Our trip out of Brisbane brought us along the Sunshine Coast, we had heard good things about this stretch of coastline but before we got that far we had one or two things to tick off the list first.
We headed towards the Glass House Mountains. These are about five large mountains that rise up from what is a rather flat surrounding landscape. It's as a result of erosion from millions of years ago where the surrounding countryside was once higher but got whittled away while the hard rock of these mountains remained. The result is an unusal landscape with beautiful scenery. We climbed one of them that first day out of Brisbane. It's called Ngungen, it was only a short climb but when we reached the summit the views were fantastic and so we stayed there awhile taking it in and enjoying the breeze!
We camped in Caloundra that night just behind Dickie Beach. The beach is named after the ship that ran aground there, the wreck is still on the shore which is pretty cool. It's a beautiful little place. We were up pretty early the next morning, about 7am and as we were walking over to the beach I was rubbing the sleep out of my eyes thinking we'd have the beach all to ourselves. Silly me! It was still holiday season here so all the families were out in force. There's no better way to wake up in morning than having a small wave crash over your head!
We visited Australia Zoo that morning, the famous one run by the late Steve Irwin. His father originally set up the zoo. His father was in fact and still is the original crocodile hunter! It costs about 50 bucks to get in but well worth it. It was very like the Lone Pines Koala Sanctuary except for the crocaseum! This is where they hold the croc show, which in itself is worth the entrance fee! The show is not just about crocodiles though, they bring all manner of animals into the arena for display and even have a few staff members bravely wander about with snakes etc throughout the crowd! They lure the giant crocodile up a few feet into the air by dangling meat above the water! The poor guy who has this job said half-way through the show 'If I appear nervous it's because I am!'
They had a big bird show too, where a massive Jindabye bird flew clumsily into the arena, as well as many colourful parrots and lorikeets - it was super! The rest of the zoo is quite interactive, you can wander amongst the kangaroos. They have an African section too with lots of elephants and tigers. It' a fabulous place and very much orientated at educating about the animals.
We drove to Noosa that evening and camped near Peregian Beach where we had a quick dip before dinner. Being able to have a swim at least once a day is divine. The weather on this stretch of coast is particularly stifling and with no air-con. in the car it can be a bit unbearable at times. So being able to pull into a beach and jump in the water for a cool down is pretty sweet.
The following day we decided to catch a ferry across to the Great Sandy National Park, of which Fraser Island is a part of. The section we travelled across to is a separate island. As it is national park the whole island is a nature reserve and so wildlife was abundant. We caught our first glimpse of kangaroos in the wild that evening. We arrived and pitched the tent and were strolling over to the swimming pool when right in front of us were three male kangaroos, having heard us the three of them turned their heads to have a look at us. Once they were satisfied that we were no harm they kept munching away on the grass beside the pool. It was brilliant just to see them like that.
That night we woke to a noise outside our tent and when we peered out to see what it was, there was a few more kangaroos gathered around having a feed. They tend to feed in the evenings/ night times. We had an encounter with a cheeky Kookaburra that evening when we were eating too, it kept landing on James's shoulder when we he was eating, and flying towards my face, it was ridiculous! Anyway having had our fill with Australian wildlife we caught the ferry back to the mainland the following morning and headed north to Hervey Bay.
That night we woke to a noise outside our tent and when we peered out to see what it was, there was a few more kangaroos gathered around having a feed. They tend to feed in the evenings/ night times. We had an encounter with a cheeky Kookaburra that evening when we were eating too, it kept landing on James's shoulder when we he was eating, and flying towards my face, it was ridiculous! Anyway having had our fill with Australian wildlife we caught the ferry back to the mainland the following morning and headed north to Hervey Bay.
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