Thinking Allowed: Sydney coastal trail part 2: Manly to circular quay

A little over a year ago when we were coming up with creative ways of having adventures within the limitations of Jakob's vertebra we settled on the Sydney coastal walk as a good goal. We started off with a three day walk from the top of palm beach in Sydney's northern beaches and ended in Manly. And then we left the country and other things happened. But we had really enjoyed our urban foray into the northern beaches of Sydney so have decided to slowly finish the rest of the quest which is the very long coastline and dozens of beaches that make up Sydney. The middle section of the coastal walk, Manly to Bondi, is one that has recently been rebranded, resigned and promoted in the hopes of one day rising to the status of the best urban walk in the world- rivaling the likes of cinque terre. Most people who have visited Sydney have heard of the Bondi to Coogee walk and I feel confident in saying that Manly to Bondi will be the key to separating the tourists from the adventurers. The two former politicians who have taken on this walk as their pet project have a nice story to tell. They led stressful urban political lives - you know the kind I am referring to - what with ties and pulsing veins and meetings on golf courses. As a way to destress they would take evening walks in the numerous urban coastal reserves. After years of this kind of stress reduction they realized that so much of the vast Sydney coastline was already trailed (80%) and it would only take a little bit of smooth talking (something they had) to connect the puzzle into a world renowned trail. And so here we are.

Being the keeners that we are, we had done about half of the Manly to circular quay portion before but as we liked it then, and for the sake of continuity, we did it all again. We had one full day of walking and two half days. My favorite portion was the first day walking along the coast from Manly to spit bridge (spit bridge to Balmoral was more urban). The headlands gave us incredible views of the entire harbour and we really felt like we were in the bush. Jakob told Tova a very long story (2-3 hours) that nearly had her peeing in her pants laughing. Tova fell flat on her face and bled all over her clothes. Zadie refused to walk and was carried the whole day. Aurora and I got soaked by a wave (tides were unusually high). The clouds were heavy and grey but we only mist and no rain and it was a good day.

The second day we walked from Balmoral to Reid park. Zadie was carried all day again and I learned that very long staircases with a four year old on your back while holding a conversation is a very good workout. We saw beaches, and views, passed by the zoo, memorials, aboriginal carvings and most important of all lots of playgrounds. This part of the coast is intestinal in its wanderings which meant that though we walked over a dozen kilometers my run back to fetch the car was less than 3 kilometers. We took an afternoon break where some of us got to rest their bones and others of us went for a bonus walk to Wendy Whiteley's secret garden which felt like the exact right spot to go for a fancy picnic with a lover but second best was eating yogurt in the lush gardens with my daughter. That evening we did the final portion of the walk so we could walk the harbour bridge in the dark. We bought British lollies and ate them as we traversed the iconic but loud bridge and looked at the harbour all lit up.

The final day we did the last section from Reid park to the harbour bridge before piling back into the car to drive back to Canberra. The sun was shining bright for our last day and Tova regretted not bringing a bathing suit. Jakob managed to convince Zadie that his stories were worth walking for and so she walked the last few kilometers. We saw more playgrounds causing Tova to proclaim that urban walks were the way to go. We played with puppies in the dog parks, gawked at the size of the houses and stared at the now looming opera house. And then we were at the end and the children all wanted to keep going. But we went home and they looked glum all the next day so we will be back soon to continue the walk.