Watsons Bay March 2

Still chilly today (20C) and it looked like rain; donned a jacket & took the train to the ferries. Lewis & Elsa have 2 more days on their more-expensive pass, which gives them access to Manly. So today, they explored Manly while we explored Watsons Bay. At Watsons Bay the 1st thing we see are fish eateries all named Doyle! (We thought of Mike ... Millie’s hubby!) We joined the cue for take-away fish & chips, sat at a table on the pier with Sydney & a marina of sail boats our backdrop. Can it get any better?
We followed the Harbour & Coastal Walks’ Guide and toured the 2.5 K circuit from the Wharf to South Head loop. We walked through the quaint streets of Watsons Bay to Camp Cove, a gorgeous swimming beach, before winding around the headland to Lady Bay (nude beach) and the lighthouse on the point. Sydney views are all along the walk with invigorating air on the headland. Sidebar: Lewis was told on his excursion that more suicides occur at Watsons’s lighthouse by leaping into the surf than at any other place in Sydney. Based on the rocks & surf, if you jump into the sea here, it is a one-way ticket! The lighthouse has the same colouring as Bonavista and the terrain looked like Marilyn’s area in Burin.
The houses are humble, charming and worth a fortune; cast-iron decorated gates & verandas, dormers, colourful hydranths, gardenia, orange jasmine & frangipani bushes adorn the gardens, and many had the look of a Newfie salt-box house. The 1872 black cannon sit pointing down-harbour to the Tasman Sea, where the view opens up to include Manly & the looming bulk of North Head. We walked through a patch of coastal banksias, tea trees & melaleucas to Lady Bay. This tiny golden crescent is a nudist beach. We were advised not to look if nudity bothers us! Needless to say I took a photo for Marilyn, tactfully captured the man’s back as he stepped along the rocky shore with a tree branch covering his rear! The headland track has remnants of pillboxes & fortifications dating from the Crimean War & WWII. Signage marks the 200+ years of shipwrecks bound for the safety of Sydney Harbour. There were noisy Rainbow Lorikeet and one lone Kookaburra on our stroll before returning to the foreshore promenade and the ferry wharf.
We caught the 2:50 ferry; arriving at Circular Quay at 3:10 just as the ferry from Manly was docking at Wharf 3 with Lewis & Elsa waving from the top deck. How’s that for timing? Tomorrow we will do the same excursions with the exchange of ferry passes ... we will fill you in on Manly tomorrow!