Noosa,Queensland

We arrived in Noosa Heads on Friday, February 17th. We were a day early, so we stopped in a motel at Noosa Junction for the night. It turns out that the motel was only a few hundred metres from our resort, where we checked in on Saturday. Jaime and Lex joined us on Saturday afternoon, and Jon will be coming up on Friday. We're here for two weeks, to relax and explore.

Being retired means that you don't pay much attention to time - after all, it's not like I have to be anywhere in particular at any given time. We'd been in Queensland since Friday morning, and it took us until Saturday afternoon to realize that we're in a different time zone. And that was only because I questioned the time on the microwave clock. Walter said the time was wrong. I checked with one of the staff, and lo and behold, our watches were wrong. The clock on the microwave was correct. Queensland is an hour behind New South Wales.

Noosa Heads is a beautiful area, and is popular with tourists. The area has several communities with the name Noosa - Noose Heads, Noosa Junction, Noosaville, Noosa Springs,and Noosa Civic - they all tend to run together in my mind, so I think of them all as Noosa. There are ocean beaches - like Castaway Beach, Sunrise Beach, Sunrise Beach to name a few. And then on the bay side, there is Main Beach. The head, or point, is in the Noosa National Park. Walking trails abound - both inland through rain forest, and along the coast. There are also riding trails, boating, fishing, sailing, surfing, parasailing, and just about any other water sport you can think of.

This area is much more tropical that Sydney. Rain forest gives way to gum tree forest in the interior and the coast is generally a surfer's dream. Aquamarine clear water laps onto sandy beaches that end in rain forests. The sun here is much stronger - daytime temperatures usually reach 30 with a good deal of humidity. Sunscreen, a hat and a full water bottle are a must when we go outside. Even with that, by 11:00 am my hands, arms and face are glistening.

On Sunday, Walter and I set out to walk the coastal trail in Noosa Provincial Park. There are signs everywhere that indicate walkers should not leave the trails. Within a few feet of the trail, the sound of the surf disappears to be replaced by the constant hum of insects and songs of birds. It would be so easy to get lost. If you've ever read Robinson Crusoe, or watched any of the Disney pirate movies, this place could have served as a location for them. It is indescribably beautiful. I've posted a few picures, but they don't begin to do the scenery any justice.

Today, we walked along the shore of Main Beach and then doubled back through some of the parkland. Along the way, we say some wild turkeys and managed to get a photo of a baby one.

The notion that we are in a tropical area was reinforced by the rain that came this afternoon. The rain came in mid-afternoon. First high winds, then a gentle rain that quickly turned into a driving hard rain. It came down so hard, that we could no longer see the ocean from our balcony. In rained in waves for almost three hours before it finally stopped. When we checked the new on TV, the newscase indicated that it was a bit of tropical storm, and some residents were saying it was the worst in twenty years. I don't know about that, but I can honestly say that it was worse than anything I'd seen in South Carolina or Florida.