Manly Beach

So way back in a cold and rainy November in Canada we made the booking for our accommodation for our Sydney trip - and it was a bit of a blind choice because, really, what did we know of the Sydney neighbourhoods? Also, the prices were pretty scary - to our innocent eyes. We thought seriously about Bondi Beach (the truth? The girls love the TV show 'Bondi Vet' and are still determined to visit Chris in his surgery there) but thankfully we plumped for Manly Beach, a northern suburb which is a half hour ferry ride to the centre of town. It was such a good choice for us. We LOVED Manly. But what's not to love? A gorgeous beach, boardwalk and surf flanked by fabulous restaurants and cafes, a really cool vibe and a good mix of tourists of locals. We booked a cheap(ish) airbnb in the perfect location - a mere half block between the ocean side and the harbour side. The apartment itself was pretty grotty but no matter - it was worth it to have our morning coffee on the beach and for the girls to run down to the surf in their bare feet. It is amazing to have such a beautiful beach almost in the centre of a big city and it was a relaxing place to return to after venturing out into the city.

We loved Manly so much that - aside from Toby planning to move there - we are planning to hopefully return in June after we return the camper van and meet up with Toby's sister, Sophie, who's coming out to join us for the end of our trip. 

Here are some highlights of our Manly stay - and since our stay in Sydney also had two very hot days on our last day of our sojourn we just decided to stay put on the beach and not even brave the trip into town. Why would we want to leave? 

Zoe in her 'pineapple' - her new Aussie beach cover-up (we got it at a huge craft market in Red Hill before we left Flinders)

Indie and her 'icy pole' - a lemonade popsicle that all of us love 

A good view of Manly Beach

Indie and I did the beautiful walk from Manly to the smaller Shelley Beach 

We could almost be in the Med

A natural swimming pool on the way to Shelley Beach

Lovely little sculptures of Australian animals and other surf icons are inserted in to the rocks on the walk

A real iguana we saw - there were lots of them

Zoe and Toby were the devoted surfers

On our last night we had dinner with an old friend of Toby's from Zermatt, Gerry

Moonlight on Manly

On the way to the surf

The surf was BIG - they're holding the world surfing championships in Manly in March