Mountain, Beach & Dirty Lake

This weekend the sun returned in all her glory! On Saturday we awoke just before 5am to attempt a sunrise climbing of Mt. Coolum. It took us a little bit too long to get out the door, however, so we missed the actual sunrise. It turned out to be a great thing, though, that we climbed the mountain so early because it made it to 37 degrees (98.6) yesterday! I wish we took a picture of the trail. Aussies don't mess around here with switchbacks or any of that nonsense. They just cut a trail straight up! The incline reminded me of some of the most intense moments climbing a 14er in Colorado- a great workout:). Here are a few pics from our hike, including some views from the top....

After sweating our way to the top of Mt. Coolum and enjoying the stillness of the morning, we made our way down and headed north to Noosa, one of the most famous Aussie vacation destinations. We had a glorious breakfast (including REAL espresso!), walked along the beach, and eventually made our way to the national park. It was absolutely gorgeous - as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures.

Some views from Noosa & Great Sandy National Park...

What the pictures don't show, though, is the heat. It was ridiculously hot! We just kept applying sunscreen, sweating, applying more sunscreen, sweating, swimming and getting sand all over ourselves, applying sunscreen and rubbing the sand around (naturally exfoliating!). There's nothing quite that feeling of sticky sand/sweat/sunscreen.

Then we hopped upon the good ol' scoot and went north to Lake Cootharaba. You will not see a picture of this lake because we didn't take one. We were expecting a picturesque lake with clear waters and lush green banks. Instead, we were disappointed to find a brown lake with flat surroundings. I guess when you grow up going to Priest Lake (the most beautiful lake in the world, in my opinion), there is a high standard of what a lake should be! We decided to head back to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. We did stop, despite the heat, to act as complete toursits and take a few pics by the kangaroo signs...


I'm sure the passing cars were impressed by Jonathan's roo-like capabilities...