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AUSTRALIA Queensland - SUNSHINE COAST and Underwater World

March 26

It was a beautiful sunny day so we set off for a drive along the Sunshine Coast to explore some of Australia's fabulous beaches. We took the Bruce Highway from Manly, getting stung once again by the toll booth for the 8th time now ($2.60 each way). We detoured off the highway toward Redcliffe where we stopped to have ice cream and visit a few shops. A drive along the coast to Scarborough rewarded us with lots of beautiful beaches. At Scarborough we sought out the Marina where Matarua and Aliesha were storing their boats while in England. We decided that we preferred to remain in Manly as there were not many conveniences near the Scarborough Marina and even shopping necessitated a long bus ride.

We made a bit of a detour around Deception Bay, back out to the highway before we were able to head coastward again toward Caloundra.

The endless curvaceous coast of surf beaches at Caloundra were alluring, although they were all somewhat busy, being that it was Sunday. We checked out a number of sites including King's Beach, and Golden Beach, where we stopped to eat our picnic lunch under the shade of a panduras tree.

From Caloundra, we drove along a chain of beaches interrupted mostly by interspersed pockets of pine and interesting scrubby coastal trees including the Bunya Pine (left) that was an important food source for the aborigines. The superb beaches are the attraction here including Bullock, Dickey Beach, Wurtulla, Bokarina and Buddina, and we stopped briefly at each stretch of sand to admire the views of families and fishermen.

Underwater World

By late afternoon we arrived at the resort town of Moolooaba, a developed suburb with a variety of venues and restaurants. It is home to Underwater World and we decided that in lieu of the intended snorkel adventure we were hoping to have, a view of fish from the 80 meter tunnel would provide a feasible alternative.

Underwater World is the largest Oceanarium in the southern Hemisphere with a transparent tunnel that transports you by a moving walkway through sharks, wobbegongs, giant stingrays, huge grouper, coral and tropical fish.

The aquarium also featured rock pools and tanks with a variety of sea life

After we had our fill of fish, we headed for the strip of eateries, restaurants and bars opposite the active Mooloolaba Beach and had a bite to eat before driving back to Manly.