“How inappropriate to call the planet “Earth” when it’s clearly “Ocean” – http://www.dailytravelpill.com
The best beach project started with a question, which one of the many beaches in Queensland is the absolute best? But as I lay in my tent beside one of the Sunshine Coasts most popular beaches, I’m finding it difficult to define what a best beach might look like. Listening to the sounds of the waves gently lapping on the sand, I’m filled with a sense of peace and tranquility. I’ve had a really good night’s sleep and wake gently to the rhythmic ponding of the surf. Time for a coffee, the day doesn’t start before coffee.
The feeling of sleeping near the beach is a luxury not afforded to many people, even though we live on an island surrounded by sea. I can’t help feeling my best beach project quest is going to be more difficult than I first thought. If you want to know how I got to this point in my motorcycle journey click on the following link: Emu tries cafe racing – Day 14
Time for reflection
To try and clarify my thoughts I decide to take a walk along the beach (with my second cup of coffee), it’s early and already some surfers are out looking for that perfect wave and adrenaline rush they get from it. I think to myself, maybe my Best Beach Project should be asking some surfers what they think a “Best Beach” is? The water is warm and sand soft, but slightly abrasive on my skin as I sink into it. It looks like the tide is coming.
My father once told me, “if the sand is soft on the tide-line and you sink into it, then it is coming in because the water runs under the sand first”. “If it is firm and you can walk across without sinking then the water is running out from under the sand” and the tide is going out”. I’d like a fact check on this bit of wisdom, but I have no real reason to doubt it. He was after all a Royal Marine so should have know this stuff.
“What is a perfect beach?” Is it the junxaposition between the sand and the surf?Is it the feelings we get by being near or in the water? or is it the promise of relaxation offered by the beachside community? There’s an undefinable quality to being by the beach. However, I feel the Best Beach Project is taking over my enjoyment of just riding, it’s becoming more like “Hard Work”.
Is the best beach here on the Sunshine Coast?
The Sunshine Coast has numerous awesome beaches, in my view these are more accessible than the majority of Gold Coast beaches. However, like the Gold Coast many of the beach suburbs are on the same ribbon of golden sand. It doesn’t make sense to focus on individual beaches along that ribbon, but rather on individual beaches of interest.
I’m on day 15 of my now coastal tour of Queensland, and I continue on my quest the “Best Beach Project”. If you’re new to my blog you may not have read the reasoning behind this quest. It all started when I wrote a blog post about my home town Bowen in North Queensland. I said in that blog that Bowen had the best beaches in Queensland. While at that time I had been to a lot of Queensland’s beaches, I hadn’t been to all of them and therefore I was not in a position to say which was the actual best beach. If you want to read this post click on the following link: Bowen North Queensland, Best shore diving spot in Queensland
My quest begins
I put into action a plan to go to all the beaches in Queensland, so I organised time off work, prepped my bike and hit the road. My first destination was west away from the beach, I had some bucket list items to tick off before making my way back to the coast. You can see the start of my journey at the following post Day One of my Outback Motorcycle Tour of Queensland.
Once I hit the coast I started recording all the accessible beaches as part of my Best Beach Project. I’m now on the Sunshine Coast and I’m exploring Colundra, Mooloolaba and Maroochydore beaches. Tomorrow, I’m going to Noosa to follow the river to Harry’s Hut.
Exploring the southern Sunshine Coast
The sound of the traffic is a bit of a shock to me as I’m riding down the main road through Maroochydore to Mooloolaba and then down the long stretch of suburbia to Colundra. I know the beach runs parallel to the main road, but to access it I have to drive down this high density housing nightmare. It reminds me of the soulless drivers with their fixed expressions passing me on the Gold Coast. There is an interesting contrast between the people I meet on my travels and the people I see in their cars. It’s like there’s a switch that turns them on and off, I guess we all have that switch.
It’s only if the switch stays off for too long that life seems to fall into a mundane sameness. Not so on a motorcycle, there’s always some idiot trying to kill you so you can afford to be “turn off” when riding. So I continue on my way, but I’ve noticed the congestion increasing and I seem to be coming into more suburbia.
I take a quick left and look for my closest beach, I don’t want to spend all day riding around towns and cities. My destination is Bulcock Beach is not the southern most beach area, but it is an easy place to start and does look like the beginning of the exposed sandy beach areas. The plan for today’s part of my Best Beach Project is outlined in the map below:
Colundra
The township of Colundra sits at the southern end of the Sunshine Coast, it extends from the northern tip of Bribie Island to Mooloolaba. In a way it similar to those on the Gold Coast, I’m not really interested in long sandy breaches broken up into different names for each suburb. Once the beach goes past Moffat Beach it is fairly straight. In this review I want to start at Bulcock Beach and work north.
Bulcock Beach
The sand is spectacular and the azure blue ocean is inviting. All the beaches at this end of the coast are framed by small rocky headlands and golden sandy horseshoe shaped beaches. It’s the type of imagery that is presented in international travel magazines. Rather than being the long straight strip of golden sand, these beaches are smaller with tucked away inlets. In parts they are developed with cafe’s and resorts, in other areas they are parklands that encourage people to have picnics.
Happy Valley
Happy Valley is a small open beach that adjoins the Colundra espanarde. It is the beginning of a walking pathway suspended over the beach. The pathway offers an awesome opportunity to either stroll the length of the beaches or to take it up a gear and push your limits with some rigorous running. The view over the Pacific Ocean is spectacular.
