I wake up at 530am with cramps, and Caleb is feeling competitive this morning, so he rises with a sickness. We won’t know that just yet, though. It presents with a sense of exhaustion, so it could just be jet lag and his common need for a nap since he doesn’t like sleeping much at night. I had a day of ferries and hiking planned, but toned it down to a round-trip ferry and bus ride to help with roadside walking. I’ll have breakfast the Australian way: coffee, Vegemite toast, grilled tomatoes, and a fried egg. The fresh, dainty-sliced watermelon is a nice touch.

I notice my breath in the park and wonder if it’s been as cold on prior visits or if I was focused elsewhere. The marble statue “Girl with Clogs and Musical Instrument” (a hurdy-gurdy) and the bronze Governor Arthur Phillip (unveiled on Queen Victoria’s 60th year of reign and over a century after his death) look great in the sun, especially with a laughing kookaburra perched upon his head. The bright pink Habanera series of English Daisy outshines the pale pink ruffled rose in a garden of buds. I appreciate this exploratory pace until I need the loo.

We stand a few minutes in a spaced-out line at Circular Quay, Wharf 3, waiting for the F1 ferry to deliver us to Manly, Wharf 1. There’s a faster catamaran that costs more and cuts travel time by a third, but we’re not in a hurry. The front is too windy for me, so I head to the back to get photos of the Opera House, Fort Denison, and the cliff faces (which over time lead to a head). The 161 bus leaves every half hour and drops us off at Fairfax Track at the southern end of Sydney Harbour National Park. From the Yiningma Lookout, we witness a whale exhale.

This pressurized air can shoot up to 30 feet in the air at speeds up to 450 km/h (depending on the species). Whales can also replace up to 90% of the air in their lungs in a single breath, whereas simple humans operate below 15%. Toothed whales have one blowhole and use echolocation, and baleen whales have two for faster air exchange. If I could have a superpower, it would be living as different animals for a week. The other couple on the loop comes to the park frequently to escape the city and to be impressed constantly by the sights as we are.

It’s possible we saw a humpback whale, which is one of the largest animals on Earth, weighing up to 40 tons. The largest land animal only weighs under 12 tons (10,400 kg). I can’t fathom that size, though I have stood next to an elephant. This moment is made even more special by the next animal I see: an inchworm that weighs only up to 1.4 grams. This is the awe I aspire to live in every day. Then we see an Australian brushturkey, with a bright yellow waddle used for mating, temperature regulation, and territorial disputes. Their tail is upright (for balance and speed), unlike the broad flat tails of domestic turkeys.

The masked plover has yellow face waddles and apparently spurs on the bend of their wings for defense. I will not be adding that altercation to my list of accomplishments. The plant life out here comes with interesting names: cinnabar polypore, pincushion flower, and heath-leaved banksia. We make our way to the North Fort Visitor Centre, where we learn that live firing to sea was stopped in 1984, the Memorial Walk opened in 2002, and volunteers have restored the Plotting Room (2019-20) and two battery observation posts 2022-23).

There are weekly tours of the tunnels that connected the 9.2″ calibre guns. They were capable of firing 380lb shells up to 16 miles at a rate of two rounds per minute. They were only used once in 1943 when a Polish vessel approached without clearance. The captain was billed £600 for wasted ammunition. We walk by the Hanging Swamp where two guys are taking photos and by the Barracks Precinct where a man is running laps on the parade grounds. We wait in the shade with a brushturkey for the bus that will return us to downtown Manly.

We take a peek at the beach before finding lunch at Fusion Point. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into as we sat on the patio. The pink lemonade seemed innocent enough, and then the tower of food arrived. Caleb got two burgers while I got a BLT (what I thought I ordered) with a chicken sandwich. The Club Deck also comes with guacamole, onion, carrot, beetroot, and aioli. I was glad I didn’t get the chips (fries), and though I ate what I could, there was still enough meat and crust to make a hipster breakfast.

Caleb says having lunch and dinner together will save his energy later, as he still feels just as exhausted as he did hours ago. The beach has stairs to sit on for those who want to watch the waves and listen to the birds without getting sand in their shoes before going back to work. That leaves us and some random kids rolling in the little pit they just dug. I count 14 people climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge on our return ferry to Circular Quay. We walk back to the room, and I make a solo trip to the store. Caleb asked for lozenges, and I returned with sour squirms instead. I read for a bit before going back to the store so that Caleb can sleep without coughing as much.