I’m back in Sydney and have almost completed my great loop of eastern Australia. It’s been a fantastic trip so far and I’m looking forward to the rest of it. I haven’t quite gone all the way around seeing as I’m just outside of Central Sydney at Bondi Beach. I’m curious to get back to Manly and downtown Sydney to see what it’s like. I’ve been to a couple places on the trip more than once but this will be the longest time in between visits for any of those places. I spent the first week of my trip in a backpackers in Manly and while I’m definitely not going back to that hostel, I’d like to visit Manly and see how it feels to come back to something familiar.Already I’ve hit the oceanside paths for a good run in the breeze. The first point I came to heaps of people were snapping off shots of something in the water. Curious, I thought, there’s nothing there. Just then 2 whales breached right in the bay. They aren’t the first whales I’ve seen on the trip but definitely the closest. They came to the surface 2 more times before dropping out of sight.After only climbing up and down a million stairs the day before I figured I’d be in fine form for a good long run. I managed 11k before the lead weights at the end of my legs slowed to a crawl and I knew it was time to call it quits for the day.Enjoying a relaxing day near the beach was in order for the next day, perusing through a New Zealand guide book picked up at the hostel book exchange. Note for traveller’s frequenting hostels, check out the book exchanges for guide books and interesting things to read. A lot of the time it’s some German romantic novels but you might get lucky.The next day I headed out for another run aiming only to do small trip around the close headlands. Apparently small now means 20k. I made it all the way out to South Head and could see North Head and right into Sydney. It was fun to see North Head from the other side. When I first got the car back in May, North Head was the first place I went to get a good view of the city. It was windy as all hell that day for the walk around the cliffs. The weather was a little nicer this time.[gmap]