Wednesday saw the weather – somewhat temperamental given it’s only just spring here – improve and so we headed out for some outdoor adventuring. A long winded way of saying we went for a walk.
Manly is located on a finger of land jutting out from Australia that helps form part of Sydney’s natural harbour. The Northen Head of this outcrop of land affords – we were assured – good views of the harbour. The walk itself was described as scenic, there was a museum on the way (promising some history of the Head during the second world war) and, at 4k, a decent bit of exercise.
It took us a couple of attempts to find the route as being pampered poms we were expecting a scenic walk that was marked by signs. This is not the case and the first part of the walk is a somewhat mundane meander through a Manly suburb on your way up to the North Head National Park. Once you’re in to the park itself the going becomes much more like bush that entails the footpath disappearing and a thick covering of trees and bush either side that obscures any views. We weren’t the only walkers but there were long gaps where we were the only people on the road save for whatever was moving through the undergrowth along side us. I have a vivid imagination.
The Artillery museum was, alas, closed. We had checked in the guide and we were there within the stated hours but I guess it was out of season and, although there were other people around, it was hard to justify staying open for the full day. Many of the exhibits (read huge guns) were by necessity outside and so I had a brief look at these before moving on. There was still some distance to go.
On reaching the apex of the Head and the lookouts all became clear. A stunning view of the harbour – our first proper view – and following the Fairfax trail (named for a local newspaper man) afforded some great views of cliffs not a million miles away in appearance from the coastline in my native Wales. We spent a good hour up there. It really was beautiful. It was a relief to see a bus idling as we turned to make our descent. I’m not to proud to confess we took the bus back into town.
Our walk had left us with quite the hunger and so we meandered off to a local restaurant where I tried some local produce. Kangaroo tastes like a very meaty version of beef, quite rich and tender but with less fat and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A good day all in all.