November 20, 2005
Kirk and I had a lovely day today. We stayed at Stu’s apartment in the city last night and this morning he drove us out to Manly Beach where we will be staying with another friend of ours for the majority of our time here. We feel overwhelmingly lucky to be here. The Manly Beach apartment where we are staying overlooks the ocean from every room. I’m sitting here typing this blog and listening to the surf crash below while taking in the vast view of the water. It’s a lovely place to be! After dropping our bags and bikes, we were standing outside getting ready to head to the beach when I heard some birds in the bush next to us. I took a closer look and they looked like small parrots with mostly green feathers on their body, but red, blue and yellow on their breast and face. I was so excited to see exotic looking birds just hanging out in a bush here. Silly I know, but the little things in life tend to get me all excited since I’ve been off the ice. J
After a few unpredicted incidents (a truck blocked the road out by car, then after a long wait Stu’s car wouldn’t start again so we finally decided the gods were telling us to just walk.) We finally made our way down to the beach. Stu works as a lifeguard here at Manly Beach once a month and so he is able to use their equipment for free. So he offered to take us out on surfskis for a paddle in the ocean. Surfskis are popular both here and in NZ and they are basically a single seat sit on top kayak that is long and skinny with a rudder that is controlled by your feet. We launched off the beach into crashing waves and I immediately felt uncomfortable and scared. The surfski was so tippy that I felt like I had no control and I was doing everything possible to stay on top while trying to minimalize my panic. Both Kirk and I are whitewater kayakers so we both expected to feel somewhat comfortable on these surfskis….well we were wrong! We’ve only sea kayaked a couple of times, once on our honeymoon in proper sea kayaks and once in Mexico on a tandem sit on top. I think I was a lot more comfortable in those situations than I was today. It felt almost like walking a tightrope trying to balance while the waves were pushing me around. Yikes! Than add in the fact that the ocean intimidates the crap out of me. For some reason lakes and rivers feel safe, but the ocean…all I feel is fear as I take in how big and powerful it is in comparison. We made our way over to another beach around the bend and a reasonable distance away. I was white knuckled the whole time, but I managed to stay on my surfski somehow. I felt as I was the only one struggling because Kirk and Stu both looked pretty comfortable to me. The plan was to head from this beach way out to this point and back which would take about 30-45 minutes. There were some sizable rollers that we conquered on our way to this beach and there was no way I was ready to face that again except for longer. I told the guys to go without me and I’d wait on the beach. It sure didn’t seem like they were gone very long. Before I knew it, they made it back. Kirk told me he was a little nervous out there so I’m really glad I didn’t do it. If he’s nervous than I know I would’ve been a wreck!
At this point, I was having some anxiety over the paddle back to the main beach. The whole time Stu and Kirk were gone I was trying to talk myself into the fact that I could do it. I paddled out so I surely could paddle back in. The problem was the beach we were paddling back to has these decent size crashing waves that form a good distance from the beach. I was worried that I’d fall off and have to swim the whole way in since the surfski would most likely get carried ahead of me with the waves if I wasn’t on it. Kirk and Stu gave me a little pep talk and off we went. Fortunately I managed to keep the surfski straight all the way in to the shore through crashing waves and all! I’m glad I did it as I had a successful run and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Whew!
The beach here is great. The sand is soft and the ocean waves are full of surfers and swimmers. The “people watching” is highly entertaining as well. We goofed around in the water and soaked up some sun before heading off to meet our newest host, Mike, and his girlfriend for brunch. Then we leisurely walked through the street market and eventually back down the beach towards Mike’s place on the hill.
I’ve been commenting all day on how much warmer it is here. I just love it! I walked around all day in shorts, sandals, and a tank top and didn’t have a chill at all which was a nice change from NZ. In NZ I had the daily ritual of layering all my clothes on top of each other in order to stay warm which didn’t quite cut it. (We sent all our warm clothes home since I’m quite sure we won’t be needing them in SE Asia from what I hear). In retrospect, I really wish we would have come to Sydney sooner and cut some of our time out of NZ. I think out of the 3 weeks we spent in NZ I actually had the sensation of warmth maybe 2 days at the most. The sea air there is so chilly combined with the constant wind. It just cut right through me. Everyone seems to think that Kirk and I would be immune to the cold after 2 years at the Pole, but that definitely is not the case. The Pole is very dry like our home state of Colorado and that tends to make the cold less intense. Humidity adds a different factor to the feel of the air that I am definitely NOT used to. I’m not complaining though. I’d take being cold in NZ over being at Pole that’s for sure.
