Familar Territory in an Unfamilar Way

March 10th

As much as I like to think of myself as a New Yorker, a lover of the concrete jungle and the hustle and bustle of the city, it is nice to get away from it all for a bit.. I went about as far away from New York as possible when I went over to Manly Beach on my last day in Sydney. Sydney is very much a water town and one of the best ways to get around the city is by using the ferries. I took on ferry to a beach called Manly Beach. It is about a half hour ferry ride from the center of Sydney. We went right by the Sydney Opera House and up the coast. The area was lined with houses and sail boats. It felt great to be on the water again and to breathe in the sea air and have it blowing in my hair.

The plan was to take a swim or even a little snorkel but the main thing I was hoping to do was to try surfing. Even though I am a born and raised California girl, and yes I have tried numerous different water sports, I have never tried surfing. Being in Australia and on Manly Beach seemed like the perfect opportunity to try.

I timed it just right and had a semi private lesson with a lovely man named Rob who had been born and raised on surfing a few beaches up from where he taught me and a couple from Holland. We had a brief introduction on how to paddle and how to get through the waves. He also did a great explanation of how rip tides work and how we were going to use it to our advantage to get out into the surf. In no time we were out in the water. It was tiring work. It is one thing to swim in the ocean it is completely different to try and do it while on a large surf board.

We all got out and then it was time to try and stand up. I am sure at some point it becomes second nature to get up and surf but dang there is a lot to remember. It was a lot of fun and I am glad that I did it but at the end of the day I realized I am not a good surfer at all. In fact I sucked at it. I was able to get up on to my knees but that was about as high as I got. The surf and the rip was pretty bad and I got beat up a bit but all in good fun. I even got to experience my first animal encounter with the blue bottled jellies that were floating in the water. Not the most venomous of the jellies but not fun when they sting you and wrap their tentacles around your arms and feet. They stung for a bit but did not deter from my fun of the day. Still, I was very much ready for some good fish and chips when I was done with the lesson.

After the lesson I wanted to get a T-shirt. They were a bit more than I wanted to pay especially when they didn’t have my size. The place that was the surf schools base of operations looked like a gutted out garage full of old surfboards, it looked like it had never been cleaned. In the back were two men who were watching a surf competition streamed live on their flat screen monitor and high speed internet connection. I guess they have their priorities. I asked them about the T-shirt and they were kind enough to mark down the price for me. When I went to pay for the shirt they guys were so engrossed in the competition that they wanted to wait until the set was done before giving me my change. They had me sit and watch the last bit of the set with them. It turned out a good friend of theirs was in the water and not doing as well as they would have liked but in his defense he was against one of the best surfers in the world.

I headed back to Sydney and met up with Angela for a dusk walk through the botanical gardens. It is a pretty impressive place they have. The nice thing is, it is free so there were a lot of runners and picnicker taking advantage of the great weather. We took a look at the bats, which technically were not bats but flying foxes. (Actually according to Laura they are bats but not the bats that you would find in North America.) They were just starting to wake up and go hunting. There were a truck load of them and kinda ugly (but I don’t think Laura would agree with me on that one). We had a lovely meal at a local pub in the area before heading back home. As we were walking back to her place we were able to see the Southern Cross. I had not realized until then how long it had been since I had seen stars. It was great to see them and ones that I would only see in the Southern Hemisphere. Even as much as I love New York and looking forward to getting back I am enjoying the new experiences I am having here.
Tomorrow it is off to see Laura and getting closer to the Great Barrier Reef and diving!