I figured I should go to a beach at some point and see the Pacific
Ocean. I wasn't really intrested in going in the water. I decided
to take an excursion to Manly Beach on the northeast side of Sydney
(the other option was Bondi Beach to the south, which is the primary
surfer beach. I figured I'd try something different. I took the
water ferry to Manly, walked by the beach, explored the town a little,
and then headed back. The sun was pretty strong and pretty angry that
day, and I didn't want to risk really pissing it off.
Saturday, October 13, 2024.
001-DSC_9165-header: A Trip Across Sydney Harbor to Manly Beach
001-DSC_9165-headertext:
As usual, going places often requires crossing Sydney Harbour, which involves a water ferry. This trip was about 20 minutes, longer than average. Unlike the previous day, the weather was nice, the sky was blue, and the sun was raging in the key of UV. The entrance to the harbor reminds me of the Gates of Argonath or the Pillars of Kings at the entrance to Gondor from the Lord of the Rings movies, except there weren't any monuments carved into the two sides of the cliffs, we weren't on a river, and we were in the harbor looking outward. But you get the gist (maybe). 001-DSC_9165: 002-DSC_9166: The Sydney Opera House (with Packer's Pecker in the distance). 003-DSC_9167: The Sydney Harbour Bridge. 004-DSC_9168: The Sydney Harbour Bridge. 005-PMs_House_Panorama1: Admiralty House, the residence of the governor-general (the federal representative of the monarch of Australia), that is across the harbor from the opera house. 006-DSC_9171: Departing from Circular Quay. 007-DSC_9172: A nice, sunny day picture of the Sydney Opera Hosue. 008-DSC_9173: Another harbor ferry with a miliary ship behind the sail boats. 009-DSC_9174: Sailboats out on the harbor enjoying the nice day. 010-DSC_9175: 011-DSC_9176: A sailboat catchign the wind in front of our ferry on Sydney Harbor. 012-DSC_9177: The mouth of the Sydney Harbor (reminscient of Argonath minus statues). 013-DSC_9179: Sailboats with colorful spinnaker sails on Sydney Harbor. 014-DSC_9181: The south end of the mouth of the Sydney harbor. 015-DSC_9182: Approaching Manly Wharf (as opposed to the manly Klingon, Worf, from Star Trek). 016-DSC_9183-header: A Manly Beach 016-DSC_9183-headertext:
While there, I kept thinking about how goofy of a name Manly Beach,
and the town Manly sounded, like some sort of macho, burly, he-man,
women-haters place. Of course, that's kind of my absurd imagination
and I figured I'd get the real scoop of what early seafarer or town
council member with a last name of Manly "discovered" the
area and in fact his name was Welsh or Dutch or something which just
mean "man" or something like that.
And so I looked up
Manly Beach which, under the "Etymology" section, states:
The beach was named by Capt. Arthur Phillip for the indigenous people living there. He wrote, "Their confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place".
So I was wrong about being wrong, and the place really is as manly as its name suggests. There were some surfers surfing, but the waves weren't that high, so I didn't get great pictures of surfers being dwarfed by giant waves. 016-DSC_9183: Manly Beach looking north; men playing a manly game of volleyball (women too). 017-DSC_9184: Manly Beach looknig south. 018-DSC_9185: Lifeguards practicing a water rescue (in a manly way). 019-DSC_9186: Lifeguards lauching the boat into the surf to practice a rescue. 020-DSC_9187: The floating object right of the boat is the target of the rescue practice. 021-DSC_9188: Surfs up at Manly Beach (what's more manly than that?). 022-DSC_9189: Manly surfers at Manly Beach. 023-DSC_9190: A surfer at Manly Beach. 024-DSC_9191: A wave breaks on the rocks by Manly Beach. 025-DSC_9192: Wave breaking on the rocks at Manly Beach. 026-DSC_9193: 027-DSC_9196: The volunteer rescue squad at Manly Beach. Note he's pointing waterward. 028-DSC_9197-header: A Manly Neightborhood 028-DSC_9197-headertext:After the beach, I took the long way back via some neighborhood streets and took a few pictures of all the manly things I saw in Manly. Each tim I saw a Manly sign, it amused me. 028-DSC_9197: I liked how inclusive the sign was with the pedestrian activity. 029-DSC_9199: The Manly Lagoon, a pretty area. 030-DSC_9200: I like how the sign has a detailed cartoon depiction of the dog pooping. 031-DSC_9202: In the game of manly croquet, you hit the players' balls with your mallet. 032-DSC_9203: I liked the look of the flowers on this plant. 033-DSC_9204: 034-DSC_9206: The Manly way (via chalk): Boys here, girls there. Rules are rules. 035-DSC_9207: This sounds like a '60s era computer store. But it's very manly! 036-DSC_9208: How are legal matters settled here? In the most manly way: Arm wrestling! Bottom: