Around the World (Again) Noosa

Noosa

After a spider free journey, but with lots of searching, we eventually arrived at Noosaville, the only planned destination on our trip, I have been here twice in the past and fell in love with this wonderful place, the first time I set eyes on it. We had been lucky with our choice of Motels (with the exception of the Stockton one, but there we had no choice it was the only one) and here we hit the Jackpot, it turned out to be the best one of our holidays.  Clean, large and with all mod-cons, even a laundry room so Linda could do all of the washing (I thought, we are on holiday, but that’s lasses for you, never happy unless they have a mop and dust pan in hand)

Noosaville, is situated on the Noosa river, on the Sunshine Coast, about 120km North of Brisbane, the Noosa river meanders through mangrove swamps, but as it reaches the ocean, it turns into sandy beaches and sand bars, it caters well for the Australian holiday makers as does the rest of the Sunshine Coast and of course the much more famous Gold Coast. I was glad that we had hit it before the coming Christmas break as then it would have been impossible to get a place without prior booking.

Our Motel apartment consisted of a large living area, with cooking facilities, a bedroom and a large bathroom. Just a few meters away were the swimming pool, with a fully equipped BBQ.  Luxury lad pure luxury!

 

We spent the next 3 days here, just relaxing, cooking and fishing, in reality the real reason that I wanted to come here, as I had, had great success here 10 years ago (sting rays, trevally, whiting and bass), I was hoping to replicate it.
We done our post carding (writing and posting), we ate out and cooked in, on the BBQ and the induction hob (great invention, but boy do they heat up quick).


The first lunch time we ate at a fish restaurant, purporting to be the oldest in Noosa, Maisies. I had grilled squib and Linda deep fried calamari rings and chips (both tender and juicy not the rubber things that often come onto your plate disguised in inedible batter.

It was very nice but I have had better, but the location overlooking the Noosa River was perfect, but then 90% of the restaurants and cafes overlook the river.

I remember eating at the Yatch Club the last time I was here, but the motel manager warned us that it had gone downhill and was only good for a drink on the veranda. That evening it came across very dark (no not the sun sinking over the horizon dark, because then it is still quite light, this was the darkness and stillness that pre-empts a tropical storm, the heavens opened. It was, as we later found out just the tail end of a much larger storm that had deluged Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We decided to take our lives in our hands and race across the street to an Italian restaurant that done take-aways, so we settled on a pizza Margarita to share between the two of us, I am not a great fan of the pizza Hut or frozen style pizzas but if properly made (like my footy mate Marino does) then they are one of the better fast food options. This was very nice, thin crisp bottom and not too much tomato sauce and fresh tomato and basil topping.

Next day we thought that we would eat out for lunch and cook our own evening meal, that said we went and done a shop at the Co-op, this is one of the two main supermarkets in Australia, one is supported by Jamie Oliver, the other, Coles, is supported by Heston Blumenthal. We bought some nice ready marinated pork cutlets, we also bought some ready washed salad leaves and a melon. We took it back to put in the fridge and then went to see the town of Noosaville.

We had lunch at one of the many restaurants selling fresh cooked fish, 2 nice battered fish (crisp batter not at all thick and the fish perfectly cooked). We only had 1 portion of chips between us we being very good. I washed mine down with a ginger ale (Bunderberg of course)

 

We had a nice walk along the river looking at the price of fishing boat hire, not a lot between them.
There was a couple of birds posing!

We walked until we came to the camp site that I had stayed at the last two times I had been here, we had a couple of drinks at one of the many cafes and then decided to head home and cook our evening meal.

 

BBQ on and before you could say Jack Robinson (who was that chap?) we had our evening meal, really very tasty as it was washed down with a glass or two of Aussie Pink.

We watched a bit of tele, yes you’ve got it “The Big Bang Theory”, I wrote a bit of my blog, I have been doing a bit of playing at catch up, as I find it difficult to concentrate on the driving while writing up the blog.

