We were awake just before 6am - not to see the ship enter Sydney as that had already occurred about 1hr earlier - we had to be separately immigrated as we were taking bags off the ship and leaving them with friends in Sydney to collect later. We lugged our big suitcase and bulky hold-all (along with our day bags) to reception at 6:30am where we were escorted more or less all the way back to where we came to the Meridian restaurant on level 3. There our bags were rifled thru and we had our paperwork signed and stamped. We said that we were going off the ship now but would be back in the afternoon to take the bags off and were told to just take the bags off when we are ready but keep then in our cabin till then. Seemed very odd to us.
Anyway, disembarkation happened early but of course P&O comms are crap as one senior lady sent us down to go off only for another lady to say we should not be there so we were stuck for about 10minutes in no man’s land until the first lady arrived and sorted it all out.
Still, after all this, we had caught a bus to Bondi beach and were there by 8am which was well before we had planned to be. We had a nice breakfast in a cafe by the beach and watched the beautiful people go by - we were really out of place as it was either Baywatch types or loads of families enrolling their very young children to be conditioned as Baywatch types.
Mark paddled (big waves, very cold water and not a fish in sight) and then we wondered around the shops which had by now opened. We also took more pics.
We then went to Bondi beach Market as Pam loves a good craft market. It was in the grounds of a children’s primary school so the trip to the toilet was a challenge with everything being smaller and so low down. Pam loved the market and there were probably over 50 stalls plus food ones and live music. Pam picked up some ear-rings (she was under strict instructions to remember baggage size and allowance and transportation of goods rules before any purchases so her purchases were very much on the safe size).
On the bus back we got off at a suburb called Paddington. Known to the locals as Paddo. We split up as Pam went browsing round the local hip stores (she wasn’t that impressed) and Mark walked 20 mins off to the famous Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). There was a tournament going on and he saw 3 Pakistan and 2 Sri Lanka internationals but they were not well known and nowhere near Stuart Broad league - he finished off New Zealand in the 1st test yesterday. It must have been meeting me that did it. Anyway, it was hard to get pictures so this was the best Mark managed.
Then it was back to the ship to get the luggage. Getting it off the ship was cumbersome but we managed it and was doing well until we got to security as the woman there had never seen our stamped & signed form before in her life and after 10mins trying to find people on what to do she ended up repeating the same procedure that happened at 6:30am. Not her fault but we both felt that we had been robbed of a lie in and had incurred a lot of hassle earlier.
We slowly navigated the hefty suitcase plus hold-all plus 2 rucksacks about 800m onto the ferry to Manly. It was lovely seeing the sights in the daylight whilst speeding along the water. Here are a couple of pics.
In Manly, we met Mark’s friends Nick and Eric who took our bags for us and dropped them off in their car. We then walked through town to some cafes alongside the main beach for a drink and catch up. Mark has been in contact with them for years but had not seen either in person for about 10 years or more. This has been a trip of reunions.
Next up was a swim / paddle in the sea. Definitely warmer than Bondi but not as warm as Jamaica. However, Manly wins the swim with biggest fishes on the shoreline competition overtaking the previous leader (Huatulco, Mexico). Mark is obsessed with being amongst fishes on the beach which is surprisingly as he can barely swim.
After some gorgeous ice-creams and more chatting we were treated to dinner in a lovely seafood restaurant on the wharf. Nick’s wife and 3 children joined us and the conversation was so relaxed and lovely and friendly that it felt like we had known each other for ages.
At 9pm we left our friends and caught the ferry back with a lovely show by over 50 seagulls flying alongside the ship and being blown around - it seemed to be some seagull endurance test as at the end only 3 seagulls made it. At the end we also got to see the Sydney sights lit up at night.
We got back on board, made a couple of calls, took a few more pics and crashed. An absolutely fantastic day.
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