My Great! Sunday walk

 

I've explored bits of the Sunshine Coast Great! Walk before. Track closures due to flood damage prevented me doing the first section properly though: Baroon Pocket Dam to Kondalilla Falls.

Yesterday I took advantage of the good weather and the patched up track, and off I went.

It's a bit under 20km to do the return walk, including the loop around Kondalilla Falls, and there are a few hundred metres of ascents and descents. I was keen to check that my joints and muscles were still up to it, what with some recent 'mobility issues' dating back I think to my Covid episode of a few months ago. (I'd hate to end up like the Queen, at least not just yet.)

 

 

Here's the destroyed bridge near the start, officially by-passed now with a sandbag walkway.

 

 

 

 

 

The pool at the bottom of Kondalilla Falls

 

 

 

This gallivanting goanna caused a bit of a stir at the picnic area at the top of the falls.

Some particularly colourful fungus

Picnic Point, 4pm: fishers, kayak club, & the bird lady!

 

It's the place to be!

Choice Coastal Cafes #10: The Old Court House (aka Urban Garden)

 

 

 

 

We've been meaning to check this one out for a while, but it's been hard to find a nearby parking spot!

Probably not just for the cafe, but it's at the busy Maroochydore end of Cotton Tree, and it often seems to be full of lawyers, police officers, and hapless victims of the justice system!

It was worth the wait though. It's an interesting place. It's just along the road from the new law courts and the very big police headquarters. And more to the point, the coffee was good,and the breakfast toast was cheap (though you had to toast it yourself).

 

We'll be back!

Looks like a tourist

Not sure it did really, at least not most of the tourists we get here on the Sunshine Coast. Maybe it was designed as comment about Western tourists in third world holiday places.

I came across it at Cotton Tree this evening. 'Looks like a tourist' was part of the Horizon Festival, currently being played out in Cotton Tree and elsewhere on the Coast. It's 'a visual spectacle that saturates the landscape bringing our attention to the complexities of being a visitor in a new place'.

 

 

 

 

 

And then they went home.... 

More on the festival: www.horizonfestival.com.au

Bird Lady below!

These  were Pied Cormorants in the tree above me (Phalacrocorax varius),and I'm not sure I've ever seen them in trees like that before.  

Mind you, it was approaching 5pm and I was at Picnic Point. The iconic Bird Lady was doing her thing in the park below. I think they were waiting their turn.

 

Here's my previous post on the Bird Lady: previous post

Choice Coastal Cafes #9: Envy

 

 

 

 

It's called Envy, and I'm a little envious of those who discovered it before me. I only got there today, and it's all very healthy. But tasty too. It's one of many still-to-be-exploreds along Cotton Tree's Esplanade.

Sunshine Coast marathoners - and their little brothers and sisters!

 

Today Sydney's City-2-Surf fun run was in the National news, back in business with its tens of thousands of entrants after a two-year Covid break. But up here we had the Sunshine Coast Marathon.

They take these things seriously here, and between the marathon, the half marathon, the 10km run, the 5km run, and the 5km walk, I suspect they had almost as many takers, all up. 

 

 

I was a bit late getting up though, and
didn't enter anything. Or even witness the actual marathon. There was lots still going on though. Lots of fun running especially. I was particularly taken by the final event: the 2km Family Dash.

 

 

 

 

Some of these kids will be the marathon men and women of the 2032 Olympics.

Choice Coastal Cafes #8: Banjo's Sunshine Plaza

 

It's part of the Banjo's Bakery chain, which originated in Tasmania, but since spread to other states with good taste.

This one's special claim to fame is that it's almost underneath the Next Level High Ropes Adventure Park ropery, so you get to watch the amazing adrenalin adventures being had up there. (Not today though - I think all the staff were off doing the Sunshine Coast Marathon - more about this later.)

 

 

It also serves a very nice coffee in takeaway cups, and about the best pies I've encountered. Pride of place goes to the Tasmanian scallop pie. Quite an institution.

Choice Coastal Cafes #7: Coffee Club, Buderim

 

It's part of the ubiquitous Coffee Club chain, but bear with me. The coffee's always good, the food's good too, and in this case, you're right next to the gorgeous Buderim Village Park.

