Noosa, Sunshine Coast - Chez Pollard.
Now starts the stretch of ‘sponging off friends' part of our trip or, as we like to say,
visiting and catching up!
The bus arrived at Noosa Heads station in the afternoon and as Jade had
been delayed with work we headed to the beach to catch some sun and some waves
too – the beach was amazing and we were sat right outside the surf club so
after a dip and a shower as the time wore on, we retreated to the surf club bar
for a drink to watch the sun go down. Pretty great start to seeing Noosa!
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| First glimpse of Noosa beach didn't disappoint! |
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| 3 seconds later and ready for a swim! |
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| and a beautiful sunset to round off the afternoon, not sure how it could be any better... |
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| Oh, wait - a pint at the surf club might do the trick! |
Next up we headed to the local Coles (supermarket) to grab some food and as I was
wandering up and down aisles I bumped into Jade who had come straight from
driving thousands of Km’s home from his last job to pick us up and take us to his house – what a legend, thanks Jade!
Also thanks to Jade for introducing me to Dan Murphys and Coopers Sparkling Ale,
a new tipple!
We all headed back to Emma and Jade’s place in the ute and cooked up a
risotto and settled in for a catch up and Aussie TV (I am now a Block addict
and have had to go cold turkey since arriving in South America!) Jade also
introduced us to the Tim Tam, the best biscuits in the world and kick started
another habit. Then we crashed and slept in the girls room (thanks Abi and Keeley) and slept like logs.
Next day we headed out for a walk with Jade showing us around, there are
some great forest trails in the Noosa National Park we spotted a cool lizard –
a frilly neck one and as we walked along a
coastal path a little further on we saw a group of dolphins playing in the
water so stopped to watch them for a while in the sun.
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| Jade spotted this little chap in the garage. I avoided the temptation to lick him to see if he was hallucinogenic (the frog that is) |
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| Jade and Ana chilling on the coastal walk - the colour of that water is incredible! |
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| You could photograph this place all day... |
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| Quick pit stop for dolphin spotting |
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| They're down there |
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| We watched these guys and several more, playing in the surf for a good half hour or so |
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| A frilly neck lizard. If you look closely, you'll see why. |
Later that avo (check out my Aussie lingo) we borrowed the Malibu
(classic surfboard to you poms back home) and headed to the beach for a self-taught
lesson of how not to surf. Both Ana and I made a great show of swimming
attached to a board – no real surfing was
done! Knackered and suffering self-inflicted minor surf injuries we posed for
some shots with the board to make ourselves look like pros and then limped back
to the car! That evening Jade fired up the Bar-b and we had a slap up steak
dinner – hmmmm. (Oh and some Tim Tams).
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| En route to the beach we spotted another scrub turkey hanging out by, and on the beach |
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| Ana, intimidated by a surfboard? Never! Look at that stare. |
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| I can't really carry it, maybe if you take a photo with it wedged in the sand like this? |
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| I think Ana caught a wave! |
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| Look at her go |
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| Yes, yes, i'll photoshop the big board in later....oops! |
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| I think i've got a wave |
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| Maybe not. Try again. |
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| Man vs surf....surf won |
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| Pre - BBQ preparations |
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| Slabs 'o' meat - hmmmm |
The following morning we were trusted with the family car! We pootled
through town at 10mph, after not driving for 9 months and managed not to hit
anything or anyone. We headed out for an explore in the Subaru up to a
local viewpoint, overlooking the lakes and the coast, popular with local rock
climbers and runners, then retreated to town and wandered through the riverside
stopping for coffee and scone at a local coffee shop. We were getting back into the
‘western’ way even though we can’t get much further ‘east’! We sat and watched
the pelicans along the river side and spotted one who looked like he had
swallowed a whole fish sideways, on closer inspection this was exactly what he
was trying to do!
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| What? You're going to let us drive this? Thanks, what side of the road was it again? |
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| Off for a stroll up to the local viewpoint |
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| Not a bad view! |
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| Summit Selfie! |
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| Noosa riverside - beautiful place! |
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| Cool bird - what's he hiding? |
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| A massive fish that he can barely contain - thats what! It's like me with a steak! |
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| Scones and good coffee by the river - bliss! |
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| What is it with Australia and oversized replica animals? |
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| More public gym kit - always have to give it a go (but not when the locals are watching - they're all ripped!) |
That evening – Jade Skyped Emma who was back in the UK with the kids so
we got to catch up with Emma and see the not-so-little ’uns too. It was great to
see Emma and the kids and a little surreal knowing they were just down the road from where we were 9 months ago! Dinner was another BBQ with some top quality
snags (sausages) and beers!
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| I think thats my beer, don't spill it! |
We had spied a parkrun in Noosa and we had been looking forward to getting
an Aussie run under our belts for a while so we managed to persuade Jade to come out with us too
and the next day we trooped along to the local 5K run.
