"Sydney VT Visitors - Chris (c ..." a Sydney Travel Page by aussiedoug

Here we are the Gap, a notorious spot in Sydney for suicides & a couple of supposed suicides that might have been murder.

But hey with that blue sky, blue Pacific Ocean & with comfortably filled bellies after a lovely lunch at the Watson's Bay Hotel which followed a delightful trip by ferry on gorgeous Sydney Harbour, then those dark things couldn't have been further from our minds.

Here we have from left as you look at it to right. Chris (cjg1) from New York, specifically Brooklyn, Me - Doug (aussedoug), Helen (hailun), Amy (amyhenderson) & laughingsun69 (Dave). Dave, Amy, Helen & I are the Sydneysiders. I imagine Chris & Eric will be putting this same photo up as I gave each of them a CD with some piccies each.

This spot is less than a 5 minute walk uphill from where we had our lunch as mentioned above which was a mere 30 seconds walk from where the ferry landed us.

This was a first for me to have lunch at Watson's Bay and I can assure you my fellow VTers that it will definitely not be the last. What an absolute gem is Watson's Bay for all people from toddlers to whatever age. Something for everyone with a truly magnificent view of the city skyline back across the Harbour.

Following on from what I said above re the view, here it is!

Took this one just after we finished lunch and started our 5 minute walk up to the Gap. This is in a park right next to the Watson's Bay Hotel.

It's a beautiful view isn't it! And it's not a rhetorical question at all. Feel free to leave me an answer or opinion. It certainly backs up what I've been saying about Sydney - the city of water and trees.

As none of my family came to the footie that day I was able to take Eric & Chris. With one sitting either side of me for parts of the game I endeavoured to explain some of it to them. Mind you I'm no expert. They had the opportunity to have a few beers and that may well have enhanced the experience for them, although it may not have made the footie any easier to understand. lol!

After the footy we had an anjoyable dinner at "Cine" an Italian restaurant in Fox Studios which is right next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the homeground of the Sydney Swans AFL team.

Monday morning I picked the guys up at their hotel & we headed off to Manly so they could see the beach. The plan was to then head north & show them so of our really beautiful northern beaches like Avalon, Bilgola, Whale Beach & Palm Beach, but there wasn't enough time.

So we did the walk around from South Steyne (the southern end of Many beach) to Shelley Beach & up to Fairy Bower. See the next photo for a piccie of that from back where we had lunch at the Steyne Hotel upstairs & outside.

This piccie is about a third of the way round to Shelle Beach & Fairy Bower.

So there's where we walked to. On the top olf that headland.

Shelley Beach is that strip of sand you can see in the middle. Very pretty spot with an expensive restaurant by the name of Le Kiosk which has an adjoining cheaper take-away & sit down eating place attached. Thought we'd have a cool beer before walking back, but we had to buy food with it so decided to wait until we got back to Manly beachfront.

Fairy Bower is the headland. You can see a little bit of white water on the left at the bottom of the headland. That dear reader is a very well known big wave spot when the swell is up. Can be quite a hairy ride too. I lived in Manly for a while quite some years back & saw it pumping at 12-15 feet on a few occasions. Not a place for the faint hearted surfer!