Noosa Heads March 25

Our second day with hot weather, (yesterday we returned to the Mall to cool off & to shop at Dan Murphy’s for white wine). Today we drove N to Noosa Heads, another recommended ‘must see’. Queensland Parks & Forests guide described it as wild coastline jutting into the ocean; wallum heaths, woodlands & pockets of rainforest with hoop & kauri pine (refuges for wildlife, including koalas & glossy black-cockatoos). The drive on the M1 was an easy 100K; off the motorway the final 30K was eye-opening! There were lots of Round-Abouts; shopping centres, merging busy streets... a tourist Mecca with all the trappings: hotels/motels, eateries, boutiques & surf shops. No place to park, not even at the Info-Site. We drove until we hit Noosa National Park at the head of the peninsula; where we had to stop! First impressions: unbelievably overdeveloped, high-end, confusing road system & hot! The beaches are great; few surfers, not crowded with places to picnic.
We picked up a trail map at the park entrance, noting a sign listing koala sightings. This headland park has 5 tracks ranging from 1 to 8K. We took track 4 along the rocky shoreline with spiky pandanus, thru woodlands with piccabeen palms, to Boiling Pot & Dolphin Lookouts and Tea Tree Beach. It satisfied us! We recognized Boiling Pot from the brochure photo. We also spotted a Koala snoozing in the midday heat high in one of their food tree. Sceptical, we considered it had been brought in for the tourists! Nevertheless it brightened our day, especially when the little guy opened his eyes & looked our way– a great picture moment! Besides the Koala, we spied a noisy black bird (not a Cockatoo), 2-inch lizard, 4-inch cockroach; a sleeping snake curled around a branch high above us, several bush-turkeys & got a 41-second recording of a roaming 5-foot lizard! Had a great picnic & got our Koala sighting added to the board. Not half bad for a Noosa outing!
BTW: the Noosa newspaper writes about a blog’s fight to protect koalas (KoalaDiaries.com.au). Apparently a block of land was sold with over 20 large koala food trees, which is now a pile of woodchips. The Blog reads: have these people missed the point living in Noosa entirely – or is this the way of the future? As we drove away from Noosa Heads, we thought a little-too-late!
We drove back south along the coastal highway to explore more of the Sunshine Coast. Once again, unbridled residential development blocked most of the ocean views. We are fortunate to be staying in Brighton where development bylaws have kept the beachfront clear. At Wild Horse Mountain Lookout we stopped to climb the very steep trail to appreciate the 360 degree view (123 metres above sea level). It was worth it! We took pictures of the Glass House Mountains & miles of reforested pine trees. We didn’t tarry, due to the handwritten “Beware of snakes” sign and the abandoned snakeskins near the lookout! Home again, to discover that the demolition of the house next-door had been halted just before noon by a court injunction (owner in dispute with the builder). Countdown to our final two weeks has begun -- hard to believe!