Morning views 2: Coolum Beach with hardy holidaymakers

Three long weekends in a row! That's what they've contrived to have here in Queensland this year. And someone commented today it's why we've had three damp weekends in a row too. This Monday will be Labour Day, and before that we had Anzac Day and Easter Monday. Lots of tourists in town, and they've decided not to forgo their beach experiences.

Morning views 1: Towards Noosa Headland from Point Arkwright

 

Evening views 4: Chambers Island from Picnic Point

 

Evening views 3: Maroochydore sunset

 

Evening views 2: Sunshine Plaza and Cornmeal Creek

Sunshine Plaza, I see, is Australia's 26th biggest shopping centre, with 107,000 square metres of lettable floor space. Not sure whether that's impressive or not, just thought you ought to know!

Evening views 1: Mt Coolum and points north from Cotton Tree

 

Maroochy foreshore

 

Bradman Avenue, Maroochydore, this afternoon, from the motorway bridge.

 

Another day, another auction.....

Keeping in practice today, attending yet another house auction in Buderim. The market is said to be cooling slightly, but this one went well for the vendors. 

I took a special interest in this one. After four months of looking, we've finally identified a house we'd really like to buy. The auction for that one is in two weeks time. We've hired a buyers agent to assist, as you do. The seller's agent, after all, is there to work for the seller, trying to maximise the price. Our chap will cost quite a bit, but the gamble is that his know-how could save us many times more. The sums involved are enormous.

Blue in the face

Because it's a blue-faced honey-eater!

Also known as the bananabird.

I hadn't encountered these until I came to the Sunshine Coast, though they're said to be widespread elsewhere. They do battle with the noisy miners for control of the tree out the front.

Cooroora conquered

 
 

 

I made it to Mt Cooroora the other morning. Well worth the trip. It's a somewhat bigger and more challenging peak than I'd realised. A chain helps a lot, but some of it is rather steep and slippery. 

It's just outside Pomona. Excellent outing!

Caboolture's Centenary Lakes Park

 

The view from Wild Horse

 

 

And it's a good one. Wild Horse Mountain is the only Glass House mountain that's on the eastern side of the Bruce Highway. But that's why it offers a particularly good view of the other more westerly, and generally higher, Glass House peaks. It's accessed via a rather boring concrete roadway, and an approximately 100m ascent to the lookout tower. But it's well worth it.

Parklands' Komine circuit

 

 

 

I'm always game for a new 5 km early morning exercise circuit.

 

 

 

Here's a corkscrew tree!

Mudjumba sights and drains

 

 

There's a nice little loop walk to be done in Mudjimba, involving the Xanthorrhoea Track and the 'Mudjimba Drain', no less, in the Maroochy River Conservation Park. Doesn't sound too salubrious, but in fact it's a bit of a scenic gem.

Mt Coochin's twin peaks

 

Coochin is one of those lesser Glass House peaks. Actually, twin peaks. 

In fact, the hardest bit was finding the entrance to the car park. It's tucked away a bit, and looks like a private driveway. It's just south of Beerwah, on the Old Gympie Rd.

The eastern peak from the western peak

 

 

 

 

The western peak from the eastern peak. 

 

Terrific views of the rest of the Glass House group from either.

Ngungun on a quieter day

 

Mt Ngungun is the one arrowed in this Glass House panorama I took later from Mt Coochin to the north.

 

I'd attempted to climb it a few weeks ago but had been defeated, not by any arduousness of the climb (there isn't really much), but by the enormous crowds of Sunday walkers there, and the consequent near impossibility of parking close to the start!

First thing this weekday morning was much more conducive. Just a handful of before-work fitness types. And me.

Approaching Ngungun's summit

Mt Beerwah, the biggest of them, and in front of it, Mt Coonowrin. The latter is unclimbable except by rock climbers with all the gear.

Parklands trails: 1 - Rocky Creek circuit

I've discovered the western entrance to the Parklands Conservation Park, on Radar Hill Rd.

 

And there are lots of bushwalking circuits to be done. Mountain bike trails too. 

I've started with the Rocky Creek circuit, a bit under 6km. It's the orange one in the more northerly part of the map.

Birds, bakeries, buns!

 

 

 

 

This juvenile butcherbird was taking an awful lot of interest in the treats on show at Banjo's bakery cafe yesterday morning!

Unconquered still: Mts Cooroora & Cooran

 

I walked with my bushwalking club again today. This time we were to walk from Cooroora to Cooran and back, largely in the Tuchekoi Nationla Park.

I'd wrongly assumed that the plan was to climb the mountains at each end of the course, mountains which go by these names. In fact that wasn't to be.

 

 

Not to worry, I'll save them for another time. The 15km walk, along pleasant tracks and fire trails, was a nice little leg stretch anyway, Punctuated by the refreshment stop in Cooran town.

Mt Cooroora, by the way is near the town of Pomona, while Mt Cooran is near Cooran.

Noosa Botanic Gardens

 

 

It's near Cooroy, a few kilometres west of Noosa. Not at the western end of Hastings St in Noosa itself, as claimed by Google Maps! (See: Not Noosa Botanic Gardens)