Manly Beach, Bondi Beach, Bridge Walk

We got off to a slow start, the heat and humidity was a bit of a shock.  But there was no rain! All the water around the caravan park had dried overnight which was great!

We walked to the Train Station about 10am, had our Opal Cards ready, and headed into Central Station then changed lines to get to Circular Quay. Up the stairs, down the lift, down the escalators! It never stops when there's a pram to get around too!  At Circular Quay we found the right ferry to Manly and went to tag them onto the ferry but forgot to give Karli her card! Thankfully the staff noticed and said 'hey, you forgot to tag her on! And the Inspectors are watching! It's a $200 fine you know!' and then grabbed Karli's card and swiped it for her! Phew!

On the boat the Inspectors went through to make sure everyone had tagged their cards. It's a $14- trip using the public transport - the longest commute between stops on the Sydney system.  The ride took about 30 minutes before we arrived at Manly.  It's a great ride as you get a great view of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. We stopped to watch the ferries for a little while from the beach then walked through the mall to Manly Beach to watch the surfers. 

It was a warm day and plenty of people at the beach. We were happy to sit and watch the surfers catch a few waves while we had a bit to eat. From there we made our way back via another mall where the kids found a great Op Shop with cheap books. Always a winner! After a few more stops and a quick icecream while we waited for the ferry we made our back to Circular Quay on the ferry.

 

 From Circular Quay we took the train back to Central Station, went up and down the lifts, elevators and stairs again to find the train heading to Bondi Junction. At Bondi Junction we hopped off and caught the bus to Bondi Beach.  The beach was nice!  There was plenty of people about, not many people swimming besides the surfers though. The Lifeguards were buzzing up and down the beach in their Beach Buggies keeping an eye on things.

The kids dived into the sand and Karli said 'oh it feels like home!'  They enjoyed the down time on the beach, burying Rowan in sand while Axel piled up handfuls of sand on Karlis back!  He wasn't going to miss out on the fun!  We spent some time here but no one was really interested in going for a swim so eventually we headed back to the bus which took us to Bondi Junction Train Station. We took the train back to Town Hall.

We got off at Town Hall and started heading down George Street. At this point it was 5pm and busy busy busy everywhere! Turns out the navigator (me) was taking us the wrong way so we turned around and headed back up George Street. We stopped and found our bearings again using Google - which told us we had 30 minutes of walking to do!  We rarely tell the kids these figures and they do amazing! Rowan is the only one who mysteriously gets a 'tummy ache' (maybe a stitch?) after about 50metres of walking but the others do so well.

After a quick check with a local as to which direction we should head, we found our way to the walkway across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  The views were spectacular, particularly of the Opera House and across the Harbour.  The walkway was surprisingly busy with people exercising or making their way home from work, or just tourists like us!

When we reached the North side of the bridge we were all ready for some dinner so we found a little café to have some dinner.  It would've been really nice to enjoy together but instead we seemed to be doing trips to the toilet with each of the kids!  The food was delicious though! Mars took an exciting phone call from Hugo too!

After dinner we took the train back across the bridge to Central, then went up and down stairs, escalators and lifts again to get to our train to Miranda. Axel fell asleep in the carrier and eventually Rowan fell asleep in the pram.  After the 50 minute train trip we walked the 1km back to our caravan where we showered the sleepy kids and tucked them in bed at 10pm!!!