Elusive

Noosa

With the weekend over, I decided to seek timeout with some relaxing exploration of my next destination - eased greatly by the early week - party atmosphere lull.

I got up after a good sleep and took the bus as far as the entrance to Noosa National Park with the intention of spotting a Koala or two. Along the coastal walking track I spotted many different species of plant and wildlife but no elusive Koalas. I arrived at the main point where there were some pretty good views out to the ocean. Still determined to spot a cuddly marcupial I took a different track back to the start of the park and eventually, I managed to spot one of the little fellas way up above me. Having met a Koala 12 years ago on my first visit to Oz, there wasn't much to see except some chewing and general spectating of life so I took a picture and moved on back along the Tanglewood trail toward Noosa.

Noosa is quintessentially a holiday destination, a nice one at that. The locals have voted to stop it going high rise, and also to cap the population at somewhere around the 70,000 mark. Once this is reached, it'll be one in one out. All the architecture here is pretty modern and there is some obvious money on show. The bus driver had pointed out the rentanble condo that both Bono and Bob Geldoff have frequented in the past.

I walked on past the beach and made it back into town where I got refreshed and visited a couple of galleries before heading out to the Sheraton Wharf to pick up the Noosa ferry cruise. A little unsure of what to expect, it was a fairly tame, but interesting ride up the River to Newantin where I had a huge fish & chip lunch. The sun was beating down hard so I made sure to lap up the rays giving my tan added momentum!

I returned back to the hostel and discovered a couple of friends whom I keep bumping into up the East Coast had also checked in. Our little group soon built momentum and pretty soon we had a big game of cards with some cheap drinks... before the hostel put on a few competitions where myself and and Canadian guy managed to win a limbo contest earning us a jug of beer.