Wednesday 11 September 2013 – Discovering the Sunshine Coast.

We were both up early again this morning – it is becoming a habit!  Grant went fishing over at the beach while I had brekky, showered, made more cuppas and read.  Pauline and Terry called past and said goodbye, then a neighbour  from a couple of rows behind us, who I had spoken to a couple of days ago came over to where I was reading and within half an hour had told me the life story of herself, her brothers and sisters and her children.

By then Grant had returned from fishing and made a cuppa and sat by the water to drink it, so he wandered back in the middle of the storytelling.  Eventually I made an excuse that I had to go to the toilet, so she left.

We then decided on the day’s plan and set off for the first stop – Eumundi, where twice a week there is a huge market.  Every Wednesday and Saturday between 9 and 12, the small town is inundated by tourists and locals alike, with buses carting people from at least seven different towns on the Sunshine Coast.  We didn’t get there till about 11am and left there at a quarter to twelve.  It appeared to be very good, though we only walked about half of it – largely run by hippie types of all ages.  The main reason I called it quits was because it was quite hot (about 30 degrees today), but also very humid, and though a lot of it was under cover, the crowds and the lack of a breeze through the aisles made it quite unpleasant.

From there we thought we would drive to Tewantin near Noosa where Neville was playing cricket, so we drove there, found the oval (and it was in this tiny town that Zola blotted her copybook - directing us to ‘take the third exit through the roundabout’, which we duly did – no way I’m arguing with her again – only to eventually discover that she should have directed us to use the second exit!), and the match had about five overs to go before lunch.  Neville’s team was batting, so we chatted to him until they broke for lunch, then left and pointed our noses to Yandina – and the famous Ginger Factory. Had something to eat and drink there before joining the information tour of the factory which was most interesting.  The tour finished in the tasting room where we were given several samples of ginger flavoured marinades, toppings, bastes, etc – all very yummy.

The vats of ginger – not really green but taken through a window which was obviously tinted.

 From there we went over the road to the Nuthouse where they put the macadamias through their paces, but we thought their sales range was very overpriced.  They were much dearer than the ones I got from the fellow at the Torquay market a couple of weeks ago, and didn’t taste any different (I sampled some).

Back at camp by about 4pm we had a cuppa then I went for a walk over to the shops opposite the caravan park and did a bit of browsing, while Grant went fishing on the beach.  When I got back I took a rod and went over too, but didn’t have any real luck.  There were a couple of pelicans loitering near Grant and I (I was fishing about 100 yds away from Grant,) and I had just taken a handful of whitebait with me and put it on the ground at my feet.  Well the pelican near me took a fancy to it, and came right up to me and was sneaking around behind me, obviously intent on getting my bait.  So I had to pick the whitebait up and hold on to it, but the pelican was still almost under my feet and eyeing me greedily.  Then would you believe, I caught a fish and I was too scared to pull it in because I thought the pelican would gobble it, then I’d have the pelican on the end of my line!  What a dilemma!!

After just playing it cool and letting the fish swim around for a few minutes, I called out to Grant who came over to see what was going on.  He told me to reel it in, and just as it got to the edge it jumped off the hook. But the pelican kept harassing me because it knew I was clutching bait in my hand, so I cast in one more time – got caught on the bottom and lost my hook and sinkers so I gave up.

Next thing Grant caught an undersized bream and his pelican was all eyes, and though it got the fish when Grant threw it back, the fish got the better of it and slipped out of its mouth.

Trying to intimidate Grant.

At that stage I went back to the van – by then it was almost 6pm, and now we have had tea and our stay at Cotton Tree is almost at an end.