February 29

Sydney

Not a good night's sleep. A shame as the bed was very comfortable. I sent and received a few emails, breakfasted and left the hotel a little after 09.00. I returned five minutes later to collect the spare camera battery which I had forgotten.

A chap I was sharing the lift with pointed out that the fourth floor was missing. We agreed that it must be something secret.

Interesting reflections from my room	The occasional interesting building
George Street was quiet	Sydney Town Hall

At that hour, George Street is quiet. I spotted a few interesting buildings to photograph and lots of things to peer at. With tonight being the Mardi Gras parade, there were some interesting costumes about but it felt rude to point a camera at them. Perhaps later!

I had received instructions from New Zealand to fight off the virus with hand sanitiser. Easier said than done as all of the shelves I found had been cleared.

I arrived at Circular Quay to find it very busy - it normally is - and that there was a huge cruise ship moored at the International Passenger Terminal.

I wandered around, taking the obligatory photos of The Bridge, The Opera House and the boats. I then visited the Tourist Office in the old Custom House.

The café outside was the assigned meeting place, Steve arrived and we sat and drank coffees and planned our campaign. This was, essentially, that we would walk up the hill to the quiet section of The Rocks - away from the cruise ship - and have lunch at The Hero of Waterloo, an old pub dating from 1843.

The Custom House	The Hero of Waterloo
A fine old pub ...	... and lots of food

We found the pub, with a little difficulty - I never locate it at the first attempt - had a couple of beers and a large platter of food and talked a lot. It is fun meeting friends many thousands of miles from home.

Suitably refreshed, we walked down to the water, watched the oriental wedding parties and photographed more boats. The weather was glorious and the harbour was a real picture. We even stopped to have a selfie (not my work) which did prove that we were there. Alas, there wasn’t room to include it. We both took the tram. Steve disembarked at Wynyard to catch the train back to the North Shore whilst I stayed aboard until Chinatown, the stop almost outside my hotel. Once inside, I washed, changed and prepared for my evening out.       Right: Yet more wedding photography

I caught a tram back to Circular Quay - between ten and fifteen minutes away - and waited on a bench for the ferry to arrive. It did arrive in the distance, then sat around for ages before finally docking about ten minutes before it was meant to have departed. Hordes of people got off, many obviously headed for the Mardi Gras and quite a lot of us got on. We finally pulled out about fifteen minutes late.

Boats all over the place	Our own police escort?
One of our boats	We approached Manly

The harbour was chaotic. Full of boats, from the huge cruise ship which had which had been at the Overseas Terminal earlier in the day, to tiny launches and yachts. One of the latter appeared to be one of the GB America's Cup team. There were several police boats around, one of which appeared to be escorting us through the mayhem.

We survived, bounced around on the waves and arrived exactly 30 minutes after we had set off. I crossed the road to the pub, found Angie and Brian, had a meal and drinks, and tried to chat over the noise of the music. The food was good, basic, pub food.   Left: The 4Pines - better on the inside

I managed to find the fast ferry, on which I was accompanied by lots of young people heading to the Mardi Gras celebrations. Circular Quay could be busy when I arrive!

We made good speed across the harbour, it wasn't too chaotic at Circular Quay and I caught a train back to Central. Things went a bit pear shaped there and I got lost when leaving the station. I've done it before and will probably do it again. I eventually found my way back to the hotel and bed.