Sydney (day 2) - started off with the 2nd of our 'Hop on hop off bus tours'. This 'Bondi beach' tour had simillar problems to the 'city tour' of the previous day, with overhanging foliage whipping us round the head as we whizzed along, and a commentary that was out of sync. with where we were at the time. It was very amusing watching the other passengers craning their necks to look for places of interest that either we had passed a couple of minutes earlier, or hadn't yet arrived at, just as we'd been doing ourselves the day before! We 'hopped off' the tour bus at Bondi beach, which was lovely - clean white sand and amazingly blue water, with lots of big surf-waves rolling in. There were 'dangerous currents' warnings in place, so no chance of a swim. We watched the surfers for a while, then went for a paddle in the icy cold water before catching the next tour bus back.
I'm ashamed to say, we ended up having lunch at 'Hungry Jack's, which seemed to be Burger King in disguise. They did have a vege burger (yay!) but unfortunately it only came as a 'whopper' version, and after eating it I could hardly move! We staggered round to Circular Quay and caught the ferry over to Manly Beach. It was a beautiful day, and we sat out on the top deck, taking the opportunity to take even more photos of the Opera house and bridge from every conceivable angle. Seeing them from the water was fabulous. There were yachts and dinghies racing by in all directions, and we criss-crossed with ferries making the return journey from Manly as the view of Sydney receded into the distance. Lovely.
As you'd expect, when we arrived, I had to get a photo of Tony under a 'Manly' sign (wait for that one on Facebook!). The surf at Manly was even rougher than at Bondi, so the beach here was also 'closed' to swimmers. Disappointed, but undeterred, we walked further round to Cabbage tree bay, where there were hardly any waves, and finally managed to have a swim!
We were a bit early for the return ferry, so decided to get an ice-cream. Then when we found they were all 5 dollars each we decided not to get an ice-cream. Then we made a brilliant discovery. McDonalds will give you a little plastic pot of plain whippy ice cream for 30 cents! Bargain! (Do they do that in England?) It tasted all the nicer for being so cheap, and we headed back on the ferry, with a lovely sunset providing the perfect backdrop to even more photos of the harbour bridge! Goodnight.