Friday 6th March
Sydney
We sailed into Sydney Harbour early this morning and anchored in the middle of the harbour. We went ashore by tender and landed alongside the Opera House. We had decided to spend today over in Manly so we walked to Circular Quay and got on the Manly ferry. From the main surf beach we took the coastal path up to North Head. We passed by Shelly Beach and then started to climb up to the North Head Sanctuary. There are walkways through the scrubland here. From 1828 North Head headland was used to quarantine passengers on ships arriving in the colony. There are three cemeteries from that time. It is also the site of WWII military fortifications and barracks. The barracks buildings are now used by a variety of businesses. As we walked through the scrub we saw lots of large spiders in webs. We were assured that they are harmless and it is the small spiders that you couldn't see that you needed to worry about!! From the top of the head you had some lovely views down to the harbour. We had lunch at the cafe there enjoying the views. We then continued our walk around the other side of the sanctuary going down to Collins Beach and then along to Little Manly Cove. This is a small residential area with some lovely houses overlooking a beautiful sandy cove. We finished our walk back at Manly Cove and took the ferry back to Circular Quay. We couldn't return to the ship until after 8 this evening as it was moving from its anchor to dock alongside at the International Terminal. So we decided to go to the Opera Bar which is a large outside bar next to the Opera House and it is very popular - even though it was still early it was already heaving. We just managed to squeeze onto the end of a table and had a lovely chilled bottle of sparkling wine while we soaked up the atmosphere. Later on we walked along the waterside under the bridge to see if we could get to Darling Harbour but we soon realised it was further than we thought so decided to leave that until tomorrow. Returning to Sydney Cove we had dinner in a waterside bar and then a stroll around the quayside by the Opera House.

Saturday 7th March
We walked to Darling Harbour this morning taking the waterside walk as far as we could but then we had to go inland a bit. They are building along the waterside at the moment so eventually you will be able to walk by the water all the way from Sydney Cove to Darling Harbour. We spent a bit of time walking around the harbour area and just beyond where there were lots of water features. We watched some ibis drinking from the water channels. After some coffee we took the ferry back to Sydney Cove. We sat outside on the ferry and enjoyed the trip to several stops around the harbour before ours. After lunch we had a look around the markets in the Rocks area. We then headed to the gardens at the Old Governors House before walking in the botanical gardens. There were lots of weddings taking place in different parts of the gardens. A lovely setting for the ceremony and the photos. We saw lots more ibis in the gardens and just before we left we passed a tree where we heard lots of squawking and saw three or four parrots in the tree. They were eating these red flowers or berries (I'm not sure which) and they were obviously delicious because they couldn't get enough of them. I managed to get two of the parrots in this photo and as you can see they are very beautiful.