Walking between beaches provides an opportunity to not only enjoy the tranquility of the water but to explore other beach areas without having to leave the beach and wonder down endless roads.
Kings Beach
As you round the rocky point of Happy Valley you can see in the distance the headland of Kings Beach. The Kings Beach Esplanade stretches in a horseshoe pattern. At the northern end of the beach is the Metropolitan Colundra Surf Life Saving club and a salt water swimming pool.
Kings beach is relatively small but has spectacular ocean access and a tranquil beach setting. The walkway continues past the saltwater pool and around the rocky escarpment to Moffat Beach.
There is no beach area past the saltwater pool as it is a rocky foreshore until you get around the two points to Shelly Beach.
Shelly Beach
The rock foreshore continues around the point from Colundra Headland and joins up with Shelly Point Headland. Past this is the Shelly Bay Reserve and then Shelly Beach.
This beach doesn’t appear to be the calm gentle family beach that is Kings Beach, it has a more down to earth raw beauty about it. Maybe it’s the rocky surface that seems to frame the beach or it could also be the lack of trendy development right on the foreshore. The park reserve that runs the full length of the beach. It tends to make it feel more like being back in nature. You know! undeveloped, a rare feeling in this part of the world.
The beach has a number of rocky flats that would prevent it being the great swim beach of the other mentioned in this post. It would probably be great snorkelling on a calm day or a place kids can hunt for shells.
Moffat Beach
Continuing your journey of the southern Sunshine Coast beaches, we come across the last of the beaches in this area before heading back to Mooloolaba.
Moffat Beach dips around the point and continues on to Dicky Beach and then Wurtulla Beach. From Moffat Beach, the beach is split by Currimundi Lake which flows out to the ocean. From Moffat Beach to Kwawana and Buddina Beach it is a straight narrow golden sand ribbon much like many on the Gold Coast. I think the main features of the southern part of the Sunshine Coast have been highlighted in this blog, its time to move on and continue my motorcycle tour.
Mooloolaba
The sound of the name “Mooloolaba” conjures in my mind some sort of “Hawaiian” resort town, with flowing palm trees and hip shaking “Wahines”. In the early days of the town it was very much promoted with this type of image, great surf, beach bars etc… Today, it is a restaurant and cultural hub of modern beach life.
I have a memory of this area is siting on the wharf over looking the Mooloolaba River, watching the boats go in and out of Port Cartwright heads. The whalf is where you go to take a dive boat out to the famous exHMAS Brisbane, a purposely created artificial dive site. If you want to know more about the exHMAS Brisbane read my blog post : https://digitalswaggie.com.au/?p=163
I have spend quite a bit of time in Mooloolaba over the years. The above photo was taken when going out to the exHMAS Brisbane for my first dive on this amazing artificial reef.
Mooloolaba Beach
The southern point of Mooloolaba Beach is sheltered from the south east winds by the break water for the Mooloolaba River. It gets some good point breaks when the surf is pumping and some great shore breaks when the wind comes more from the east.
The sea side area is full of cafes, restaurants, bars and surf wear shops. There are plenty of high-rise apartment buildings and low level resorts.
A key feature of the Mooloolaba foreshore is the proliferation of coffee shops, art galleries and high end clothing shops. Mooloolaba has in my opinion always been in the shadow of Noosa Beach and Hastings Street, but is making a valiant effort to complete.
The road that runs along the beach front takes an upward direction as it goes over Alexandra Headland and down into Maroochydore. Maroochydore beach continues after this rocky headland with a significant amount of park land just behind the beach. This is a popular walking track and has great vantage points to look out over both Mooloolaba and Maroochydore to find the best waves for surfing.
Behind the highway are a proliferation of high(ish) rise apartment and hotel accommodation as well as residential units and eventually suburban housing. I feel like I’m in a suburban community as I ride over the hill. There are shops and small shopping centres, and of course one of the biggest shopping centres on this part of the Coast the “Sunshine Plaza”. The only difference is the expansive Pacific Ocean and the small patch of grass and sand that separates this suburban jungle and creates a beach side community.
Maroochydore Beach
The Maroochydore Beach ends at the Maroochydore River. The river itself spreads out into a fairly wide estuary known as Cotton Tree. There have been a lot of beaches so far and my Best Beach Project is getting more complex the more I ride.
Cotton Tree
Cotton Tree is the estuary on the Maroochydore River, the beach adjoins the Maroochydore Beach but enables a raft of water sports from kayaking to stand up paddle boarding. Like the estuary at Currumbin Alley, Cotton Tree has secluded and safe areas for young children to swim while the foreshore has parks, cafes and restaurants.
Time to continue
It’s time to continue with the Best Beach Project. I wake early in the morning, but I’m in no rush to hit the road. The Cotton Tree Inlet is just outside my tent and I take time to enjoy a coffee before the “parking lot” (see my previous blog post for context) residents wake and the onshore breeze picks up. It’s day 16 of my motorcycle tour of Outback Queensland, now coastal Queensland and I’m looking forward to getting out of the rat race and congested traffic of the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast regions.
Today I’m riding to the Cooloola Recreation Reserve and Harry’s Hut on the upper Noosa River. I only have one beach to look at for my Best Beach Project before heading away from the South East Queensland coast. This has been a pretty long blog post but there were a lot of beaches to cover. Signing off for now………safe travels:)
