Manly, Sydney

Manly is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 17 kilometres (11 mi) north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of Manly Council, in the Northern Beaches region.

Manly is most notable for its beaches which are popular tourist destinations. Manly features a long stretch of sand on the ocean side, that runs from Queenscliff Beach to North Steyne Beach and Manly Beach. This is followed by rock pools and sandy beaches called Fairy Bower and Shelly Beach. There are also a number of beaches on the harbour side of the peninsula. Norfolk Island pine trees are also symbolic of Manly and are a prominent feature of both the ocean and harbour beaches. On 10 March 2012, the 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) stretch between Freshwater Beach and Shelly Beach was declared the "Manly -Freshwater World Surfing Reserve". The Reserve was dedicated in a ceremony in Manly Beach by world surfing champion Kelly Slater accompanied by the Governor of New South Wales, Australia, Professor Marie Bashir.

Manly has Sydney Harbour on its western side with calm water, ferry wharf, a swimming area, the Oceanworld Manly aquarium, and sailing and yacht clubs. About 300 metres (980 ft) to the east is the Pacific Ocean and Manly Beach. There are more than 20 kilometres (12 mi) of cycle tracks that can be used to explore the area. The Manly International Jazz Festival is Australia's largest community-based jazz festival. It is held during the October long weekend public holiday, with various stages hosting continuous free public performances from midday until early evening. The BBC soap opera Out of the Blue was set in Manly.

This lovely card sent to me by Karen shows, an aerial view featuring Manly wharf in the foreground and the magnificent surfing beach in the background. I am not very sure, because, I haven't been there, but, is that the famous SCG seen towards the left of the picture?

Glen Helen Gorge

Glen Helen (including Ormiston Gorge and Pound National Park). One of the most beautiful gorges in Central Australia. Glen Helen is located 133 km west of Alice Springs at the end of the sealed section of road known as Namatjira Drive. No one knows who named the region but it was one of the first pastoral leases in Central Australia. The first owner, Alan Braeden, overlanded stock over 2000 km and built a house, Munga Munga, on the bank of Ormiston Creek. It is now nothing more than a pile of rubble.

Today the term Glen Helen is applied to the lodge, the gorge near the lodge and the surrounding 368 hectare Nature Park controlled by the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory. The Glen Helen Gorge is formed from quartzite. Sandstone was deposited in the area some 500 million years ago when it was a huge inland sea. It was subsequently tilted and uplifted. As this uplift was occurring the Finke River slowly eroded its way through the mountain range. Glen Helen is known to local Aborigines as Yapalpe and the Finke River is Larapinta which means 'serpent'. It was a favourite meeting place for the Aboriginal people from the West and Central MacDonnell Ranges. The rocky slopes around the gorge are home to a colony of black-footed rock wallabies which sometimes appear in the late afternoon and early evening to feed on grass, herbs, leaves and fruits.

The Finke River, which was named by John McDouall Stuart after the Adelaide financier William Finke, rises in the MacDonnell Ranges and flows over 1000 km until it disappears into Lake Eyre. Over the years the Finke has acquired its own mythology. Rumours about it abound. It is claimed, even in the Conservation Commission literature, that the Finke is the oldest river in the world - no one quite explains what such a claim actually means. It certainly isn't recorded as such in the Guinness Book of Records. It is said that the Finke only ever runs for the entire length of its course about twice every century. Glen Helen is one of only six permanent waterholes on the Finke River. A tributary of the Finke, the Ormiston Creek, runs through Ormiston Gorge and Pound National Park. The park consists of the spectacular Pound and the narrow gorge which is regarded by many as one of the most beautiful gorges in Central Australia. The subject of a number of paintings by Albert Namatjira the gorge rises to over 300 metres at points and is characterised by the beautiful river red gums and the euros and rock wallabies which abound in the park.

The area was explored by Peter Egerton Warburton on his epic 1873-74 journey from Alice Springs to the Western Australian coast which traversed the Great Sandy Desert. He named the Ormiston Creek which runs through the area and joins the Finke River.

Thank you Dear Heather for this lovely card and the wonderful stamps on it.