"Manly Scenic Walkway" a Sydney Travel Page by martin_nl

On a beautiful Saturday in November we unexpectedly went on a walk. I did this walk with Richard and Brian, two guys I met in the hostel. Rich already did the walk a few times and said it was a great walk. Apparently this Manly Scenic Walkway is among the 10 most popular tracks of Australia.

You can start the track in Manly or at the Spit Bridge. I recommend you start at The Spit Bridge. To get there you have to take the bus from Wynyard Station to The Spit Bridge. Just ask the driver to let you out at the kayak centre. Already when you get out of the bus the scenery is beautiful. The kayak centre rents out fantastic kayaks. In the shop they sell lots of other outdoor stuff like waterbags and sealbags. Also drinks, but we decided to buy or rent nothing, but only filled up our water bottles with drinking water.

From the bus stop just walk over the Spit Bridge. Brian was investigating if he could jump of the bridge, but we said he'd better not and we joked some about fines. A few minutes later when we continued along the bridge, went under the bridge and started the track, and he took the first opportunity to jump into the water on his new flip flops anyway.

So when you start the walk you have to know the walk is about 10 km long, but it will not get boring at all. The scenery changes constantly. The walk wil probably take you around 3,5 hours if you keep on walking, but take in more time if you want to swim on one of the great beaches you will come across along the way.

On the way there are so many opportunities to take great shots. At the start of the track you will see many lizards. Just keep your eyes and ears open. You can hear them walking on the leaves everywhere and if you pay attention you will definitely see at least one. But most likely you will see more than one and ranging in sizes aswell.

In less than an hour will get to the first beach where you can take a swim. So take your swimgear with you! Remember that beacause of pollution you shouldn't swim in the harbour for 3 days after rainy days!!

You will probably not feel like continuing again, since it's so great there, but set yourself to it, because it will get even better!! Continue the route on the hills again and after a few minutes you will have another great opportunity. Get onto a big rock that hangs over the water (see pic 4) and take so many great shots. This is a great place to shoot a panorama picture of the whole bay.

After quite a walk again, you have almost arrived in Manly, but before that there's much more nice things to come. To start with you will have a great view over Port Jackson (or just the Sydney Harbour). You can see the two headlands and all the boats that sail through the harbour and go out into the open sea.

After the headlands view you can continue via the set track, but we took a little bit more fun way. We went of onto a nice and cosy beach and continued walking over the beach. From the beach we walked over rocks and quite often we had to jump from one rock to another. Great fun!!! If you have TEVA's or flip flops on your feet you can also walk some through the water to relax your feet a bit.

From now on it's just a short walk to Manly. I'd say just about 40 minutes. However you come to yet another very nice beach and a rockpool. So you might want to spend some more time hanging around on the beach.

When you get to Manly we needed some food, so we went to get some pies. These are little sort of rolls filled with meat or vegetables. I took one filled with beef satay. I had never eaten one, and never heard of these pies either. Brian and Richard were quite surprised about that and asked what i thought of it when I had finished mine. It was okay, but I like the french fries better. They thought that was impossible and that I should take another one some other time.

So we finished the pie and fries and decided to go for a beer. There is one fantastic place, right next to the Ferry Terminal. If you exit the Ferry Terminal building, go to your right and you can find the place on your right. There is a loungy atmosphere, with good interior decorations, a terrace outside and from the whole place you have a stunning view over the harbour. You can see the ferry arrive so you know when it's time to go. If you want to head back to Circular Quay try taking the ferry back between 7 and 8 pm. You can see a great sunset then.

So that was a great day. If you want to have some more infor just send me an e-mail. The Lonely Planet guide sayd the track is not too well signposted and at some points difficult to follow. Maybe it's true, but I can't be very objective about this since I walked along with someone who had already walked the track a few times. If this is going to be the first time you're doing this track, you might consider getting an information leaflet at Cadman's Cottage, a place in the Rocks.