Through the Wormhole!

The Manly Wormhole.What's that all about?

Turns out it's a tunnel through the headland between Queenscliff and Freshwater beaches. It was built by rock fishermen to access their favoured fishing spots.

 

You pass the ocean pool, and head across the rocks towards the pink love heart.

 

 

 

And there it is!

Out the other side, turn left, and make your way along another series of rock  ledges.

 

 

 

And through the Wormhole is Freshwater Beach (aka Harbord Beach).

The good old Spit-to-Manly walk

It works every time. You've got an overseas or interstate visitor. You need an easy but scenic little bushwalk to show off Sydney Harbour in all its glory. The Spit-to-Manly is a very safe first choice.

It's capped off by the ferry ride back to Circular Quay at the end.

North Head & South Head

North Head (and Manly to its left), viewed from South Head.

New views of North Head's old stuff

We've all been to North Head, driven out to the lookouts for the spectacular views across to South Head or up the Harbour. Or we might have strolled up by foot from Manly via Shelly Beach, and through that hole in the wall.

Well I've only recently discovered that the experience is now far richer than that. There's now a North Head Sanctuary, there's open public access to lots of historic treasures, and there's a big network of new walking tracks, lookouts, and information centres.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was part of a bushwalking group that did a 13km circuitous 'circuit' around the peninsula, and I was astonished at all the new stuff I got to see. I hadn't bothered to switch on my GPS tracker. Thought I'd have no trouble locating our route afterwards. But I became gloriously disoriented. That bugged me a lot, and so I just had to return a few days later, to explore it all a bit better, and to map  out my wanderings. I found myself going around in circles a couple of times, but eventually sorted it out, over what turned out to be a 17km course starting and finishing at Manly Wharf.

Among the highlights:

The old St Patricks seminary, now the International College of Management. The grounds of this fine old building are open to the public.

The Barracks Precinct, formerly the School  of Artillery, with its enormous parade ground.

The old Quarantine Cemetery, where 240 people are buried, presumably ones who never made it out of the Quarantine Station.


Then there's the Quarantine Station itself, with museum, and renovated or rebuilt accommodations for functions and things.



Here's the old Quarantine hospital, and its doctors' and nurses' quarters.

















There are very solid stone walls everywhere, dividing all the bits from each other.

There's Australia's Memorial Walkway, which 'honours those who have served and supported the defence of Australia in peace or in war'. And you get to explore the North Fort, and some of the old gun emplacements, which were part of the country's WW2 defences.

Below: the famous 'hole in the wall', and a very crowded Shelly Beach.

Mutiny on the marathon

The annual bushwalkers' marathon took place recently. This year I took them from Manly to St Leonards, via harbourside tracks, beaches, and the odd heritage-listed fortification.

The concept of the marathon walk is simple. You start early, finish late, and take only short breaks. By the end of the day you'll have walked 42.2km. It's as simple as that.

Actually the hard bit is keeping the group together and putting down rebellions. They're always very keen at the start, but towards the end, all kinds of excuses emerge for taking short cuts or creatively manipulating GPS distance measurements.

I was ready for some of the early drop-outs. Due notice had been given. But I was a bit disappointed when half the remaining walkers took an unauthorised shortcut to the pub at about the 40km mark! Fancy inviting their instant disqualifications like that, when so near the end!

Below is most of  the group at the 33km mark, at Luna Park. See if you can identify the soon-to-be mutineers among them!

Manly's minor beaches

I discovered a whole new 'Secrets of Sydney' experience the other day. Here's Collins Flat Beach.

I thought I knew the Manly area quite well, but somehow was completely unaware of the scenic footpath winding its way southward from the ferry terminal, past East Manly Cove Beach. It links several of Manly's less well known beaches, which I somehow thought I'd been to before, but in fact hadn't. Sydney's like that. There are so many of them!

Here's part of the walkway.

And a group having fun at Little Manly Beach.

I had a good view across to Store Beach too, but found that the walkway wouldn't get me to this one. I'll return one day soon and do the rock-hop along the foreshore. Apart from arriving on your own boat (as lots do), this seems to be how it needs to be done.






Lots of recreational fishing goes on around here. Watch your bag limits though. (And no excuse for not being informed about them.)

But I do think there's a good excuse for dozing off on a park bench, if your companion's only interested in his fishing.

Life's a beach

And if you live in Sydney's Northern Beaches area, you've got lots of beaches to choose from. There are 22 in fact in the stretch Palm Beach to Manly. I know because I counted them as I walked the 33km walk recently.

Here's the list:  Palm, Whale, Avalon, Bilgola, Newport, Bungan, Basin (aka Bongin Bongin Bay), Mona Vale, Warriewood, Turimetta, North Narabeen, Narabeen, Collaroy, Fishermans, Long Reef, Dee Why, North Curl Curl, Curl Curl, Freshwater, Queenscliff, North Steyne, Manly.

Manly Beach at sunset