Bye Sydney, Hello Sunshine Coast

Day 7
After checking out and putting my luggage in storage, Alix and I jumped on the train to The Grounds of Alexandria to grab an early lunch. The grounds is a beautiful garden like venue that has different places to eat within it. It was a great place to visit and the perfect way to end an amazing week in Sydney. We then headed back to the hostel where I hung out for a bit and then got the train to the airport for my 6:15pm flight to Brisbane. Once I landed in Brisbane I got a shuttle up to Peregian Springs to visit my friend Zarli for several days (who I met on a group tour in Greece back in 2015) at her parent’s house. Everyone has been asking me if I am near the fires in Australia and what is happening with them. When I landed I couldn’t see anything from the plane until a minute before landing due to the smoke, it was actually really sad. During my first week in Australia I didn’t hear anyone talking about the fires (bush fires in Australia are common), I haven't been watching the news while being here so not sure how much coverage it was getting but I didn’t really hear anyone talking about them. There were fires in the Blue Mountains (somewhere that I planned on visiting because I heard the national park there is beautiful but due to the fires decided not to) which is a region a little less than an hour from Sydney. Throughout my week in Sydney there were definitely days that the smoke was in the air and it was gray out but those days were nothing compared to my last day in Sydney. I walked out of the hostel and I felt like I was sitting next to a campfire, you could literally smell the smoke in the air and it was pouring out. It got a little better as the day went on but it really put into perspective the reality of what was happening with the fires in Australia.

Day 8
Hello Sunshine Coast, if only the weather was fitting to the name, the forecast for the days I was visiting wasn’t very sunny. Today was a day full of nature, after brekkie on the patio we packed our bags to head out for the day. Our first stop was Kondalilla National Park, about a 45 minute drive from Peregian Springs, where Zarli couldn’t wait to show me the beautiful waterfalls there. Unfortunately, due to lack of rain, this thundering waterfall was a pathetic little trickle of water but the walk and views were worth the trip either way. We then headed over to Mapleton Falls National Park which had a really beautiful lookout even on the cloudy day that we had. We stopped in a town called Montville where we grabbed lunch and spent an hour walking around and window shopping. Now that we were full, we headed to Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve because I kept saying I really wanted to see some wild kangaroos and Zarli has seen pademelons (which are very similar to a kangaroo but smaller) on that walk in the past. As we were walking through we saw many pademelons hopping across the paths and even some that were mating in the bushes, they were everywhere (they are somewhat skittish so you couldn’t get too close). The one thing that we didn’t expect to see on our walk was the giant python (who had just eaten something) slithering across the path. Zarli has lived in Australia her whole life and has only seen snakes in the wild once or twice, and she has done this particular walk numerous times. Needless to say we were both high key freaking out, especially since we didn’t see it at first and could have stepped on it. What made us notice it was the pademelon who was lingering on the path even though we were walking towards it. As we got closer we saw three pademelons circling the python and stomping the ground; we think they may have been leading the snake off the path this way. It was very strange but cool to see animals in their natural habitat. After this encounter, every noise Zarli and I heard we were scared it was a snake. I am so glad Zarli was able to show me the walks that she loves so much and showing me a side of Australia that would have been difficult without a car. The sun goes down pretty early in the sunshine coast, so we headed to the river with a bottle of wine and a pizza in hopes of seeing a sunset but due to the overcast skies we had no luck. We headed back to Zarli’s to pack our bags to head to Bryon Bay in the morning for a couple of nights.Read more