Hangin’ loosa in Noosa – National Park Walk to Sunshine Beach

After checking out of our hotel in Nambour, we boarded a bus to Noosa – around an hour North East of Nambour. We had heard a lot about Noosa whilst in the UK, how nice it was supposed to be and so on. Well, we arrived at Noosa Heads bus station on a beautiful sunny day and immediately head for a walk to the shops near us in order to find somewhere that had a local bus timetable and map, so we could find our way to our new hotel. We discovered a tourist information centre near the Noosa Heads Surf Club and we headed inside to find out what there was to do in Noosa.

It may sound daft, but we had not looked at a map of Noosa prior to arriving (in fact we rely on the maps in our Lonely Planet guide which are usually of main cities in each state so didn’t have a map of Noosa) and we had no idea that it appeared to be a collection of islands next to the sea. The make up of Noosa is interesting, huge swathes of beach land, a large National Park that covers the beach head to the East, and a number of rivers and lakes. We had a chat with the tourist information lady who told us of a number of things we could do, such as a lake tour through what is known as the “Noosa Everglades”, a speed boat tour of the harbour, paddleboarding, surfing, ferry bus trips and of course, walking through the National Park. We immediately regretted that we had only booked one night in Noosa, but as we had work on a dairy farm in Bundaberg starting on 29 October, we could not afford to stay more than one night. As we had not yet booked our transport for the following day, we decided to catch the late bus to Hervey Bay so we could have a day and a half in Noosa.

We picked up a bus timetable and headed to our motel (which as it turns out was near a bus stop we had already gone past on our way into Noosa) which was approximately a 15 minute drive away. After arriving at our motel (Sandy Court Holiday Units) we were pleased to discover that our room was a self-contained apartment with an en-suite and one wall made of glass – which provided an ample supply of light into our room. We had a nice chat with the lady who ran the place before we decided to walk to Noosa Heads (so back where we came from, only sans heavy rucksacks) so we could go to the beach and maybe walk through the National Park.

The walk back to Noosa Heads took a little longer than we imagined, around 45 minutes, but it was worth it because we passed some stunning houses and had great views of the river system around Noosa (it really is a beautiful pace to have a property). By the time we got back to Noosa Heads we were a little sweaty and tired so we decided to stop at the Surf Club for a drink. Believe it or not, the Surf Club had a dress code! Basically, you had to be fully clothed…which is fair enough.

 

After a quick drink (non-alcoholic as it was middle of the day and searing hot) we headed towards the National Park entrance which was conveniently only 5 minutes along the street. We had been informed that there would be a board at the entrance that outlined that day’s koala sightings but unfortunately the board was blank. We had chosen the Coastal Walk route through the National Park, which was one of four paths available. The guide map said the path was approximately 7km and would take around 3 hours, but that was due to the winding nature of the path and, I guess, factoring in time to scan the trees for koalas, which we did…a lot.

  

  

The walk was very nice, the scenery was stunning and the actual path for the most part was a developed path and not just walking through rough ground (which was fine by me due to my nervousness at the prospect of finding a snake in the grass). We stopped for many photos and our particular favourite spot was just above Sunshine Beach (appropriately named by the way, unlike Mount Pleasant in Swansea which is anything but pleasant). The beaches stretched for miles and we saw dozens of surfers old and young making the most of the big swells around the headlands. We reached a point where we had to cross Alexandria Beach when the tide was quite high so we spent some time splashing in the sea (swimming was out of the question as that particular patch of sea was extremely rough) and playing in the popping sand…honestly, the sand made popping noises when you stamped/walked on it (we have a video to prove it).

  

  

A local Kookaburra

   

  

  

   

  

Joel giggling at the naked man

Nicola surveying Sunshine Beach

There was one hilarious/awkward moment of the day (guess who found the following hilarious and who found it awkward). We were walking along the beach, minding our own business, when I turned around during a conversation with Nicola to look behind us and I saw a completely naked man just wandering along the beach behind us, apparently enjoying the sun (perhaps a little too much) and swaying in the wind…I spun back around and could barely contain my laughter as I tried to whisper/motion to Nicola that there was a naked man walking behind us. Nicola turned to have a look and we both tried not to laugh as he overtook us (much like cars, humans move faster when they weigh less…we simply couldn’t keep up with a determined naked rambler).  He went off to the side to sun bathe whilst Nicola and I tried to find the spot where the beach met the path. We struggled for a few moments and I considered asking the naked man for directions, but being a child I didn’t trust myself to keep a straight face when talking to him. Also, how much can you trust directions from a naked man? I didn't want to find out.

We ended the evening with a nice meal at a long-standing steak house, where we treated ourselves to a few pots/glasses of wine and was served by a waiter, who despite having a thick Aussie accent, surprisingly spoke Swedish (but in fairness we couldn't confirm or deny the accuracy of his Swedish- but it did sound pretty convincing!).