The weather has improved slightly with only occasional showers. Today was our Sydney ferry day. We caught the train in the Blue Mountains and headed down to Parramatta to catch the river ferry to Circular Quay. With all the rain the water was rushing over the weir and there was evidence that the ferry terminal had been under water overnight. Buses were provided to take passengers downstream to the next ferry stop.

Parramatta Weir

The river ferry is a certainly a relaxing way to go into the city, you get to see many of the larger houses and a lot of the old industry and naval installations that used to be along the Parramatta river.

Parramatta RiverCat

The funniest thing was the ferry having to turn around to pick up some passengers. There were a number of stops where no people were waiting and the captain just slowing cruised past without stopping. At one particular stop there were several people standing towards the back of the jetty and as the ferry approached they made no move towards the front of the jetty so the captain slowly cruises in, still no movement so he guns the motors and heads back out into the river and you should have seen the frantic waving then. There were a number of choice words heard from the wheelhouse as the captain turned the ferry around and went back for them. The second last stop was at Darling Harbour and then under the Sydney Harbour bridge into Circular Quay.

Sydney Opera House

The next ferry was to Watsons Bay where the famous Doyle’s Fish restaurant is. This ferry crosses Sydney harbour pass the Garden Island naval base. We had lunch at the takeaway part of Doyle’s but they provide a covered area with a wood fire so it was quite a pleasant spot of lunch on a cold miserable Sydney day. We had an hour and a half at Watson’s Bay and it’s only a short walk to the ocean and the Gap, the rain had stopped so we enjoyed a walk to see the waves crashing into the infamous Gap. Then it was back on the ferry to Circular Quay for our next trip.

Manly Ferry

The ferry to Manly is a much bigger boat than the other Sydney ferries and this is because it crosses the gap between North and South Heads where it is open to the ocean swells. Today there was a good swell running so it as quite spectacular to watch the front end of the ferry disappear under water as it met the large swells.

Manly Ferry Crossing the Heads

We walked through Manly to the beach and had afternoon tea watching the surfers enjoying the large swells coming in. We had to pose for a photo outside of the Humphreys Newsagent, and then it was back on to the ferry for the ride back to Sydney.

It was dark by the time we were back at Circular Quay. From Circular Quay it was a train ride to Central Station then a dash across 10 platforms to catch the Blue Mountains train about a minute before it left.