Yesterday I had the Eggs Benedict with salmon and spinach, and it was, unexpectedly, one of the best I've ever had!

The Bird Lady of Picnic Point

 

 

I think it might be a daily performance. I'll do further research and report back. 

Picnic Point's legendary bird lady was out yesterday afternoon, welcoming some of the rainbow lorikeets back to their overnight roosts.

Choice Coastal Cafes #6: Raw Energy

 

 

 

Raw Energy is a nice little outdoor cafe in the Zone shopping centre on Wises Rd, Maroochydore.

Some of its energy and style stem from the stylish barista and the particularly stylish coffee art he specialises in.

The grumpy coffee on the left, of course, was the decaffeinated one. The regular, caffeinated one was the smiley one on the right!

Choice Coastal Cafes #5: Mountain View Cafe at Mary Cairncross, Maleny

 

This is the one with the million dollar views. The food's good too, as I discovered today.

And as a bonus, it's attached to the Mary Cairncross Reserve in Maleny, whose rainforest walk is possibly the best curated tourist nature trail I've ever seen. See also here: earlier post

Cooee!

 

I ticked off another of the lesser Glass House peaks the other day. It's Mt Cooee, maybe so called because it's within cooee of big Mt Tibrogargan.

It's one of the lesser known and lesser climbed ones too. The track up it is not always well defined, though there are some pink tape markers at times.

Most days it would be a very easy walk, with perhaps an occasional scrubby interlude. This was shortly after a wet few days though, and the slippery rock slopey bits posed a bit of a challenge. Especially when I was being distracted by a noisy helicopter circling overhead, seemingly looking for someone to rescue!

There were at least two false summits, with cairns. The real summit, a few hundred metres further along and a few metres higher, didn't have a cairn.

 

Views from none of them were spectacular, but you did get to see neighbouring Tibro, where many of the real rescues take place.

Glorious Point Glorious!

 

 

How glorious is glorious? It's pretty good anyway!

There was a healthy and enthusiastic turnout for the Sunshine Coast Bushwalking Club's expedition to Point Glorious in Mapleton National Park, north west of Yandina, the other day.

A somewhat muddy patch at the start was soon left behind, and mostly we experienced perfect bushwalking conditions, trackwise  and weatherwise. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the early ups were a fraction taxing, but the group recovered in style with a very leisurely morning tea. During this I sighted a record number (for me) of comfy chairs being unfurled!

 

Before too long we'd gained a bit over 300m in altitude, and assembled at the Point Glorious lookout, for the superb views across to Mt Eerwah to the north east, and several other peaks further off to the north and north west.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Sam Rowe

 

 

Then down via a different fire trail, past a sad looking mystery object: not one of our cars fortunately - an abandoned vehicle that may or may not have a dark secret attached.

Choice Coastal Cafes #4: Medinah Lebanese Street Food

 

 

This was quite a surprise. It's in the (surprisingly pleasant) shopping strip of Brisbane Rd, Mooloolaba, ie the non-touristy part of Mooloolaba. As well as very drinkable coffee, they were serving, as advertised, delicious Lebanese ...... street food!

Queensland Air Museum

 

I went to see the Queensland Air Museum the other day. It's in Caloundra, at the old aerodrome.

 

It's packed full of old planes, civil and military, in various states of disrepair. Aviation enthusiasts love it, I'm sure.

 

 

I specially liked the exhibits that commemorated various defunct airlines. Australia has a particularly rich aviation history, and lots of brave ventures have come and gone.

 

 

I got to pondering what exactly constitutes a 'museum'. If it's a collection of old stuff, then this is quite a museum. 

 

But if it's to do with a careful 'curated' display of old things, with attention to education, aesthetics, and comfortable sense of space, then maybe this place doesn't quite get there?

 

 

Some of it is rather jumbled and higgledy-piggledy, let's face it.

 

There's a similar museum in NSW's Illawarra, called the HARS Aviation Museum. That was a much better organised kettle of fish, I thought.

Four out of ten to this one then.