Sydney traffic is terrible, as we verified on our way to Lord Howe Island from Nola and Graeme's house, so we took the ferry from Circular Quays to Manly, which is the most southern of the beaches we explored.
As usual, our route took us through the botanical gardens where a kind passerby thought that we might like to have our picture taken.
We encountered this Norfolk Island pine ready for Christmas with its star already in place.
Naturally, we stopped for yet another view of the Opera House and bridge; this time a very patient parakeet got into the photo.
En route, we were reminded about how many staircases there are in Sydney
I had not appreciated quite how much water there is in Sydney. This is a NASA image from Wikipedia. Manly is the last northerly bay in the harbour, and we travelled north from there up the coast and off this image.
The ferry service to Manly leaves the Quays every half hour and takes half an hour. We bought our drinks and then moved up to the top deck where we met a couple who had been on Lord Howe Island at the same time as us and with whom we had taken the round-the-island boat trip. They are from Melbourne and were on a short holiday. In no time at all we were at Manly.
This is the surfing beach at Manly
Nola and Graeme picked us up and took us to the Sydney Harbour National Park (North Heads) stopping for views of cliffs at the entrance to Sydney harbour
and views of the city which show just how big the harbour is
Leaving the park we headed north, passed through Dee Why and stopped at Pittwater for lunch
We then travelled on to Palm Beach where Graeme and John dabbled their toes in the sea, but thought better of going further
We moved round the coast to the other side of the peninsula and climbed up to the lighthouse stopping to take photos
Here you can see both sides of the Palm Beach peninsular
this is the lighthouse
While we were up there we saw this green tree snake which was about 2 metres long. Sadly we missed a photo of it's head
By now we were all tired and ready for home. Nola and Graeme kindly returned us to the ferry and we were soon home and, having eaten an excellent lunch, were ready to relax over a class of wine or two and some bread and cheese.
Pat and John on tour