Spit Bridge to Manly Walk

Well, I have rediscovered one of my blisses in life - bushwalking. I love, love, love it! When I haven't done it for a while and come back to it, I remember my passion for it but it often gets lost in the day to day family life. The energy of the trees, the tiny flannel flowers poking through the underbrush, the lizards, the birds' singing, the views, the sunlight dappling through the canopy onto water, the aching muscles after a long walk. I absolutely love it all, but I said that already :)

With the Easter long weekend we had a couple of days to work around the house (and squeeze a great bike ride in plus dinner with a couple of friends), a day to visit my parents and still a day spare. I couldn't resist and have been wanting to do the Spit Bridge to Manly walk for quite a while. T has been feeling a bit under the weather since our holiday (no more holidays for him!) so he decided to drop me off and then take K to Manly for a play while I walked the 10kms.

Of course, we had to stop for a delicious brekky and stumbled upon this great little cafe just under the Spit Bridge. K ran around on the beach while we soaked up the autumn sun, watching the kayakers pulling up on the beach and coming in for a morning coffee. Kayaking is on my to-do list as well.
I started the walk at about 10am and this was one of the first views from the bridge. While I love walking with T and K, I would be lying if I wasn't a bit excited about not having to worry about pushing K on the walk. She could have made it but I would have had to piggy back her a bit, fed her continuously and spent my time encouraging her rather than absorbing it all myself. It would have been great, just a different experience than I had.
It was a perfect day for walking, 23 degrees and overcast with a slight breeze blowing. The walk has a lot of natural features as steps and part of the track, all sandstone. I passed Aborignal carvings and plenty of caves which may have been used as shelters. There is a combination of seaside plants, rainforest and dry sandstone scrub.
There are a lot of boardwalks throughout the track. I love being on a boardwalk. I feel like I am in nature without intruding upon it. Yes, the boardwalk is intruding but the number of people who use the track would damage the landscape too much if they actually walked on it.
Beautiful views of the city.
My first sight of Manly ferry.
Time for a play in Manly mall after getting back. T and I will do the walk again soon, maybe with K, maybe not. The next walk will be continuing the Great North Walk from Sydney to Newcastle next Saturday. We are up to Galston Gorge area. T and I are going on our own as the section is 14kms so a bit far for K, although she has done two of the legs around 10 to 12kms. Can't wait to get back in the bush :)