Australia Day gave us a 3-day window so we headed to Noosa, just north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. The trip had some challenges – we have Cyclone Kirrilly remnants coming through which was creating a forecast of 100% rain ay the hottest time of the year. We were on different flights at the same time but my flight was delayed 4 hours and Sharon was stuck waiting for me and we didn’t get to our accommodation until 6pm local time and is was almost dark as Queensland doesn’t recognize daylight savings….gets dark at 8:30pm in Melbourne as a comparison. To top it off, Sharon was fighting off a bout with the flu but seemed to be on the mend.
Saturday morning sun coming up at about 4:50am woke us up, we took care of some US chores (Friday US time) and the sun was glorious- no rain. So we headed out for a hike – the route was 4 miles and we choose the longer route along the coast from Sunshine Beach to the town of Noosa Heads via Noosa National Park. Google said 1-1.5 hrs and old ladies at the coffee shop said the same – so off we went at 7:45am. First bit was on the beach, then about a 200 foot climb on stairs to the top of the cliffs. Temps were 90 plus and, we found out later, record humidity and dew point. But once at the top, it was a beautiful flat walk. About a 1/3 of the way we stopped for a water break, coincidentally at a nude beach (but not good naked), and I was starting to get dehydrated and we had been hiking less than an hour. So we looked at the various maps and asked various clothed people the bail out route. Made it back to apt at about 10am to crash for a while.
We made it out later in the day to the town (in a car) and explored Noosa Heads. Really nice area – like if the good parts of Florida had mountains and didn’t have Florida man. There Noosa is on a river and we took a ferry upstream and had drinks on the main Noosa Beach.
Sunday – woke up at 5am again – overcast. So went to the beach early and I got some boogie boarding in – I have reached the point in life where overcast and slight warm drizzle preferable to blue sky and hot/humid at the beach. But then heavier rain started and we packed up and headed south along the Sunshine Coast – very nice all the way down the coast. We had seen a scenic drive through the hinterlands to the Glass House Mountains which started on “Steve Irwin Way” and went by the Australia Zoo – so had to try it. The Glass House Mountains were pretty unexpected- similar to Vietnam or Thailand. Then back to work for me in Brisbane for a couple of days while the heat/humidity/rain limited the options for Sharon. Found out at work people who lived their whole lives in Brisbane thought it was one of the hottest weekends ever.
Hopefully we will get back up to Brisbane/Sunshine Coast again while we are in Australia.
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