Walking Noosa Heads

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We woke up at 7.30 to make use of the free breakfast at the hostel and also took a couple of slices of bread to make some lunch later.

The forecast for the day was rain showers but the sun was shining first thing so we decided to do the coastal walk through the national park. We walked from our hostel 10minutes down to Sunshine Beach, where there were a few surfers making the most of the waves. We walked along the beach until we reached paradise caves where we had to climb 215 steps to get up to the top of the cliffs.

The vegetation has changed from the tropical palms that we had seen further North, to the bushes and trees that we had been used to seeing around Sydney. We walked through the trees until we came to Hells Cave which has views out across the ocean as well as down into a cove called Hells Gate. A ranger on the cliff top called us over as she had spotted a turtle down in Hells Gate. She told us that there is a turtle that lives in Hells Gate but this one was smaller so must be a visitor. After a few minutes of watching we noticed that there were 2 turtles swimming in the cove. We stayed around to watch them and tried to capture them on camera but the wind was really strong as we were out on a peninsula so we made our way along the cliff tops of Granite Bay towards Dolphin Point. We had been told that there was the chance we would see dolphins and whales along the coast but although we had been watching the ocean we hadn't seen any yet so we decided to take a break on the beach at Tea Tree Bay and see if we could spot anything. There were no dolphins or whales but there a few kayakers and learner surfers who were keeping us entertained instead. After a quick snack we carried on through the a Eucalypts past Little Cove, watching out for any koalas which we had also been told we may see along the walk. It wasn't until we reached the end of the National Park that a passing local pointed out a koala sleeping in one of the larger Eucalyptus trees.

We carried on along the coast line to Main Beach where there a few people ignoring the breeze and soaking up the rays. We walked along the main high st, Hastings st, stopping to browse in the shops along the way and stopped for a coffee and banana bread to refuel before making our way to the car park to catch the shuttle bus back to the shops at Noosa Junction. Unfortunately we had read the timetable wrong and missed the bus by just a few minutes and the next wasn't for another hour so we decided to walk up Noosa drive to the junction instead.

Once we reached the top of the hill on Noosa Drive we noticed a sign to pointing to Laguna Lookout. Having checked how far it was on our map we decided we would make a detour and walk up to the lookout. Although we were starting to question our detour decision half way up the hill when we realised it was a steep incline most of the way. At the top of Laguna Lookout we had views out to the spit at Laguna Bay where the Noosa river joins the ocean and across the waterways of Noosa sound.

After making our way back down the hill we went to Coles to pick up a couple of burgers for a bbq later and caught the shuttle bus back to the hostel for a late lunch of left over chicken and coleslaw sandwiches.

The latter half of the afternoon was spent sorting out washing and admin on the Internet before enjoying an evening of wine and cheese which the hostel hosted.

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