Week 522 · Noosa · Sunshine Coast · Glass House Mountains
Sunshine Coast
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 — Cyclone Kirrilly remnants, a 4-hour flight delay, Sharon fighting off the flu, and Queensland not recognising daylight savings.
We were on different flights at the same time but my flight was delayed 4 hours and Sharon was stuck waiting for me — we didn't get to our accommodation until 6pm local time and it was almost dark, as Queensland doesn't recognise 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 chose the longer route along the coast from Sunshine Beach to the town of Noosa Heads via Noosa National Park. Google said 1–1.5 hours 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 third 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 various maps and asked various clothed people the bail-out route. Made it back to the apartment 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. Noosa is on a river and we took a ferry upstream and had drinks on the main Noosa Beach.
"Noosa is like if the good parts of Florida had mountains and didn't have Florida Man."
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 is 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. 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 we had to try it. The Glass House Mountains were pretty unexpected — similar to Vietnam or Thailand. Then back to work for me in Brisbane while the heat/humidity/rain limited options for Sharon. Found out at work that people who had lived their whole lives in Brisbane thought it was one of the hottest weekends ever.
