Watsons Bay

Another one of Sydney’s great beaches is Watson’s Bay.  We arrived via ferry in Watson’ Bay with a small group of senior citizens who headed straight for the infamous Doyles Restaurant.  Dave and I chose to take a hike that included some spectacular coastline views of both the harbor and the Pacific Ocean.

Every trip to Sydney requires a few trip via ferry to some of Sydney’s best beaches.

The harbor views from the ferry couldn’t be more fantastic.

Manly Beach rates among the best of what Sydney has to offer.  Consider Manly for surfing, walking, dining or shopping.

Evenings in Sydney hold endless choices.

A couple of things say “Australia”….koalas, kangaroos and the Sydney Opera House.  Our day included it all.  We started out with an early departure from the Shangri La Sydney with our destination being the Blue Mountains.

Our first stop for refreshments and viewing was the Featherdale Wildlife Park.  The park brimmed over with koalas, kangaroos, dingos, wombats and a wide variety of birds.

                                                                 unique albino kangaroo

Dingo pup

The drive to  the Blue Mountains was beautiful and our driver Matt was a wealth of information.  Being chaufferred in a small vehicle allows opportunity for talking with the driver about a multitude of subjects.

  A trip to the Blue Mountains included cable car and train, mountains and rain forest.

Our day ended with a tour of and dinner at the Sydney Opera House.  Sydney takes great pride in the fact that the Opera House is recognized by billions of people throughout the world.  I consider the private tour and dinner at the Sydney Opera House to be one of those once in a lifetime opportunities.

Today encompassed a journey out of Sydney north through some of the North Shore suburbs into Ku-rign-gai National Park.  The photo is a view over Broken Bay.

After a walk along a path through the park we had a wonderful full blown Aussie BBQ.

After lunch we traveled to North Head passing through some of the many beaches including Avalon and Manly.

The view of Sydney from North Head was amazing.

G’day from the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge-note the Sydney Opera House waaaaay below in the distance (left side).  That’s me on the right in the very attractive jumpsuit!

One great day leads to another.  Yesterday it was Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.  Today it is Sydney and a once in a life time climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We were amazingly lucky as it has been raining in Sydney for days.  We woke to clear blue skies which made for a perfect day to climb to the top of the bridge.  The folks that manage the bridge climb are superb at their jobs.  Their efficiency is amazing.  I climbed with a group of about 10 people.  Our guide Nick was a wealth of information and  managed to disperse the information with a great sense of humor.

For more information about the Sydney Harbour bridge climb check out this website     http://http://www.sydneyrocks.org/sydney-harbour-bridge/

It’s our day to depart Queensland and the area of the Great Barrier Reef.

almost sunset from Thala Beach Resort

As typical of travel days that include flights, it has been a relatively unproductive day.  Though as a dedicated travel agent, I made sure that we filled our short day with important “stuff”.  We made a stop at “Trinity Beach” and had lunch.  Another ho hum perfect beach.  Then a stop to view  Kewarra Beach…of course the beach is beautiful.  Our favorite of these beaches just north of Cairns and considerably south of Port Douglas is  “Palm Cove Beach”.  Palm Cove seems to have it all…beautiful beach with nice hotels, apartments, restaurants and shops…all within arms reach.

Palm Cove beach                                  looking out from Palm Cove beach

I had a slight panic attack in Sydney when my luggage did not arrive with our flight.  I placed a missing luggage report with Virgin Blue and proceeded to the hotel. Good news for me the luggage was found and delivered to our hotel around midnight.