldn’t use the GPS anymore and just knew that it was near a bench on this little peninsula….that went on with tons of benches for about a half-mile. We searched in trees, under rocks and in dead logs but had no luck. I was a little freaked out because we noticed that there were spiders everywhere. After reading Bill Bryson’s book, In a Sunburnt Country, I was pretty sure that every living creature in Australia was poisonous and wanted to kill me. A few days later we found out that in our sleep-deprived state we had actually been looking on the wrong peninsula all together!
We have been spending most of our time at the beach. Manly is located on a narrow peninsula, one side of which faces the Sydney harbor and the other side faces the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately the ocean side has been plagued with blue bottle jellyfish pretty much since we arrived so not much surfing, but the harbor side is great for swimming. There are clear, blobby jellyfish on the harbor side too, but they are apparently harmless ones (according to the aquarium). You end up paddling right through them when you are out swimming – SO squishy. I still jump every time I touch one. It also kind of distracts you from the prospect of sharks.
There is also lots of hiking and open space nearby. We have hiked and searched for geocaches on the whole North Point peninsula, winding through arid eucalyptus and lush tropical palms and vine. It is beautiful and the thought of all of the deadly snakes, spiders, and lizards keeps you on your toes. We saw several huge monitor lizards both in the bush and right along the sidewalk!
We have gone over to Sydney a few times on the ferry. It takes about a half-hour and is a beautiful tour of the harbor, going right by the opera house and just in front of the Sydney Bridge. We have visited all of the places necessary
to highlight the deadly creatures of Australia – the aquarium and the wild animal center.
At the aquarium they had a huge exhibit on jellyfish. They are a pretty big deal here. The most notorious (and deadly) one is the box jellyfish. They are found up north of here, around the Great Barrier Reef. Summer is the big season for them and they are the main reason we are not venturing north. They also had a huge shark exhibit that included a gigantic tank filled with sharks, fish, rays and turtles with clear tunnels running underneath so you could feel submerged with them. The sharks would glide just a foot over your head!
The other dangerous animal in the north is the saltwater crocodile. There are only about 1-2 attacks per year here but I think it is the stealthy, speedy, deadly nature of the attacks that are so scary. There was one at the wild animal center. It didn’t move anything but it’s eyes as we watched it and it was still scary. The one we saw was only about 15 feet long but he was considered a small one.
The kids were especially excited to see the kangaroos and the koalas. We were lucky to see a koala actually moving! Koalas apparently have very small brains – partly as a result of eating very toxic plants and needing to use all their energy to process these plants. There were five or six other koalas in the enclosure and none of them moved at all.
We had planned to go to the zoo but it started raining as we pulled into Sydney so we opted for the Maritime museum which was right at the pier. It ended up being a great detour. We got to tour a naval battleship, a naval submarine and a replica of Captain Cook’s boat, the Endeavour. Both the battleship and the submarine have been maintained as they were while they were in use so each was like a time warp back to the 1960s. The submarine was especially interesting as my cousin had been on one when he was in the navy. I can’t imagine how he did it – weeks at a time in that small space underwater. I get claustrophobic on Captain Nemo’s Submarine – that deathtrap they call a ride – at Disneyland.
Since we will soon be heading off to New Zealand and are both starting to read a book about Captain Cook, the tour of the Endeavour was especially interesting. Like the naval ship and sub, they had all of the original furnishings on the boat. We got to see the galley, the hammocks where the crew slept, the officers’ quarters, and the rooms where Joseph Banks (the rich naturalist) and his entourage stayed. They had volunteers in each section of the boat to explain the details, which was especially great for the kiddies. The boat is still taken out for special excursions, with one starting in April to circumnavigate Australia for a year (www.endeavourvoyages.com.au). You live and work on the boat, performing the tasks of crew. We are already scheming how to get back!
A big part of our time in Manly has also been getting our next travel plans in order. Researching and booking our next move always ends up taking up more time than one might think. It is a good problem to have but just not something that we had quite anticipated at the outset of the trip. Until now, the longest trip we’ve had to book was for two weeks and that was all in one place! After a few more days here, we’ll head off on a cruise to New Zealand that will take us through Melbourne, Tasmania, the Fjordlands (in NZ), Dunedin, Christchurch, Tauranga and finally, Auckland.
