Walking Noosa

We walked well over 8 klm yesterday - in perfect Queensland Autumn weather (22oC max) - along the Noosa Headland track, through the National Park and ending at beautiful Sunshine Beach.

We're just past Dolphin Point here - and we're in new territory - the spectacular Granite Bay......

 ... then we're at the most Northerly Point of the National Park .........

 before the coastline heads SE to "Hell's Gates" and the remote beach at Alexandria Bay.

 Coast view with magpie ........

 We saw some wonderful wildlife yesterday on our walks including hundreds of these beautiful butterflies, a small family of quails and a camera shy echidna. We caught a glimpse of dolphins off the beach yesterday evening too, but none on our long walk in the morning.

 This is a pic of Rob doing his Harrison Redford impersonation (but without the snake) on the track along Alexandria Bay...........

Alexandria Bay is obviously popular with naturists. There were quite a few people enjoying the beach today - quite naked - but we acted blasé about it ..... as you do ....... see if you can see them in the background of this picture.....

 This is "Lion Rock".......

 This is the point - almost at the end of the coast walk - where we get our first breathtaking view South, past Sunshine Beach - all the way to Mount Coolum in the middle horizon line. Very familiar territory for me.

 There are over 200 steps down to Sunshine Beach. I'm glad we were going down and not up.....

 We walked another 1.3klm along the beach before rewarding ourselves with an excellent coffee at the "Jam Cafe" at Sunshine Beach. We decided to catch the bus back to Noosa rather than face another 8klm walk back. The tracks are pretty easy going for us but the kilometres of soft sand walking are always the hardest.

We finished off a wonderful day meeting up with my friend Jane and her Rob for drinks - overlooking the beach (at the Boardwalk Bistro). Nothing could be better than time with dear friends, eating fresh Coffin Bay oysters, happy hour drinks and a superlative sunset view over Noosa Beach (and a dolphin sighting!). Thanks for arranging the best seat in the house Jane!

 We ended off the night at the dark moody and classy "Locale" in the French Quarter.  What a wonderful day!

Brisbane Sunday

Going back to the place where you grew up arouses all sorts of memories, some good, some not so good and some hazy and ill formed.

The Old Museum Brisbane on Gregory Terrace in Bowen Hills has good memories for me. I'm smelling the aromas of the dusty halls filled with old glass cabinets of insects and artifacts and the well trod timber floors, from its days as the Queensland Museum (until 1986) and remembering the excitement of seeing the mind blowing Scandinavian Design Exhibition back in 1968 and my first original Picasso paintings in the rooms given over the the State Art Gallery collection before the collection found its permanent home on Southbank.

The Old Museum Brisbane is now home to the Queensland Youth Orchestra and together with the buildings surrounding it, forms a lively performing arts precinct in the city.

Last Sunday the Old Museum hosted the Finders Keepers Design and Art Market.  The place was packed with high quality work, talented young designers and trendy young (women mostly) locals.  The men there all had a slightly bored look on their faces apart from those queued up at the organic hand made beer marquee.

We met up with my friend Jane later the same day. We used to teach together at Canberra High School a hundred years ago.  When she moved to Brisbane I suggested she look at Bulimba as a possible place to live, which she duly did. Rob and I loved our time living in Bulimba back in 1972. 

This Sunday Oxford Street Bulimba was packed with movie goers, shoppers and a buzzy bar and cafe crowd. It took us ages to drive through the jam of cars and people.

But we found a quieter and much more sunny spot down on the river at The Jetty Oxford.

K. Rudd is a regular at The Jetty, but not this afternoon it seems.

We spent a few hours over drinks catching up with a year's worth of family, travel and work news as the sun slowly worked its way across the western sky.