Cruising up the Queensland coast

Noosa lies just north of Brisbane, on the sunshine coast and is a quaint little town at the mouth of the Noosa River.  We stayed at a lovely campsite on the rivers edge and got up early for breakfast on the beach.  It was our first time on a natural beach on the east coast and the warm water was lovely.  We spent the morning exploring the Noosa Heads National Park with its lovely walks along the coast and through some great indigenous forests. We particularly enjoyed the temperate rain forest from which enormous trees rise effectively out of sand dunes! We also had our first encounter with a whip bird - which has probably the most intriguing call we've ever heard. We can simulate the call pretty well now - but it is hard to explain in the blog. Time alas wasn't on our side and after a morning exploring this remarkable place we had to start making tracks up the coast.

Our little tent right next to the lagoon.

Geoff lining up a catch for palm cone of potentially lethal proportions. We estimated the spiky cone to weigh close on 10kg!

Looking north from the Noosa Heads. Notice the prop roots on this curious palm.

A Blue Tongued Lizard (70cm long) which we and the poor runner trying to pass us mistook for  something a little more scary.

Alexandra beach is a fair walk from the park entrance but easily one of the most beautiful we had found. It had a freshwater stream halfway along the beach, perfect to wash off after a sea swim.

These patterns are dug into the eucalyptus trunk from under the bark by larvae, and are then exposed as the bark delaminates. Some trees were covered in the marks, like tribal tattoos.

Bush turkey - a favourite photographed subject of many asian tourists, but a blot on the beautiful aussie fauna in our opinion.

Rains in Queensland in 2010-2011 broke an extended period of drought and were most dramatically reported with the flooding of the city centre of Brisbane in mid- January 2011. The flooding was however extensive along the entire Queensland coast. It was difficult to imagine torrents of water flooding much of the areas we were driving through, until we started passing flood markers - delineated poles often extending well above our hire car indicating the depth of water above the road so cars knew not to attempt to drive through. The most visible consequence of the flooding however were the almost consistent road works being undertaken to repair damage to the coastal highways and roads, stormwater systems, culverts etc. As a result our average speed heading north was about 60km/h and we made very slow progress. This was not good news considering the 1700km we had only a week to cover...

We had been hoping to stay in the highly regarded surfing hamlet of '1770' but were well short at nightfall and settled in at a quaint seaside town of Bargara - directly east of Bundaberg. We found a great campsite with a lovely surf beach and made the most of the last of the surf beaches we'd find - the barrier reef has a rather dampening effect on the Pacific swells!

Geoff was thrilled to find a selection of novel kids playground toys and set to work mastering them for his evening exercise!

This contraption was refreshingly dangerous by Aussie standards and effectively mimics a half-pipe while offering cables to 'steady' the user. 

An off centred pivot swing allows you to manipulate rotational inertia by pulling your weight into the centre to accellerate it. And boy did this thing spin. Geoff was thrilled to find such a wildly fun toy!

Sunrise over the Pacific

We had an appointment on a construction site up in Gladstone which is an industrial port town centred around the coal and gas industries in Queensland. We'll write more about it in a later blog, but needless to say we struggled to get up to it in time. We continued on immediately after our meeting there towards Airlie Beach - the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, but again fell well short and pulled into Clairview at nightfall to discover another "free camping" site. It is hard to get over the idea that you could camp for free in a well serviced site and not have to worry about cleanliness or safety. Lots of other people had pulled up and were very friendly and well mannered. This is certainly an aspect of Australian travelling life that we found endearing. We were now well and truly protected by the reef and mudflats extended out for miles east of us with brown cloudy water and mangroves. Still beautiful in its own special way.

Dinner at sunset in the campsite with the beach in the background.

Mudflats and mangroves in the morning light.