Day 5 in Sydney

Jan 16

The day started out with a mistake. John was excited to be going to Avatar at 9:30am. When he arrived there were two other guys there and they were perplexed. How could they go to see Avatar at 9:30 if the theatre didn't open until 10am? They were on the phone to the movie company. John said that he had wondered that, too. So he got out his ticket and sure enough it said 9:30PM! But that was alright... it gave him more time to see things on his last day in Sydney.

So, he went back to the hotel, picked up his hat and his canera and set off. He had wanted to see the other famous beach, the one at Manly. He knew that there was a long ferry ride to get to it and it was covered by his three-day pass. So, he went and waited for the Explorer bus and sat through the same old taped descriptions of the areas they were passing that he had listened to, with fascination, the first time. Sydney has the biggest this and the widest that and the longest something else etc. But now he was catching some of the nuances that he had missed before. He knew about the Hungry Mile, Bennelong, Mrs. Macquarrie's Chair, and the Suez Canal. He could tell you about Wooloomooloo and Harry's Cafe de Wheels where Frank Sinatra had eaten and where Elton John once conducted a press conference. He knew they only serve meat pies and hot dogs.

So, he knew exactly where to get off the bus to find the ferry to Manly.

He had just missed it!

But it was only a 20-minute wait for the next one. And he was one of the first on and sat down the side of the boat to take some shore scenery. The 30-minute ride was nice and people all around were looking forward to their day at the beach. So, it was a nice atmosphere.

Manly was a cool surfer dude kind of place made for tourists, if you can picture that unlikely combo. The town has made the central area a pedestrian mall and there were all kinds of shops. John walked with the mass of people (the ferry holds over 300) down to the beach.

It was beautiful, like Bondi, only this was a nice warm day. John went onto the beach and took some video of the surfers but again, the surf was not high and the waves were only allowing the surfers very short rides. He did notice the shark nets that were out in the water, however. The surfers were ignoring those.

There was a huge amount of beach volleyball going on - maybe 10 courts set out in the sand - and there was a school to teach people how to play. It seemed pretty organized.



After a little walk around the Manly downtown, John found a Moevenpick and bought himself an ice cream cone - two scoops - one caramelito and the other cappuchino. It was great!



Then he went to the ferry terminal to come back. On board he came across 5 or 6 guys dressed as pirates. He asked them why they were dressed that way. They were all from Britain and they were going on a stag. The theme was pirate. Well, they did an "Arrrr" for John before making that quintessential British error of thinking he was American. One guy saw his camera case and said, "He's Canadian!" John, in jest, said if anyone called him American again they would be walking the plank themselves... without a plank! Despite their little error they were really funny and witty, waving their rubber swords and daggers at passing ships and yelling, "Arrrr." They expected the stag would last into the wee hours. John wondered how much "Arrrr" would be left in them by then.

John picked up the same bus again and got off the Queen Victoria Building, a gorgeous old building containing a shopping mall on five levels. The shops though were not your trypical mall ones. They were very upscale... like Yorkville Avenue off Avenue Road types. Gucci, Armani and so on. Suits were 50% or more off, only $750.

Then John went to his last attraction apart from the movie - the Sydney Tower. It is like the CN Tower only shorter. But for a little extra they put you in a special outfit, special shoes, and take you right outside with nothing but a railing and the tether that you have clipped onto the building. They made quite a production out of it, making you go through security, then a metal detector, then a breathalyzer test. John passed all three. They then make you put all your stuff in a locker and only take the locker key. They don't want you to drop anything from the tower. John felt really disappointed because he would have loved to have taken a video up there. Instead he had to settle for still shots that they take and sell back to you afterwards.

After they stepped out, John realized that his pilot training had taken away all fear of heights. He could look down through the plexiglass floor and over the railing with no worries. At one point you are on a plexiglass platform and they move it out over the edge of the building.

The guide pointed out all the places that John had seen since coming here. It was a remarkable experience being completely on the outside, with nothing but a tether and a railing. The wind blew. And then all too soon it was over.

John's adventures (apart from the movie) in Sydney were over. We take the flight back to Melbourne tomorrow.

TRB