A Trip on the Harbour

One of my favourite trips whilst in Sydney is to take the Manly Ferry from Circular Quay, where Sydney was founded in 1788, to the beach-side suburb of Manly. Perhaps these photos will show why. The quay itself has office towers to the south and a string of apartment blocks to the east - I would really like to own one of those! And the second photo shows one of the many other ferry services which fan out all over the harbour from the terminal.

Just north of the apartment blocks is one of the world's most recognisable structures, the opera house, which has lost none of its magic over the years.

And then comes Fort Denison, which was part of the penal facilities of the original settlement before assuming a defensive role protecting the city from attack by marauding foreigners - not that it actually ever performed that role.

Nearby is Garden Island, the naval dockyard, though rather smaller than the equivalent I saw a couple of weeks before in Plymouth.

And, receding into the distance, Sydney's impressive sky-line.

The harbour is home a large number of marinas and other louder and faster water craft like this one designed to get its passengers wet.

And Manly is a pleasant place to amble around on almost any day. Even in mid-winter the temperature was 21 C, as warm as any day I recently experienced in mid-summer in south-west England. Of course, in summer Manly beaches would be crowded unlike this Saturday in winter. But even in winter there were people swimming and surfing because the sea temperature is still warmer now than the English Channel is in the northern summer. That's because the water off-shore is coming southwards from the warm Coral Sea.

Just as we started our return trip, the sky clouded over and the weather became threatening as a cold front approached from the south-west - in fact this weather event was to dump a lot of snow on the Snowy Mountains to the south-west. Here we are leaving the cove at Manly heading west and I loved the cloud-scape.

Perhaps this cloud-scape is even better! Fortunately, it didn't rain during our trip and we arrived back at our Adina apartment unscathed.

And what would be a trip on the harbour without a picture of the coat-hanger, to the top of which Max had climbed the day before - our present to him for his 10th birthday. That was a mere trot for him having done New Zealand's testing Kepler Track at Easter - a three day walk through the mountains of Fjordland on the South Island.

AS

Max's 10th

Beethoven, Schubert, and Mahler wrote 9 - or in the case of the last two 9.5 - symphonies, but Max has trumped them and written his 10th birthday. We celebrated the event by renting a two-bedroom apartment at the Adina on Crown Street close to Sydney's CBD and from there we went on various expeditions, including one a glorious, albeit hugely expensive, performance of the Lion King musical at the capitol theatre. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the three days we were there focusing on Max himself. He received a couple of smash toys, which were soon smashed and discarded.

And here he is being blown away as our Manly ferry headed into a stiff breeze.

... while in Manly itself it was nice and sunny and warm he and Maxi..mum posed for a photo on the esplanade.

A study of concentration on the ferry itself awaiting departure from Circular Quay.

Inspecting a rather impressive model railway layout at a toy-shop in the splendid Queen Victoria building.

Sipping a sugary drink at Uncle Dick's 80th birthday celebration at a rather nice restaurant at the boat club in Sans Souci (tr. Without a Care) in Sydney's south.

And a last photo taken at the Lion King. It's a pity I didn't take a picture of Max at his main event and, in its absence, I post a picture of me and Maximum posing with a Zulu warrior in the foyer. There was no danger to us from his weapon because he was fake - as stiff as a corpse.

AS

Saltash

I have often crossed the road bridge across the River Tamar, which separates Devon from Cornwall, but never ventured into the bustling town of Saltash itself. On this trip I eventually got to walk around the steep slopes descending to the banks of the river and found it very interesting. Again, have a look at the views. The first two show the two bridges in parallel, with Isambard Kingdom Brunel's famous railway construction on the right in the first photo and in front in the second.

And how's this for patriotism? By the way, that's Brunel standing in front of the building.

The Tamar at low tide.

And this looked a cute little old building, but closer inspection revealed its importance. Have a look at the inscription on the third of the photos!

And the railway station at Saltash in Cornwall looking east.

AS

The Garden House

Another of my destinations was the Garden House - a beautiful landscaped garden run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It's located near Buckland Monochorum west of Yelverton north of Plymouth. I've tried to find the meaning of Monchorum, which is an unusual name, and it appears to mean 'monk'. Unsurprisingly, Buckland Abbey is nearby!

The gardens was created around a former vicarage bought by a retired school teacher in 1945, so it's old as I am, but possibly a bit more attractive. These pictures give a good idea of its charms:

AS

Trerice

I love visiting National Trust properties whilst in south-west England and my short visit saw a quick trip from Plymouth to Trerice Manor at Kestle Mill near Newquay in Cornwall. Unlike Arlington reported earlier, this property was an elegant Elizabethan house constructed in the mid-16th century, though a previous building on the site was mentioned in the Doomsday book.

Alas Trerice had been allowed to fall into disrepair by absentee owners over a long period of time and the NT acquired the property both empty and  desperately needing TLC. This is still in train and only part of the house is accessible by visitors. The rooms that are open for inspection contain furnishings donated or lent by others. Still, it was a pleasant place to visit and savour its history.

AS