We were all up early on Boxing day morning to go and watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race. It was a beautiful sunny day and it seemed that everyone else had the same idea as us, so there were crowds of people trying to get the best vantage point on the route from the harbour to the open sea.
Rather than go with the crowds to the headland, we decided to get our own prime viewing point in the world famous Doyles Fish Restaurant at Watsons Bay. From our dinner table we saw the flotilla of yachts leave the harbour with dozens of boats and helicopters in tow. Two fish courses and a bottle of local Sauvignon Blanc later, we wandered up to the headland to see the views across the bay after the crowds and yachts had left!
As usual with us our trips everything seems to revolve around where and what we eat! On Friday evening we found a great Brazilian Restaurant above north Bondi beach, which was not licensed, so it was BYO (bring your own) so we took 3 bottles of wine & enjoyed great food.Last night we had a Bondi Flying Pizza experience at the north end of the beach there is an Italian restaurant of note, we had tried to get in a couple of nights ago but there was a 3 hour wait (no bookings taken) so me n Liz arrived at 6pm to get an early table, we still had to wait 1 1/2 hours, Carmel joined us at 7.30 just in time to get the table (we were 3 G&T’s ahead of her by this stage) unlike the Flying pizza we could stand outside in the sunshine whilst we waited for our table.
We had been snorkelling during the day, we met up with Carmel and 3 of her friends very early in the morning and did the cliff top walk to Bronte beach, had breakfast and walked to the next bay (Clovelly) where there was an area for snorkelling. En route to this beach Carmel’s housemate Ruth took us to see her family tomb in the cliff top cemetery. Where there are generations of her family buried and where she will be too!
We spent today wandering around an area in the Harbour called ‘The Rocks’. There are loads of hilly winding streets with wonderful old buildings and markets and a great atmosphere but even more impressive are the real ale pubs here. We had lunch in the The Australian Hotel (which means pub), Keith had Kangaroo pie, Liz had kangaroo pizza and Carmel had Kangaroo salad!!! Bouncing!
This week Keith will be mostly buying new shoes, ok (I brought the wrong shoes with me), my old flip flops from Corfu (which are called thongs over here) slide off my feet more times than they are on them, so in a moment of stubborn independence I decided to go off on my own and buy some more. I soon realised that the pair I had bought were too tight across my toes and within 200 metres I had rubbed the top of my feet raw! Not wanting to admit that I had made a mistake in buying the wrong size, I insisted they would wear in. So the following day in protest at Liz’s best advice about what shoes to buy, I walked mainly barefoot & blistered the soles of my feet instead. (And he went and bought a second pair of ill fitting shoes!!)Today I bought some quality walking sandals (third time lucky!), and now everything is right with the world again!
We are flying with Singapore airlines from Manchester, leaving on the morning of Thursday 20th Dec at 10am and arriving in Sydney on Friday 21st in the evening at 8pm. We have both got our groovy flight socks, our blow up travel pillows and travel tooth brushes, so we are prepared for anything!!
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