Many Manly Lifeforms

Again this is delayed because I got lazy about selecting the best photos. I went to Manly Beach a few weeks ago to chill out after the week of flyering and to see some nice views. I’d been there before and remembered it fondly, even if it is a bit touristy. It was the first time this trip that I’d been on a ferry, which was fun but would have been better if the weather hadn’t been a little dodgy. Here’s a classic backwards glance of the harbour and you can see the cloudy skies.

 

I enjoyed a quick fish cocktail (chunk of fried fish) before I got on the boat and then couldn’t resist trying some funky chocolates at the candy shop inside the Manly Wharf after the 30-minute ride. I wanted to do the “Manly to the Spit Walk,” which I thought I had walked before but actually I had been to the North Head Walk instead. I kind of feel like the North Head Walk has better views, but that could be memory playing tricks, and also because it was a much nicer day and I had barely arrived in Sydney so it was a lot more exciting. Anyway the Spit Walk headed from the Wharf all the way along the coast to this bridge connecting the shore to the spit. Here you can see the main Manly area at the beginning of the walk.

It started off meandering along the urban coastline, but then wove in and out of a few parks and beaches. At one point I crossed a mini bridge over a stream that was flowing out of someone’s (very nice and green) backyard and got my first reptile pics of some water lizards basking on the rocks nearby.

After a while hugging the coastline I went through a nice stretch of restoration area where they were eliminating non-native species and encouraging the native ones. I love the shapes of the eucalyptus trees, they’re so squiggly, and they reminded me of the funky paintings that people did of the trees when the Europeans first came to Australia and were kind of confused about how the trees worked (but actually). I haven’t been back to any of the museums since my quarter abroad, but I plan on at least checking out the free art museum in the Botanical Gardens next time I make it over there (and when the weather’s nicer).

Some of the protected areas were supposed to help out the endangered population of Little Penguins on Manly. They’re not sure where the best habitat is for them so they’re trying to protect different areas to boost the population. Of course I didn’t see any, but it was nice knowing they were out there somewhere close. I did see some cool Banksias that looked especially fluffy and you can see the seed pods buried in the fluff.

Finally I entered part of the Sydney Harbour National Park which was a much larger stretch of protected land (no dogs allowed). As well as seeing some nice vegetation, I also saw a lot of pretty birdlife, especially these yellow honeyeaters that were searching for nectar inside fluffy red flowers. I’m not sure what kind they were, but I think I saw two different varieties because the black and yellow seemed to be in two different places, although I’m not sure since I only got a one decent picture.

Topping up on the reptiles, flora, and avian life, I also got a few nice views after some trekking uphill through some of the drier sections of the woodland (where all those yellow birds were hanging out). I still think the North Head views were better, but it could have also been the light that made this less spectacular.

I found an overlook point a little further on that was just above a canopy that seemed to be run by currawongs. They were making such a racket that I took a few sound recordings and listened to them for a while. They’re so funny sounding and yet look so serious, due to the black colouring (although anyone who has heard mutton birds will corroborate that the oddest voices lurk in the most unlikely places). Here’s one of the bold black beauties.

 

Towards the end of the park there was this open area that looked randomly cleared and damaged until I realized that it was a historic aboriginal site. There were a bunch of engravings of different animals on the rock floor that were who-knows-how-old. Some were kind of hard to see, but they had diagrams of them and they were all encircled with big logs so that you wouldn’t step on them. There was a kangaroo that was too big to fit inside my camera angle, a small long-necked bird, a part of a whale that I couldn’t really distinguish very well, some boomerangs that were mostly invisible, and a few fish. 

They were all really cool, although the fish were the easiest to see and about the only ones that showed up well in a photo. It was funny because the area was called Grotto Point, and I visited Grotto Canyon in the summer with Jessica and we saw pictographs there, so there must be something about the name Grotto that means there will be cool ancient designs (although I suspect that the Australian engravings were just a bit older than the Canadian pictographs!)

After leaving the park the final km or so of the walk hugged very close to the water – so close, in fact, that there was a separate path laid out up hill in case of high tide! I took my shoes off and walked barefoot along the beach for that stretch, which was relaxing. As I started back on the last part of the path, shoes on, I was just thinking that I had yet to see any non-flying mammals (I have seen the fruit bats, if I haven’t mentioned them yet) when I saw movement to my left and watched a rat-like critter hiding in the bush run across the path and across a fallen tree limb. I’m pretty sure it was actually just a white rat, so I still haven’t seen any marsupials or monotremes (the really fun stuff) this trip, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t adorable!

I made it to the spit and saw the bridge, then realized that I was now about 10km from the ferry, since the walk was only one-way, so I took the bus back to the ferry and made the crossing in darkness. No pics since it started drizzling. I might return to Manly when the weather’s a bit better, but it was still a nice walk and especially after all those days spent in the heart of the city.