We have had a really lovely few days here in Noosa. The weather has been good and the town is quite small, but modern and has lovely beaches and a national park. After our lovely tea cooked by Fee, we took an evening walk on the local beach, sunshine beach. It was a nice evening.

The next day we spent all morning food shopping as we kept missing buses and had to negotiate the local transport system. Ruth wasn't feeling too good this day so she had an afternoon nap while Jade, Sally and me decided to take a three hour trek in Noosa national park. There are a number of routes to do but we chose the coastal route, which took us along sunshine beach, then up over the cliffs to the next bay and carried on like this until we reached the main beach at Noosa. The track was very pretty, across beautiful secluded bays and over green, tree lined paths. Along the coast the waves were huge and were crashing into the rocks, it was all quite impressive! One of the beaches we came to on our walk seemed as if no one else was there, it was very peaceful. Until, Sally spotted a man in the nude climbing over a fence onto the beach, he then proceeded to strut past us. Carrying on a little, we started to spot groups of naked people catching some rays or chilling in the shade. We then realised we were hiking across a nudist beach. We felt quite overdressed!
On arriving in the main part of town we had a look around, then decided to get the hostel courtesy minibus back to the hostel as we had done enough walking for today! The minibus picks up from the bus station, but we had somehow found the wrong bus station! After a short while of pondering the map, we decided to just go in a local shop and ask. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong shop. The man we asked told us the way, but he wouldn't let us leave! He kept talking about how much the other bus station cost to build and where buses used to pick up. We now know all about the buses of Noosa, but it meant we nearly missed our last free bus back! Somehow we managed to tear ourselves away from the man and had to go over another massive hill to reach the bus station we intended to be at! For once, we caught the bus and made it home for well deserved showers! We decided today was our half way point in our travels, so we decided to have a treat with tea. We bought in a tub of Dairy Milk caramello ice cream, which we became addicted to on the farm in Barraba. It was a tasty way to celebrate!

The following morning, Jade decided to stay in bed and have a lie in, while Ruth, Sal and me headed to the main beach. The beaches here are all set in bays with long stretches of clear sand and nice, warm waves. Sally and me booked onto a surf lesson for the afternoon which was great! The instructors were really good and after the safety session and practising pushing yourself up on the board, both of us were standing up straight away and starting to choose and catch our own waves without the instructor. We were very proud! The most difficult part was actually getting out into the sea. Every time you made some progress further out from the shore, a huge wave would come and push you back! It was really tiring getting the board through against all the waves. It was a relief when you were far enough out to turn around and surf back to the shore! At the beginning of the lesson when we had just for in the water, everyone got caught in a massive rip (a big current which is really difficult to get out of) and the instructor had to save us and pull us all out! Overall though we both really enjoyed ourselves and are planning to enter all the surfing competitions next year, so watch this space(!)

After the lesson we met back up with Jadie and Ruth and flopped on the beach for a while! We then treated ourselves to another ice cream as a celebratory prize for standing up on our surfboards!

Tomorrow we are taking the bus from Noosa to Hervey Bay. We spend a night in a hostel there and meet the group we are going onto Fraser island with. We go onto the island on Monday and drive around in a 4x4 then camp there for a couple of nights. I think we are all looking forward to doing something different, so I will let you know how it goes next time I post!

Amy x