Day 94 – Reunion

Since ending the Inka trail I’d kept in contact with our fellow trekker, Catherine. Today she was going to be in Sydney for a few hours before her flight back to Darwin and we’d arranged to meet for lunch.

To get into the city we took the ferry. As we rounded the headland I got my first glimpse of the inner harbour, the bridge and the Opera House. It was all a bit surreal, like going somewhere you already knew but had never been to. Tom looked shocked when I said I thought the Opera House was smaller then I’d imagined.

We met Catherine at Circular Quay and went for lunch to catchup. The restaurant was near the bridge and the rooftop eating area had a superb view back over the harbour.

From the restaurant we ticked off another tower by going up the AMP tower. Its a shame they built it behind some building which block the view the Opera House. It does however provide a place to view the scale of the harbour which is expansive. The coastline has many fingers which provided any number of natural mooring spots and there are more boats here than anywhere I’ve seen before.

Leaving the heart of the city we crossed into Darling Harbour of a coffee. Although only 10 minutes away it feels like a totally separate district, with its bars, cafes and water features. We sat there for some time chatting and soaking up the city before heading back through China Town.

After saying goodbye to Catherine we met Tom’s sister at Circular Quay and got the ferry back to Manly. The wind had picked up so we ended up sitting inside. Back on land tom and I went for a run up to North Head. Seeing the rugged cliffs that channel the sea into the harbour I was reminded of images I’d seen of the straights of Gibraltar. The end of the run was stunning, following paths along the headland and through small beaches where people were having barbeques.