It was great fun
although the runs start at 7 am in Oz instead of the far more civilised 9am
back at home, everyone gets up mega-early here.
After the run we headed across to the Eumundi markets for some
art browsing and food purchasing.
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| Happy to have finished and first Aussie parkrun done! |
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| Says it all really! |
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| Do you remember Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman? No? Well Ana looks like her here... |
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| For you Blackadder fans out there. This Churros is very suspicious... |
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| One man band Eumundi style! He was pretty good too. |
Later that day we headed back to the station to hop back on the
greyhound down to the Gold Coast to meet some more friends. Sorry to say
goodbye to Noosa and the Pollard hospitality so soon but thanks to Jade and
Emma for letting us stay, the girls for letting us invade their room and to
Baden for saying hi on skype, we had a great time!
Broadbeach, Gold Coast - Carla and Rob
For those who have been paying attention and/or have good memories, we
met Carla and Rob on the Annapurna circuit in Nepal back in January and they
offered to show us around their new hometown of Broadbeach. As a note to anyone
who might just say ‘come and stay with us’ to be polite – don’t ‘cos we will
turn up ;)
Carla and Rob met us at the bus station in the following evening and we
headed straight out to a local food market/food court – a cool little place
they had recently spotted so we crammed in with all the cool
hip youngsters and sought out the best grub amongst the staggering choice of
stalls. Rob discovered the giant potato spiral and some melt in the mouth
pulled pork and I plumped for some Paella I think Ana and Carla both had some
vege dish – an eclectic mix of foods in a fun environment – cheers guys!
We then headed back to their pad in Broadbeach. I think it’s fair to say
it’s a plush pad! We sorted ourselves
out and crashed in the guest room and cleaned up in our own guest bathroom
thank you very much! Crashed out after keeping the guys up late without
realising! (11:30 is uber late by aussie standards).
En route to dinner that evening, Rob suggested a detour to catch the
sunset with the surfers paradise skyline in the background – it was a good
shout, the view as the sun sets over the skyscrapers lining the beach further
up the coast was pretty spectacular.
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| That's surfers Paradise in the background - skyscrapers at the beach! |
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| Ana and I in 'urban camouflage' we could just be regular people, no walking trousers in sight! |
Then we continued on to a really cool burger place (P if you’re reading
this, I’m sure it’s not a patch on 6 oz! Link for all the Pompey readership - http://www.6oz.co.uk/ –
go and try it out if you haven’t already!)
However the burgers here were great and
the beers weren't bad either too! After a great dinner, it was time to head
back, stumbling across some sort of full moon party en route complete with
weird ‘crazy dancing witch lady’ and the obligatory fire jugglers along with a
pretty chilled out band of drummers.
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| The girls seem happy with their choices... |
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| Ta Da, OK - can we eat them now? |
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| OK - just one more photos then! |
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| Cool drumming band - the crazy dancing witch lady didnt make it into this shot! |
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| And what full moon gathering would be complete without fire dancers/jugglers? It's like we're back in Thailand! |
The following morning I felt inspired (or maybe feeling a little lardy),
so got up for a run and headed out along the sandy beach as far as I could make
it, think in all it was about 8K or so, not too bad on the sand and running
past the lifeguard huts made me feel like I was in the credits of Baywatch,
good motivation to continue! Back at the ranch, we breakfasted and took a
leisurely stroll along the beach and into town. That day we were meeting up
with Alissia, one of Ana’s school friends from Sandwich High School who just
happens to live here and is friends with Carla and Rob (as we found out on the
trek in Jan) so we headed into town, I bought some cool new sunnies before the
meet up.
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| The beach |
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| and towards surfers paradise - I ran here this morning! |
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| Cue the baywatch theme - du-du-du-du-du... |
Alissia took us out for the afternoon and showed us the highlights
around Broadbeach, Surfers and along the cost, we met Charlie, her son and had
a lovely afternoon chatting, seeing the coast- oh, and eating some great fish
and chips too. We headed to Alissia’s pristine house and met Chris, Alissia’s
husband and the beagles (sorry I can’t remember their names!) We all had a bit
of a gossip (except Charlie and the beagles of course) and Alissia dropped us
back. Fun times and was great to see Ana and Alissia catching up, gossiping
like school kids again!
The following day our plan was to head back up the coast to Bisbane and
Rob had very kindly offered to take us up in his newly converted camper van,
first, a quick stop off at robs recommendation for breakfast – a bacon and egg
sandwich and coffee at a local cafe – good tucker! We headed off in the VW and
despite one or two concerning noises the van but it made it there and back (and
I hope its purring like a kitten now rob? )
Dropped right next to our new place to stay in brissie we waved Rob off
to attend to the mechanical maladies and checked in to Aussie Way Backpackers….!
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