Since our last report from Sydney, we are happy to say that the weather has improved dramatically! Our quick side trip to visit friends of ours outside of Adelaide in Normanville was supposed to be the coldest three days of the trip. Lucky for us, the weather turned around and we enjoyed partly cloudy skies with lots of sunshine in between, culminating with a beautiful day on Sunday for our outdoor barbecue picnic on the Normanville Beach at the local Yacht Club.

Before we hit the beach at Normanville, we took a quick side trip in the morning to the southern most point of the Fleurieu peninsula. The name evokes some of the French influence of the region as it was the French who first landed at this spot in South Australia. They did not deem it worthy of any French claims and it was the English who later claimed all of Australia as part of the British Empire a couple of hundred years ago. The scenery in the Deep Creek Coastal National Park was spectacular as we saw kangaroos, numerous birds and magnificent coastlines.

We returned to Normanville where the kids enjoyed the beach and the additional company of other children as they frolicked in the wet sands and just had lots of fun. The sunset was absolutely spectacular as you can see in the adjacent pictures. Normanville was absent of a lot of the touristy influences that we would later experience in Noosa and remind us so well of Zermatt, Switzerland. It was easy to understand its appeal for the friends who live here, especially enjoying this Sunday barbecue in the middle of their winter with a still very pleasant 18 degrees centigrade in the sun!

On Monday we then flew up to Brisbane and continued by car to Noose Heads where we spent the following 4 days. We awoke on Tuesday to rain again, but at least not the colder temperatures of Sydney. However as the day progressed it cleared up and we explored the main street in town before hitting the National forest and even walking on the beach. Noosa was “alive” even with the fact that this was their “off season” in winter. Larissa our oldest remarked how easily she could live here, which didn’t surprise us with its close similarities to Zermatt and all of the tourists. For the first time in our trip, we even heard Swiss German being spoken.

On Wednesday we made the trip down to Eumundi and walked through the famous outdoor market. I finally purchased my Aussie hat which I had been looking for since Sydney. In the afternoon the sun came out and we headed straight for the beach. The waves were simply awesome and the pictures don’t really do them justice. Callum did his first bit of body surfing as we all enjoyed very comfortable water temperatures for the middle of winter – 20 degrees.

I must admit though, I did not trust taking my Travel Tec into the deep surf off of Noosa and kept the watch locked up in the car instead of bringing it to the beach. However on the other pictures you can easily view this constant companion to the trip. On the 24th of July my dad in Ohio enjoyed his 78th birthday and I was easily able to calculate the 14 hour difference to his local time thanks to my watch before calling.

On Thursday we took a river boat cruise into the Everglades area of the Great Sandy National Park. The lush almost jungle-like vegetation and tropical surroundings were great to see. In the middle of nowhere we enjoyed an afternoon tea at Harry’s Hut. Whoever could make a business in the middle of nowhere work like this place does was beyond me.

Noosa was a lovely chance for the five of us to catch up again as we were only among ourselves and no other friends or itineraries to incorporate into our daily plans. It was easy to understand the lure of this place where the houses have neither heating nor air-conditioning as the temperature is a pretty constant 15 – 30 degrees throughout the whole year!