Today, the hotel has suddenly become the Marie Celeste. When I arrived on Saturday it was heaving and there were cars and “utes” in every parking space. Today, it seems Australia has gone back to work after their long Australia Day weekend, and there is no one about. In the town, all the shops are now open, but there are far fewer holiday makers milling around and most people seem to be just going about their normal day to day business. The pool at the hotel, which over the weekend was full of shrieking children is now strangely deserted. I start with a simple breakfast of coffee and doorstops. To explain, in a very smart café in town, I order coffee and toast. The toast, like everything in Australia is larger than life – on this occasion it was 2 pieces of toast, each more than an inch thick of proper white bread - so much for healthy eating, but it was very good. I collected my hire car – a bluemobile this time – a small “Getz” , a peculiar name for a car, but it is small and perfectly formed and “getz” me to where I want to go…. It has the requisite aircon which is so needed here as the humidity and heat are really high – lovely! It was after lunch by the time I was ready to start driving about – sorting the car and then sorting some Malarone (the anti malarials I need for Cambodia) took longer than expected. I was heading for Mooloolah, a village in the hinterland, but took the wrong turn off the Bruce Highway and found myself heading unwittingly into the Australian Dream at Mooloolaba - well they both began with “M”.... As I drove along the Sunshine Motorway (how much nicer are these names than the M1 or the M25), I realised I was heading in completely the opposite direction from the one which I had intended. But so what, that’s the beauty of what I’m doing – you get waylaid by a wrong turn, but it doesn’t matter – you will still discover something new and interesting, and can try and get the right place tomorrow. So I carried on back towards the coast and arrived in Mooloolaba, a coastal town north of where I am staying. I thought I had arrived in a film set for the Australian Dream. The houses on the way in were perched at the edge of the inlets with boat moorings at the bottom of their green lawned gardens. The seafront was like a picture postcard – a wide, sweeping beach with blue sky and sea, golden sand and the white surf of the rolling waves, populated by young, bronzed people playing in the surf and skilfully surfing and body boarding in. The shops were all small boutiques, trendy restaurants and posh real estate agents flogging beautiful “absolute waterfront” properties and penthouses. It’s all so clean, wholesome and even the parking right on the front is free. There are bbq’s to use, showers all over the place to get the saltwater and sand off, and no graffiti anywhere. There’s even a very posh (free) loo right on the front called “a loo with a view”! Southend, Brighton and Blackpool you have a long way to go… it really was the Australian Dream here on the aptly named Sunshine Coast. But smart shops are all very well, but where do you buy your food? As I drove out I came upon my answer, a huge “edge of town” shopping centre with Woolworths, Coles, and lots of other shops all inside airconditioned comfort. I had to stop and check it out - why do such simple things like grocery stores in other countries seem so much more interesting than Tesco or Sainsbury’s? By this time the Sunshine Coast was looking to become the rain coast as large black clouds started to roll in, so I head back to Caloundra. Sitting on my balcony as dusk was about to settle there was the most amazing cacophony I have ever heard – so loud. I guess it was the dusk equivalent of the dawn chorus, but it felt more like something from the Alfred Hitchcock film, “The Birds” – either that or the end of the world was nigh, but if you are reading this, you will know it wasn’t…..
