A Manly Man!Oct 17, 2009
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Royal Australian Navy
Sailors in Training
North Sydney Heads & The Gap
Saturday October 17 – Sydney
A Manly Man!
And now it’s time for that fun game show: Pronounce that name! Here are the top 5 names of places and things here in Sydney that either cannot be pronounced correctly the first time you try or just plain sound silly:
1. Woolloomoolloo
2. North Narrabeen (as opposed to just plain old Narrabeen)
3. Woy Woy (I don’t know; I don’t know)
4. Ku-ring-gai (hyphens included)
5. Chippendale
This game will be repeated regularly; check your program guide for the next scheduled show.
Let’s see now: Gorgeous brilliant blue sky? Check. Warm verging on hot sun? Check. No real wind to speak of? Check. Must be time to go to the beach. The beach where Manly men go.
Two years ago on a tour of the tip of the North Island of New Zealand, Elaine met Trish, who lives in Eastwood (Sydney suburb). From that chance encounter came a lovely day at Manly Beach with Trish and her friend Annette, visiting from her home in (unpronounceable name a block from the beach in Queensland but sounds like) Mauroongee.
Meeting someone arriving by ferry that they want you to hop onto is easy so long as they stand on the bow and wave frantically for you to get on too. It worked.
The trip to Manly is about 30 minutes from Circular Quay and crosses the eastern reaches of Sydney Harbour as well as The Gap (the mile or so wide opening into the harbour from the Pacific Ocean where 17 yr. olds try to sell you jeans).
The sea starts to heave once you reach The Gap. We, however, did not. This bodes well for our upcoming sea-faring ventures.
Manly is a quaint beach town that would take an hour or more to reach by car over the Golden Gate Bridge and into North Sydney so the boat is clearly the best choice. Manly slogan: “7 miles from Sydney; a thousand miles from care”.
We enjoyed a long black (cup of espresso with water to make it taste closer to regular coffee as opposed to a short black; no water added) overlooking Little Manly Beach at the ferry wharf at Manly Cove. We walked the length of the Corso (pedestrian mall) featuring (another) outdoor market to reach (Big) Manly Beach – it’s plenty big. So big in fact that they gave the whole stretch of beach 4 different names.
We walked along the boardwalk, shaded by towering Norfolk Pines, to Shelly Beach which is where the Manly Man amongst us did more than just dip his toes into the ocean but, throwing caution to the wind, he entered the raging surf and swam miles out into the frigid, open seas, braving all creatures large & small (and all those pesky children with sand shovels) before returning exhausted but exhilarated to the safety of shore, family & friends.
Okay, so there wasn’t any raging surf (it was apparently a very calm day, in fact). But there were pesky children. And maybe I didn’t quite swim miles out to sea; but there were definitely yards involved there!
Also, it was frigid. Shrinkage was a factor for sure. But all of that is irrelevant. It was the first foray into the wild blue unknown and there ARE sharks out there! I counted all fingers, toes and other appendages on exiting the ocean – all accounted for.
Fish & chips at a picnic table on the boardwalk followed by Royal Copenhagen ice cream rounded out a lovely day at the beach, punctuated by lots of great tips on places to go, see & do from Trish & Annette who were wonderful tour guides and very funny.
Trish’s son married a girl from Winnipeg that he met in Greece and they now live in Winterpeg (even she knows that name) so she has visited Manitoba a few times. That is her penance for living the rest of the time in Sydney where (did I mention this already?) it has never, ever snowed!
Dinner tonight at the Midtown Café Restaurant (are the last two words of its name a bit redundant?) on George Street. Debbie has left me for the molten lava cake she had there for dessert. They will be very happy together, I’m sure.