After a few unpredicted incidents (a truck blocked the road out by car, then after a long wait Stu’s car wouldn’t start again so we finally decided the gods were telling us to just walk.) We finally made our way down to the beach. Stu works as a lifeguard here at Manly Beach once a month and so he is able to use their equipment for free. So he offered to take us out on surfskis for a paddle in the ocean. Surfskis are popular both here and in NZ and they are basically a single seat sit on top kayak that is long and skinny with a rudder that is controlled by your feet. We launched off the beach into crashing waves and I immediately felt uncomfortable and scared. The surfski was so tippy that I felt like I had no control and I was doing everything possible to stay on top while trying to minimalize my panic. Both Kirk and I are whitewater kayakers so we both expected to feel somewhat comfortable on these surfskis….well we were wrong! We’ve only sea kayaked a couple of times, once on our honeymoon in proper sea kayaks and once in Mexico on a tandem sit on top. I think I was a lot more comfortable in those situations than I was today. It felt almost like walking a tightrope trying to balance while the waves were pushing me around. Yikes! Than add in the fact that the ocean intimidates the crap out of me. For some reason lakes and rivers feel safe, but the ocean…all I feel is fear as I take in how big and powerful it is in comparison. We made our way over to another beach around the bend and a reasonable distance away. I was white knuckled the whole time, but I managed to stay on my surfski somehow. I felt as I was the only one struggling because Kirk and Stu both looked pretty comfortable to me. The plan was to head from this beach way out to this point and back which would take about 30-45 minutes. There were some sizable rollers that we conquered on our way to this beach and there was no way I was ready to face that again except for longer. I told the guys to go without me and I’d wait on the beach. It sure didn’t seem like they were gone very long. Before I knew it, they made it back. Kirk told me he was a little nervous out there so I’m really glad I didn’t do it. If he’s nervous than I know I would’ve been a wreck!
At this point, I was having some anxiety over the paddle back to the main beach. The whole time Stu and Kirk were gone I was trying to talk myself into the fact that I could do it. I paddled out so I surely could paddle back in. The problem was the beach we were paddling back to has these decent size crashing waves that form a good distance from the beach. I was worried that I’d fall off and have to swim the whole way in since the surfski would most likely get carried ahead of me with the waves if I wasn’t on it. Kirk and Stu gave me a little pep talk and off we went. Fortunately I managed to keep the surfski straight all the way in to the shore through crashing waves and all! I’m glad I did it as I had a successful run and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Whew!
The beach here is great. The sand is soft and the ocean waves are full of surfers and swimmers. The “people watching” is highly entertaining as well. We goofed around in the water and soaked up some sun before heading off to meet our newest host, Mike, and his girlfriend for brunch. Then we leisurely walked through the street market and eventually back down the beach towards Mike’s place on the hill.
I’ve been commenting all day on how much warmer it is here. I just love it! I walked around all day in shorts, sandals, and a tank top and didn’t have a chill at all which was a nice change from NZ. In NZ I had the daily ritual of layering all my clothes on top of each other in order to stay warm which didn’t quite cut it. (We sent all our warm clothes home since I’m quite sure we won’t be needing them in SE Asia from what I hear). In retrospect, I really wish we would have come to Sydney sooner and cut some of our time out of NZ. I think out of the 3 weeks we spent in NZ I actually had the sensation of warmth maybe 2 days at the most. The sea air there is so chilly combined with the constant wind. It just cut right through me. Everyone seems to think that Kirk and I would be immune to the cold after 2 years at the Pole, but that definitely is not the case. The Pole is very dry like our home state of Colorado and that tends to make the cold less intense. Humidity adds a different factor to the feel of the air that I am definitely NOT used to. I’m not complaining though. I’d take being cold in NZ over being at Pole that’s for sure.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 9:53 PM
1 Comments:
I lived in Sydney for the last twelve months, and have just returned to the UK. I loved every minute of it, and would try and get to Manly whenever I could. You can't beat the Wharf Hotel Bar at sunset watching the ferries coming and going, or the day walk Westwards along the shore to the Spit Bridge.
Hope you have a great time in Sydney, and when you get to Asia. Keep up the blog, it's a good one!
R
Post a Comment
<< Home