Next morning we got up early so that we could get out on the water before it got really hot, so we got up at about what according to Linda’s watch was 06:00 had a leisurely breakfast, (bread, cheese and Wurst), we put our things together and wandered along the quiet empty promenade, funnily none of the fishing places had opened we reached a one looked through the window, just as a chap came along saying hang about a bit I will just open up, both Linda and I thought, well they are very laid back about starting work here.

But we got the fishing tackle, the bait (shrimp) and then the boat chap, loaded up the boat with 2 canisters of fuel, gave us a fleeting induction, “Lever forward you go forward, lever back you go back, lever in the middle you stop”. He showed us the channels and marker buoys and that was it away we went for 3 hours fishing. Now before we go any further, I am an ancient mariner, have been fishing and mucking about in boats for most of my life and am quite capable of reading charts and watching out for buoys, but more to the point I know Port from Starboard, Linda doesn’t, but she thinks she does and once she had that chart in her hands she became very authoritarian and started acting as the pilot of a 250,000 tonne Super tanker on a river passage. Thank goodness I have a very good deaf ear, and am able to not hear certain “obvious” commands.

She also had never baited a hook, used a fixed spool reel (or any other for that matter), due to me having to give her instructions, bait her hook, I lost at least 3-4 good bites (to the question of how do I know if I have a fish on the hook, I just rolled my eyes). I also explained, I cannot be done with an incessant chatter and will not participate in useless conversation when I am concentration. No Linda fishing is not FUN, it is a sport and I enjoy it, I want to catch something so I can cook it and eat it. It is I suppose my hunting instinct, I hunt and fish for the pot NOT FOR FUN, so please be quiet and allow me concentrate on catching fish, you continue feeding the fish with our prawn bait.

Heading for the fishing grounds

The Cap'n keeping a weather eye open

Looks fair dinkum to me matey

The second of the day and the biggest

 

The competition

Heaving the anchor (it had got caught, chortle chortle)

I caught 3 smallish ones 2 yellow finned bream and 1 sand whiting, all well below what one could call reasonable, so they went back. I had an enjoyable morning on the water, I think Linda had fun, I am sure I didn’t. I do not think we shall be repeating that little journey into the unknown.   

We got the boat back alongside (Linda I know how to steer a 4 meter skiff thank you) and got everything back to the hire people. We walked along the shop side of the street (the other side you get your feet wet as you’re in the river). We thought a nice cool drink would be nice, we popped into a café for a beer, when asked the lady said sorry the bar doesn’t open until 12:00, Linda looked at her watch and said but it is 12:45, to which the lady replied “no it is 11:45”, the lights came on, Linda had altered her watch last in Sydney and not realising when we crossed the Border into Queensland that there is an hour difference (I also hadn’t realised this but as I do not possess a watch I am in no way responsible for this fore par).

We decided to have breakfast, I had seen the day before that this particular restaurant had Lambs fry breakfast on the menu, I ordered it. Linda ordered a bacon and egg toasted sandwich.

 

After that I decided to head off for my Siesta and Linda to do some more shopping!

She had bought some very nice Lamb and mint kebabs and green asparagus, we made the rest of the salad adding some of the tasteless melon that we had bought (forgot to mention that).  We got the induction hob out , boy are they quick, I am seriously thinking of getting a one, but will I need new pots and pans?

A quick spray with low calorie fat and that was all we needed, the salad made, bread sliced and in the wink of an eye  it was finished.

We finished of a bottle of Aussie pink and settled down to watch "The Big Bang Theory". Some things never change, though I shall be glad when the new series starts.

W repacked the bags again, and again! found that there was a pair of Jeans and a pair of shoes that would not fit in, so they went in the bin, the shoes getting a bit thin in the soles and the jeans too large around the waist (hee hee, I am rather good you know).

Next morning it was bye-bye Noosa, here we come Brisbane.