Manly Dam Park Circuit Walk

Manly Dam Park Circuit Walk is a 7.3 km, medium grade track around the Manly Resovoir in Manly Vale. Manly Reservoir was built by constructing the 250 meter Manly Dam across the Curl Curl Creek. The walk starts from the Manly Warringah War Memorial Park, a 74-acre urban bushland reserve, situated less than 20 km from the Sydney CBD.

 Manly Warringah War Memorial Park is complete with a swimming area, boat ramp, parking area, an abundance of picnic tables and wood barbecues making it an ideal place for a family to enjoy the day. 

Beautiful views of Manly Resovoir from Manly Warringah War Memorial Park


Start of the walk from the Memorial Park

There are a few memorial monuments in the park. One is the granite plaque in the picture above.  Then there is a  sphere near the water with the inscriptions, 
"World Peace, forgiveness, harmony, trust, co-operation, caring, understanding, happiness"  and another which is dedicated to the fallen and has one fallen and two standing columns. 
Memorial Monuments

While the walk is mostly signposted well, wherein doubt, we always kept an eye on the reservoir to guide us. 

 The track is a combination of paved and gravel path and at times it is needed to be shared with Mountain Bikers.

Manly Warringah War Memorial Park has multiple swimming areas.



The park has many wood barbecues and tables. I actually haven't been to a park with so many. Despite been a slightly cold day in June, it was nice to see many families enjoying the facilities.

One of many wood barbecues

The track is signposted reasonably well

A nice footbridge

Once the reservoir was no longer in sight, the walk followed the creek and it was pleasant to constantly hear the gentle sound of the flowing water even when the creek was not visible.
The highlight of the walk was the main waterfall which was a little hidden from the path. So please keep an eye to the right to make sure you don't miss it. There were a few miniature waterfalls which added to the beauty of the surrounding.

Some picturesque miniature waterfalls

Main waterfall

The flat rock where the track crosses the Manly Creek was an ideal place for us to recharge by having a rest and a snack.



Then the track became a management trail and needed to be shared with the Mountain Bikers. We walked for several minutes after passing an intersection where the Circuit track, Eva's track and the Curl Curl track met, then followed the signage to turn right to continue on the Circuit track.

The track became narrow, muddy and washed out. However, we enjoyed walking on the edge trying not to fall into the mud. Some sections of the track were closed for repairs and we had to take detours.

We walked through a beautiful section of the reserve to reach the Dam walls.




We crossed the 250 meter Dam, spending quite some time to absorb the beautiful views and completed the circuit which took us close to 3 hrs.

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