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Australia - Manly
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One of the main annual attractions in Manly is the Jazz Festival, which takes place during the first weekend in October. The entire town centre is descended upon by thousands of jazz fans for what is supposedly one of the best jazz festivals in the world. Normally, we aren't big listeners of jazz music so this festival could have gone one of two ways; either we would be converted to the wonders of the genre, or we would be wearing ear plugs for the next three days!
The centre of Manly has five stages erected for the duration of the festival, and various acts perform there from midday to around 6 o'clock in the evening. The corso (the main pedestrianised street running through Manly) is the focus of the festival and normally houses three of the stages. We say normally because this year it was different. The corso had been under construction for a major revamp for the previous few months and was scheduled to be complete in time for the Jazz Festival. It wasn't. Despite a last gasp, 24/7 push to complete it in time it was still far from ready. This meant that one of the stages was moved to the street directly outside our building.
We soon found out that the acoustics of our building and surrounding enclosed streets were perfect for enhancing the sound coming from the stage below. We also soon found out that try as we might, we are not and never will be, jazz fans. We wandered around the various stages during the weekend and listened to different types of jazz, from modern funk to alternative and blues - nothing blew our trumpet!
For us the most interesting part of the festival weekend was the market, which took place along the esplanade and displayed a large array of local arts and crafts. The whole esplanade and beach was packed with visitors for the entire long weekend (PICS), mainly because of the jazz festival but also because the weather was brilliant for the whole duration of the festival - not like bank holiday weekends in the UK when you can almost guarantee rain to coincide with the holiday.
A few days after the jazz festival came a far better reason for celebration, Andrew's Birthday. However, with the main reason for our extended stay in Manly being to save money for the next leg of our journey we decided not to go "all out" with the celebrations, and not to bother buying any presents that we would have to carry around with us.
We decided to take another trip to Taronga Zoo, firstly because we now had our camera back from Sony UK and could take as many pictures as we wanted, and secondly as it was Taronga Zoo's 90th Birthday this year so Andrew could get admission to the zoo for 90c on his birthday - bargain!
The day began as all good days should - with a lay in! After a lazy start to the morning we had breakfast at the café at the bottom of our apartment block and then jumped into the van to drive the 15-minute journey to Taronga.
Our first stop was the koalas, and we hoped that the furry little creatures would be as lively as the last time we visited - sadly at the time they seemed to be a little on the sleepy side (PIC).
Deciding to return later when the koalas might be a bit more energetic, we headed for the giraffes and one of the most impressive and iconic views in Sydney (PIC).
The giraffes were being particularly mischievous and seemed to have a strange urge to stick out their huge black tongues whenever we pointed the camera at them (PIC).
We made a concerted effort to get our timing right to take in the seal show, something which we missed during our last visit as it fills up so quickly, at least 15 minutes before the start. Even getting there early this time, we still had to stand outside the theatre and watch from the very back. It was worth the effort though as we were surprised at how intelligent and endearing the seals were, and the tricks that they perform (PIC) - if they want to! One seal was being a bit of a prima donna and would only do the tricks she wanted before diving back into the water and splashing around for a while.
Gorillas, chimps, a pygmy hippo and a couple of very sleepy bears (PIC) followed until we came across some of the cutest critters alive! The Meerkats! These cheeky little creatures looked so human in their mannerisms and have characters all of their own; some spent their time foraging, some kept a look-out and others were simply content with sitting on their furry rears and surveying their kingdom (PICS).
After a spot of lunch (we were surprised that people did not crowd around to watch this feeding time (PIC)), we took a walk over to the Yaks and Barbary sheep, another enclosure that boasts impressive views over the city (PICS).
Our final stop was the Koala enclosure and feeding talk (PICS). This is where the koalas stay awake for a while in order to get their daily supply of fresh eucalyptus leaves. The star attraction was the mother and joey (PICS), who were extremely cute - it was just a shame we couldn't grab them and cuddle them!!
Back in Manly we picked up Andrews birthday cake (hand made with our personal selection of ice-cream and mix-ins by Cold Rock ice cream parlour) (PICS) and enjoyed a massive slice back at the flat surrounded by the decorations that Verdi had set up that morning. We spent the evening at Warringah Mall, wandering around the shops and then taking in a movie at the cinema.
The following weekend we met up with Lynne and Paul in Manly to continue the birthday celebrations, and went to the Bavarian Beer Café at Manly Wharf (PICS) where we tucked into some top-notch food and a few 'soft drinks' before returning to our flat and polishing off a few more beverages.
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