Wednesday was our beach day. We got a bit later start then we planned on, but still it was great. We walked up to Sydney harbor again and from there took a ferry to Manly where we were told to go to the beach… and thank goodness we went there. The beach was beautiful and the waves were amazing. I have been to the ocean many times before, but never anywhere like this. It was hot outside, but the water was cool and refreshing in a clear turquoise blue. The waves were violent and strong and giant. This made Myrtle beach look like a child’s play-land. The beach was crowded, but we had a bit of space to spread out. I felt very classy there with my nice hotel towel. Only a small part of the beach was open to swimmers and I was confused as to why until I went into the water in an area not marked for swimming… the sand quickly dropped away and the current was aggressive. There were surfers everywhere. Seeing them really made me want to learn to surf. I will either coerce my friends in Melbourne to teach me or I will take lessons while we are on vacation at the end of the trip.
We did a bit of tanning and a lot of swimming. I learned a few big lessons at this beach. First off, I learned that you should be careful what bathing suit you wear to a beach with waves like this. My bottom was old and stretched out and my top was new and not tied tightly enough, but despite the wardrobe malfuncations I still had a great time. I can still ride the waves like I used to. The wind blew a swarm of jellyfish into the beach so we each got stung a few times. Luckily these blue bottle (I think) jellies were not poisonous. They only hurt for 20 minutes to an hour. Not nearly as bad as wasp stings.
We made friends with a guy from Kansas city by running him over while body surfing. I literally ran into him. He ended up sticking with us for the rest of the day. When we were in the ocean, as each wave passed Steph and I would always look for each other. Once he joined us, all three of us automatically looked for each other. Thank goodness for group survival tendencies. The waves were so strong that a lot of time you had to dive under them or get washed 10-15 feet towards shore.
We did dinner outside again. We went to a fish and chips place and it was terrific, then we had baskin and robins ice cream while walking up the beach. Yum. Near dusk we walked over to the dock to take the ferry back, but there was a musician playing guitar on the street. We decided to listen to him while we waited for the next ferry and we ended up skipping a few ferry runs and instead continued to listen to him. He was amazing (both looking and at playing). We stayed to listen to him for so long, that by the end he was playing just for us… playing things he thought we would like. He was from New Zealand and could play so many different styles. It was hard to leave… Our ferry ride back to town was lovely. The lights shining over the water was great.
Thursday morning I brought muffins back for both of us so we could eat breakfast while packing up the room. Once we were packed we headed out to a local café to get a cuppa. We relaxed there and read for a while. We took a shuttle to the airport and got there in plenty of time for our flight which of course was delayed. Of course.
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