Yes, that's what it's called: The Great Walk. So I figured I'd better take a look at it. It's a 58km multi-day walk traversing the Blackall Range in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. And you can do bits at a time.
I walked an 11km circuit from Mapleton Falls lookout to the Ubajee Walkers Camp and back. It was.... well, pretty good! Especially the rainforesty bits
We were exploring the Mooloolaba Wharf area yesterday, enjoying the beaches, the cafes, the general ambience.
One of our members was hankering after a boat ride, and when not dwelling on that, she was talking bus rides. What to do to entertain her?
What indeed! Along came this amphibious boat/bus thing, going by the name of 'Reggie' for some reason. Problem solved.
Reggie drove us around Mooloolaba for a while, and then plunged straight into the river, and the associated artificial canal system.
He/she took us on a tour of the canal side multimillion dollar mansions of some of the rich and famous who call Minyama Island home, like Australia Zoo's Irwin family, for example, and their 'Crocs Rule' research ship.
I'd been wondering how much of the hillside was still in a fairly natural state, and whether you could access it and make your up through the bush.
Well, one place you can do this is the E J Foote Sanctuary. Sergeant Foote was a war hero from WW2, whose family owned the hillside. They donated the land that now forms this very pleasant reserve.
I'd been wondering where they were putting all the new people in booming Maroochydore. All I'd been seeing were enormous homemaker centres, a city centre construction site, and motorways.
Then, on my morning stroll today, I came across Sunshine Cove.
And it's not bad for a new suburb. Yes, the (often large) houses are built on tiny blocks, and yes, there are no shops or other such amenities. But it's nicely laid out. It's got walkways, parks, and a very scenic lakeside setting.
Joggers, cyclists, and strollers like myself, were loving it.
It's out along Lefoes Rd and then Sports Rd, just north of Bli Bli, and it's a bit of a gem. There's an excellent 1km boardwalk out through the wetlands to the mighty Maroochy River.The sign does warn about mosquitoes though. Better to be doing it between May and October, it said.
As well as open homing most Saturdays, we're also attending quite a few auctions, to get a feel for how it all works, and where the market's at.
And it's all appropriately educational. While one house auction last week had wild bidding involving 9 competing buyers, others attract no bids, or none of any interest to the hopeful vendors.
It's especially so for land auctions, I've noticed.
For a couple of decades early last century, there was a tramway connecting the main line at Palmwoods with Buderim, on the hill overlooking the Sunshine Coast. Part of the track, in the Mons area, is now kept as a heritage walk. I checked it out this morning. More on the tramway here: Wikipedia article
That's what I'll call it. It's the Petrie Creek walk, and it's got water
dragons and brush turkeys galore too, and today it had lots of very
brown water.
Until a week or two ago it did anyway. The fierce weather caused by the wayward tropical cyclone Seth punched a hole through the island, presumably permanent, and now there are two Bribie Islands! This is the view of the opening, from Golden Beach, just south of Caloundra.
These people are walking on the sand bank which I take to be the remnants of the broken bit of Bribie.
Only trouble is, nobody at the auction the other day was appropriately impressed. Offers of over $2 million had been rejected, they'd said. The bidding started with a vendor's (ie fake) bid of $1.8 million. A real person responded with a real bid of I think $0.58 million. The auctioneer tried to laugh it off. Nothing much else happened after that.
Being a potential buyer of Buderim land in the near future myself, I rather enjoyed this fun little show.
I've promised not to dwell too often on any negatives, any failing to match the standards set by my former former home, Sydney. But I do need to put on the record my disappointment regarding saltwater ocean pools. Sydney has about 40 of them, and NSW in total about 100. They're by far the best place to swim. Who really enjoys battling the surf at the beach, and splashing around for a few minutes before beating a quick retreat, having failed to swim more than three strokes at a time? Well it seems there's only this one 'beachfront saltwater pool' on the whole Sunshine Coast!
Put me in charge and I'll fix this!
Currimundi Beach, looking south towards Caloundra.
Here's the view round the corner, at Currimundi Lake Headlands Beach (as I've decided to call it).
Heading into Caloundra now, and here's a glimpse of quiet little Shelly Beach.
And Kings Beach, Caloundra.Not at all quiet.
And views, often spectacular. Montville is perfect for gazing out over the coastal areas to its east.
And just to the west of Mapleton you get to peer down the other way. Here's the view to the west from the Mapleton Falls Lookout.
I gather there's interesting bushwalking to be done in the Blackall Range around here. One walk seems to be known simply as 'Great Walk'. I'd better check it out soon.
I ventured into Noosa National Park this morning, or at least into the Headland section, a big chunk to the east and south of Noosa town. I did a nice 10km round trip from Sunshine Beach.
There were beaches, coastal heathland, rainforest, hundreds of surfers and day tripping tourists, and dramatic clifftop lookouts. An excellent morning out, and it reminded me rather of Sydney's Royal National Park, on a smaller scale.
Alexandria Bay
The Tanglewood Track
I saw a few drongos along the way. Many of them were driving noisy surf skis. Some of them though were these rather fine looking shiny black birds. (Spangled drongo - Dicrurus bracteatus)
It wasn't me, by the way. It was already here, they just weren't doing much testing.
And most people, when experiencing their flu-like symptoms, were I imagine insisting that it was indeed just the flu.
A lot of this has been going on on the Gold Coast especially, which neighbours Tweed Heads in NSW, and which isn't far from southern Brisbane. Indeed when we visited relatives in southern Brisbane last week, they gave us exactly that story. "Just the flu", they insisted. One family member was ill upstairs in bed, another 2-year old baby was in hospital. Just the flu! There isn't much flu around. It's nearly all Covid, I'd understood. And our people had just returned from a holiday on the Gold Coast. They'd even done a day trip over the border to the Tweed Heads area in bad old NSW.
Anyway, I'm unscathed. My rapid antigen test today came out negative.
So I found myself up there again yesterday, an accomplice in just such a bygone days pilgrimage.
And it was OK. The secret was the ferry ride from Noosaville, making redundant those traffic jams and car parks. Worked well. Mind you, the tent city that used to be Noosa Main Beach was a sight to behold. Looked a lot like something from the French Riviera.
I'll be back when all the tourists have gone home.
