A Short Story
Taking The Wrong Ferry In Sydney
We recently spent a week in Sydney with some friends. In recommending things to do, we suggested a ferry ride after sunset to take in the night skyline. It was the third day and we had already passed into the daily free travel period on our Opal card* and, with great weather, we headed for Circular Quay. Checking the internet for information on when the ferries shut down at night, it indicated that the ferries begin the last runs at 10:55 PM, giving us plenty of time on the waters of Sydney Harbour after sunset.
Our first ferry from Circular Quay was to Manly and that offered great night views of the Opera House backed by the CBD skyline. At Manly we didn’t even get off but went right back to Circular Quay. Looking to take another ferry we searched for a route that would take us under the Sydney Harbour Bridge heading west up the waterfront. We looked for a route that would get us over to Darling Harbour but instead found a ferry that was leaving in a couple of minutes, going under the bridge with its’ first stop being Luna Park, the city’s heritage-listed amusement park.
Two more stops after Luna Park the passenger complement thinned out and a crew member approached us asking where we were going. After saying that the four of us didn’t have a destination and were just looking at the city at night and would go back to Circular Quay, he responded that we had a problem. It turned out that this ferry was mainly a commuter route that went into the back of Sydney Harbour ending at Chiswick and would not be returning to Circular Quay.
Discussing our options with him, it turned out we didn’t have any good ones. Our ferry would simply tie up at the last pier where the crew had their cars parked. He had no idea what bus routes would still be running and Uber wasn’t a likely option for a number of reasons**. As he walked off we discussed our options and came up no viable ones.
As the ferry approached the last stop it was just us and one woman left on board. Chatting with her she said that listening to us had really inspired her to put more into appreciating her home town and, because of our enthusiasm, she realized anew just how spectacular her evening commutes in the harbour were. Soon the crew member we had talked to before joined us again. Good news! He talked to the captain and the crew agreed to take us back to Circular Quay!
That extra trip required the crew to put in more than an extra hour after they should have been done for the night and I’m left wondering if what happened is an Aussie thing. Imagine providing a few Americans their own custom ferry ride back across Sydney Harbour. I can’t imagine many places in the world where something like that would have happened…
The Intentional Travelers 