First Weeks in Noosa & Australia Zoo

We packed up everything on our backs again and caught a bus into central Brisbane to catch another one back out of it: the Greyhound coach. Our next destination would be Noosa, although on the way we’d stop at a number of places including Australia Zoo. While here we noticed a billboard proclaiming November 15th would be Steve Irwin Day, so decided to plan our Australia Zoo outing to coincide as we had the month to choose from.

The 3+ hour trip went by quickly as I had an audiobook of Richard Dawkins’ Greatest Show on Earth to occupy my mind. As well as greatly clarifying anything I didn’t know about the evolutionary process, I found it greatly inspiring and hope to ellaborate more on that subject in a future post about games.

My relatives in Noosa live in Sunrise Beach, in a beautiful house looking out onto the Coral Sea (essentially the coastal Australian stretch of Pacific Ocean) from a raised hillside, perhaps a hundred metres from the water’s edge. After the first week they were away in Tasmania for 20 days, so we looked after the house and (temporarily resident) cat. After the busy sightseeing and activites of the previous two months, Noosa was to be something of a break. Some days were spent simply relaxing at the house. I had the chance to get a lot more work done, in the fine office that was a pacific-view balcony. In addition, I participated in NaNoWriMo, but that is a subject for an entry in itself.

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North Stradbroke Island – Part 2

The next day, we had a plan. After saying a short farewell to the two Irish girls, we drove down to Cylinder Beach, the most ‘friendly’ of the island’s beaches, off the road just before Point Lookout. It seemed an ideal place for a pair of sea-noobs like us to literally get our feet wet.

I am contradicted (as ever) in that I feel most naturally comfortable and in my element on the deck of a ship, yet I cannot swim to save my life (unless my life can be recovered in less than a minute, because my treading water endurance is on par with my deep space endurance). I am also entirely untrustworthy of the unknown element of the ocean. A particularly unkind observer might declare that I am basically afraid of sharks. But this isn’t quite fair. It’s the Jellyfish that I don’t like.

Anyway, I digress. I only wish to point out that me touching the water wasn’t out of the question, I was just never that enthusiastic on going properly into it. Yet something that day made me change my mind. Perhaps because I hate passing up on things due to negligible, silly worries and risks; it would be most uncharacteristic for me to do so. Whatever it was, we both waded into the crashing waves. I didn’t expect to regret it, and indeed I didn’t; it was immensely enjoyable. The sea was cold; reflecting the time of year more than the weather of the day (which was roasting). But it was welcome and refreshing, bobbing up and down with the waves.

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