On our way, we passed these stones which we christened the 'roman remains'. There is no indication of what they are, but it is likely that they are the remains of the tram station that once occupied the site that is now the Sydney Opera House.
It seems impossible to pass through the gardens without taking a photo and today was no exception. With the dark skies the sails of the Opera House were strikingly white against the sky.
At the quay there was another cruise ship in port, P&O's Pacific Pearl.
We boarded a ferry to Watson's Bay. It was a fast catamaran which go us there in no time at all. As it left the Circular Quay terminal we had views of the Opera House from new directions.
Watson's Bay is a calm spot for mooring boats with a sandy beach. It has a renowned seafood restaurant Doyle's.
Having found Watson and Doyle, Ee searched for the Holmes but the best we could do were some pretty homes.
Looking back across the bay you could see Sydney's skyline in the distance and lots of sailing activity in the harbour.
From Watson's Bay we walked to South Head which is the southern entrance of Sydney Harbour into the Pacific Ocean. Like the North Head that we saw with Nola and Graeme, it is a high cliff at the point. On our way we passed by the small beach at Camp Cove which had golden sand
and the Hornby Lighthouse built in 1858 following the shipwreck of the Dunbar when 112 lives were lost. Only one person survived and he went on to become the lighthouse keeper.
Near the lighthouse were the remains of gun emplacements from the 19th century, protection against the French and the Americans. A part of the North Head is still under military control and called HMAS Watson. We liked their motto.
Retracing our steps to Camp Cove we spent some time on the beach and John had a swim and saw one large pretty fish. We also were fortunate enough to spot that a school of dolphins were passing by and this time we did manage a photo with a couple of fins showing. We think that there were about half a dozen in the school.
After the military area is a park area called The Cap. Here sheer cliffs descend to flat stone beaches and you can see the cliffs of North Head and the width of the entrance to Sydney Harbour from the ocean. Again we spotted a couple of dolphins quite close to the shore but they moved away too quickly for us to photograph.
The peninsula is narrow here and it was a short walk across a park back to the ferry terminal and a bite to eat at Doyle's.
Our next port of call was Rose Bay from where we walked to Bondi Beach. On the map it looked like this would be a walk through a park but it turned out that the green area on the map was Sydney Golf Course. It is a public course and although it seemed that you could insist on walking through it we choose to walk along the road beside it. Bondi Beach was smaller than we were expecting but we could see why it was popular. It has a large hinterland with grass and parking and the surf was good. By now it was five pm on a Friday and there were lots of people on the beach.
We spent some time watching the surfers and enjoying the atmosphere
and then hopped onto a bus back to the centre of Sydney.
Pat and John on tour