Beach Day

Yesterday, Thursday June 5 here in Oz, was our first non-convention day.  It was grey and threatening rain, but after having heard the recording on the train for days and days telling us that the line ran to "Bondi Junction" (remember to use Aussie accent) ... we knew it was time to do the walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach.  

This is also our last day of "free transit" associated with our Rotary Convention name tags, so we wanted to make sure we covered some interesting territory ...

Bondi Beach - in winter.  There are some intrepid surfers out there (well, intrepid by Aussie standards, the water is nearly 20 C).

The little black dots ... those are surfers.

This was an interesting bit along the walkway.  Zoom in and read about Black Sunday.  It was the surf life savers who were the flag bearers for the Rotary opening and closing ceremonies.

Beautiful walk along the shoreline.  Amazing rock formations eroded by the sea. 

And a wall of morning glories along the way as well.  All of the walk truly stunning.

After a warmup and a dry out time at a coffee shop, we headed for the Circular Quay ferry terminal and made our way across Sydney Harbour to Manly Beach.  And, I expect, on a hot summer day, we'd have seen a number of Manly men.  But alas, in winter, few were in evidence.  Manly is much a 'tourist' type beach, with shops like Banff and other resort towns.  It was sunny while we were here though, and the walk and views were impressive.

A fun mural - on the newspaper building - headlines of the past.

Manly has been there for awhile ... 

And some art too.

Our full day ended with moving our digs to a different hotel - we're in North Sydney now - and some memories of the Chilkoot trail were relived as we were temporarily lost and pulling/carrying all of our luggage for quite some distance in the wrong direction.  Up and down hills.  In the dark.  Happily, it wasn't actually reaining at the time.

I am pleased to say that we now have our geographical bearings and are settled into our new lodgings.  A happy June 5 20th Anniversary to my husband, Bill!  Wish you were here, had a drink in our honour.

That's 8:05 p.m., not the year 2005.  This blog is a bit more up to date than that ;).