Spit to Manly

A beautiful day,  4 great girlfiends, a great walk and a delicous lunch.....bliss! Last Monday a few of my girlfriends and I did the Spit to Manly walk....only we shortened it because of time constraints and started at Clontarf. I have wanted to do this walk for a long time and finally got around to it. It was briilliant!  - why did I wait so long! We started at the Southern Side of Clontarf Reserve and headed South past the houses and followed the signs to Castle Rock- up the stairs and along the track. It can be a bit tricky getting around on the beach without getting your feet wet as the water laps right up to the back fences.....its all in the timing.....and I mis-timed it and then had to do the walk with one completely soaked shoe! We had had a massive storm in Sydney the night before so the track was pretty wet and slushy, so everyone ended up with soggy shoes anyway!

Reef beach

The track takes us through the bush and past Castle Rock, Tania Park, then Sydney Harbour National Park, Forty Baskets Beach, through North Harbour Reserve around the Fairlight foresehore and past Fairlight beach and pool, then on to Manly past the Manly Paviliion Restaurant and to the Manly Wharf. From Clontarf to the National Park it is a moderate uphill incline and then downhill to the beachfront. The only other slight hills are from Fairlight to Manly but it is all quite easy and the track is pretty good (except for quite a few puddles from the huge downpour the night before). The sights we see along the way are awesome: from overlooking middle harbour and the Balmoral area, the Aboriginal stone carvings; to the Manly Ferry crossing the heads with city in the distance; or to North Head and the Quarantine Station beaches; and then finally the majestic sight of Manly Cove. Better still was the refereshing swim at Reef Beach - what a gorgeous spot that it is. The sun was shining, the water was crystal clear, there was no-one else around - absolutely irrestible! Only problem with that was we had to continue the walk with wet underwear - still, it was so worth it!

The other issue with this walk is the logistics in only doing a one way walk. We met up at Manly and one of us drove to Clontarf, then after lunch we drove back to Clontarf to fetch the car. The alternatives are to catch a city bus from Manly that goes right past the Spit or to hop in a taxi.

Bluewater Cafe Manly

Kumera salad

Lamb salad

There is such a huge choice of places to eat at Manly - from the Wharf to the Corso, to the Beachfront and lots of side streets and alleys in between. We headed down the Corso to the beachfront and chose Bluewater Cafe which is toward Manly Surf Club end of the beach. It offers both outdoor and inside dining options. We were pretty keen on being in the shade by then so we chose inside and were ushered to a table down the back. We figure they were moving the hot, sweaty riff-raff in training gear out of the way of the 'proper' customers! The lunch menu was pretty good - it had a variety of wraps, burgers, salads and off course fish and chips. At first they didn't seem too keen on taking our order and we were pretty hungry by then, so we had to give them a hurry up! Once that was sorted it was all good.  The salads and wraps were delicious and the coffee was great and the prices were fairly reasonable.

Our Reviews
Spit to Manly walk
difficulty:                       easy
distance:                       9km (7km Clontarf to Manly)
parking:                         Spit-Parking meters
                                       Clontarf-free on xx street or meters in Clontarf reserve carpark & Manly Council carparks in Manly
worth doing:                 yes definitely
dog friendly:          on leash only (no dogs allowed in the National Park - take alternate route through local roads for that portion)

water and toilets available along the way at  North Harbour Reserve and Oceanworld.

Bluewater Cafe  
food:                                 looked and tasted great
service:                           good
ambience:                       great
would we go again:       yes