By Betsy and Rob

After day one here was centered around fixing “Toothgate 2025”, we were delighted to be able to spend the past two days enjoying some of the wonder that is Sydney. Our brief stop here a few weeks ago had us on an opera house tour and Circular Quay walk (down by the harbor), so this week we are expanding our Sydney exploration to other parts of the city.

Sydney is a large metropolitan city with over 5.5 million people. It is also very international with over 40% of the population being foreign born (with less than 1% from the US). We feel right at home coming from Atlanta and love the vibrancy of the city, the varied offerings for food and entertainment, and the many options to get around (Sydney has a much better transit system than Atlanta). We are fortunate to like city life, the mountains, beaches, and the many options in between. In the end, we get antsy for a big city if we spend too much time in any one area.

Saturday November 22, 2025

Betsy: On Saturday I went to get my hair done for the first time since we left, and lucked in to a wonderful salon that I was really happy with. Given the American dollar exchange rate (favorable for us), it was also less expensive than back home 😃. Rob frolicked off to explore the Darling Harbor (isn’t that the cutest name?!) area while I was busy and I explored George street and the shopping areas there after my haircut, and we reunited for dinner in the Harbor.

In my explorations, I found out we were literally around the corner from the City Market building (Hay Street Market), which contains about 50 upscale international food stalls (a lot more than the Cairns market we went to previously), and we went back there on Sunday for lunch. They had live entertainment and it was a fun and beautiful setting!

After my haircut I headed to (one of the many) shopping areas to get a long sleeve shirt or two in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Tasmania. I’m still wrapping my head around the Southern Hemisphere concept that going south means colder weather! Almost all of our travel to date has been in hot climates, so I am woefully unprepared. Because we committed to very light packing this trip, acquiring anything new means getting rid of something already in the suitcase. Lucky for me that at this point, I’ve seen enough of my same four shirts that I would gladly throw them off the Sydney Bridge. 😬 With a ton of places to choose from here, it has not been any problem finding whatever we need.

We saw some cool buildings and sights as Sydney prepares for a hot Christmas down under. This is another aspect of growing up in FL that feels very familiar to me- a hot Christmas!

Rob: I’ve decided to not get my hair cut until we are done traveling 😀 (I’m bringing back my 1970s hair!). However, after not shaving for the week that we had the camper van, Betsy is pleased that I have at least started to shave again.

I spent my Saturday wandering from our condo in Chinatown to Darling Harbour. It was a nice walk and there were so many people out on the streets and in the parks. I passed a couple of big events, including a festival and this parade; see video below.

I had my sights on a sports bar to try and catch some football and ended up at 24/7 Sports in The Star Hotel and Casino. They billed themselves as the ultimate sports pub with 50 TVs. Well, they had a lot of TVs, some showing cricket, but most of the attention was on the special event they were hosting – an arm wrestling competition (although I didn’t see Sylvester Stallone anywhere). It was . . . interesting.

We reunited at Darling Harbor for dinner and the Saturday night fireworks show!

Sunday, November 23

It’s Manly Beach day! In true LeBeau fashion, we overslept so our beach day “started” after lunch, which is just how it used to be for us when we lived in Orlando and would drive to Cocoa Beach on weekends, somehow never arriving until 1:00 or 2:00, despite our efforts. The good thing about late arrivals, we’ve learned, is that many people are leaving by the time we get there, so we often have no trouble getting parking or a good spot on the beach. Of course in this case, Sydney’s big beaches require a longer drive or ferry ride from the area of the city where we are.

Manly Beach

Sitting northeast of Sydney Harbor, and with transportation available by ferry or bus, Manly Beach is a popular day spot for tourists and locals alike. When we asked Sidneysiders (for real, they call themselves this!) on our cruise what they would recommend we do while in Sydney, every single one independently answered “Manly and/or Bondi Beach”. Of course, it is easy to see why. Beautiful sandy beaches, snorkel and swim spots, surfing waves, a carved out rock pool, a walkway along the beach to other beaches, and general beach vibe… such fun! The weather was in the low 80s and sunny today with a cool breeze, so it was a gorgeous beach day, and the ferry ride over was really nice for city views.

Manly Beach was named by Captain Arthur Phillip after observing the “manly” behavior of the indigenous Guringai people who lived there. All of the “Manly_____” (fill in the blank) signs made me laugh, so of course we had to take advantage.

We spent some time watching the surfers and relaxing in the sun. As with the rest of Australia’s beaches we have experienced, they are very particular about where you can swim here. This beach has terrible rip currents, so swimming is only advised in certain sections. Surfers were allowed in all areas, however 😳. The beach is separated off from the town by stone steps for the length of the beach, so it was interesting to note that there were many people just sitting along the stairs overlooking the beach but not actually on the beach sand (you can see if you zoom in on the last two photos below).

From Manly Beach we took the beachside walkway down to the thoughtfully-named Shelly Beach 😂. The paved walking path affords great views, has lush vegetation, and even has cute sculpture artwork embedded into the rocks along the paths.

Our favorite stop along the path was the Fairy Bower Pool. This was another saltwater pool carved into the rocks along the cliffs of the beach (similar to the Bogey Hole in Newcastle, except NOT made by forced prison labor). We made a brief swim stop to enjoy the cold water before finishing our trip up and down the path.

The town area around Manly Beach also has a great feel to it, and is full of cute shops and restaurants.

We ended our night with a tasting paddle and dinner at a local brewery (surprise!) before taking the ferry back to our condo. It was a fantastic (and Manly!) day.

This door dash delivery has sat in the front entry of our condo building for two days so far… somebody is probably getting pretty hangry by now?? Will keep you posted on the status of mystery dinner.

Thanks for adventuring with us!