I’ve arranged a house swap. In return for use of my little place in New Town, I have access to a lovely waterfront unit in a complex on a canal in Noosaville, the civilised end of town from the over-touristed Noosa Heads, for a couple of weeks.
I arrived on Boxing Day after dark, thanks to a delayed flight. However, thanks to Queensland’s non-observance of daylight savings, I was up bright and early the next morning, along with most of Noosa, and was out exploring well before 6am (it starts getting light at around 4.30am!)
Initially intending just to have a quick look around the local area, I of course couldn’t resist keeping going all the way to Noosa Main Beach, around 4km and a leisurely dawdle of an hour or so away. Many of the holiday makers were not dawdling, but jogging, presumably through force habit, or maybe to shift some Christmas kilojoules.
I reached Hastings Street around 7am, and even then, the traffic was jammed and parking at a premium. The beach was packed, with many already heading back to their accommodation (breakfast?).
After a stroll along to the eastern end of the north-facing beach, I too decided it was breakfast time, but the cafes of cosmopolitan Hastings Street were as packed as the beach, so I decided to head for home via a supermarket for supplies. Rather than walk I decided to catch the bus (which have been made free for the Holiday period to try and mitigate the traffic jams. Unfortunately I caught the bus in the wrong direction and found myself in Noosa Junction. There was a supermarket here, so making the best of the situation, I got my groceries and caught a bus back towards Noosaville.
So there I was on my first day in Noosa, having explored the Noosa River, Hastings Street and Main Beach, done my shopping and mastered the local bus service, all before 9am! After such exertions, the best course of action in the heat of the day was to chill out and relax, watching the world of Noosa’s canals pass by.
I soon met some of my neighbours – a family of Australian Water Dragons (Intellagama lesueurii), which live under the deck and quite often sit up on top, quite unconcerned by quiet human company.
