The Most Pleasant Day Trip to Manly

My day trip to Manly in New South Wales, Australia was one of the most pleasant trips I've had in a long, long time. Everything was perfect - the weather, blue skies, sea and sand.

Manly was so perfect that about 30 minutes after I arrived, I told myself that I could live or even retire there! Yeah, right ...

So the day began when we headed to Circular Quay in Sydney and hopped onto the ferry to Manly.

There are various whafts in Circular Quay where you take different ferries to different destinations.  The price of a single ticket (one way) from Circular Quay to Manly was AUD7.60.

The weather was perfect that day. Eventhough it was just entering spring, the weather was chilly but the bright sun kept us warm.

We had to pass the iconic Sydney Opera House to get to Manly:

After looking at numerous side view photos of the Opera House, it's odd to look at it from this angle. And when up close, I think the Opera House needed some TLC.

This is the view from the ferry:

The clouds were so pretty. It's not often I see clouds with such formations. 

After about 30 minutes, we approached Manly:

 Must be pretty cool to have a boat of your own. Last time I saw so many privately owned boats was in Oslo, Norway a couple of years ago.

After disembarking at Manly Whaft, we navigated our way to the beach with a map.

I was amazed at how scenic, clean and relaxed Manly is. It has a certain vibe, feel, ambience, whatchamaycallit that makes me want to live or retire there.

Those clouds again!

The Manly guide mentioned that there were different walks that I could do. So I decided to do the simple but scenic walk to Shelley Beach.

At the beginning of the walk I passed the Cabbage Tree Bay:

Then I came to a road along the coast:

So scenic and relaxing.

Since I was already thinking of retiring in Manly(!), I was wondering how much property there would cost. Then I saw this property up for auction:

The location of this property was along the coast and with sea frontage. Location wise it was perfect which means the price will also be exhorbitant. 

Next I saw a group of tourist gathering around to look at something ...

... which I later found out were water dragons which are Manly's residential lizards:

Water dragons are not big like the komodo dragons. They are about the length of your arm.

Not too far from the water dragons was this gorgeous pool:   

Since this was a body of water within another body of water, I called it the Inception pool, after the movie starring Leonardo Caprio :-) Go figure.

Soon I approached Shelley Beach:

There were shops and cafes where you could sit and enjoy the view ...

... and changing rooms for those who decide to take a dip in Shelley Beach:

Now that I've reached the end of the walk, I decided to continue walking by taking another trail at the back of Shelley Beach. It was a decision that I didn't regret.

After about 10 minutes, I reached this view:

Kinda reminds me of  Bali.

There was a lookout point with a Bible quotation:

The Bible quote could probably come in handy when meditating at that spot. 

It was already late at this point and I decided to turn back. So I did the whole walk in reverse, headed to Manly Whaft and took the ferry back to Circular Quay. What a pleasant day it was.

To end this story, I would like to share with you this photo of one of the most irritating birds I encountered in Sydney:

They are everywhere in Sydney and Manly. Each time I took out my food, they would start gathering around hoping that I would share my food with them. Some of those birds even tried to swoop down at my food and I had to chase them away. Those birds made things stressful.

My sister even saw these birds attacked a girl for her sandwich. Animals can sense when someone is afraid and they will take advantage of that. So remember, show these birds who's boss.