On the way up, I took a detour onto the Glass House Mountains tourist drive. The Glass House Mountains are the remnants of extremely ancient volcanoes. The volcanic plugs are all that's left of them. They stick up from the surrounding plains like they really just don't belong. They remind me of Devil's Tower, only older enough that there's more erosion of the volcanic rock itself (I think they are the result of similar geological processes).
Once I got to Noosa Heads, I discovered a cute little beach town, but, more interestingly, I found a beach with rocks and cliffs. I've never seen such a beach firsthand, so I found it very cool to experience. Getting out of the car, I ran into this guy:
This is a HUGE lizard. People here call them goannas, but they are also known as lace monitors. It positively dwarfs the lizards I've posted here before. This one was about 5 feet long, and quite bulky. I'd say at his chest, I don't think I could've gotten both hands around him.
A short walk later, I came to the beach:
You can see the sandy beach in the background, which is where I eventually went to swim. The headland sticks out and forms a bay, and there are islands further out, so the beach is nicely protected, and the surf is gentle. Swimming here was nicely relaxing, and the water was very comfortable.
You can also see the Glass House Mountains in the background:
There are nice walking trails along the cliffs leading around the headlands. The views are pretty spectacular.
The first little point you come to on the path has a rock formation called Boiling Pot. These next three photos should illustrate how it got this name:
From the overlook, you can also look down the cliffs to another section of the beach called Tea Tree Bay. There's a nice swimming beach here, with a bit more surf than the other beaches. You can see Dolphin Point from here as well ( I could have walked up there and taken more pictures, but, it started POURING rain).
You might also notice the surfers out in the water right off the point. The direction of the surf here provides for nice waves which run parallel to the shore at the edges of the points, so it's prime surfing water, as the waves can be ridden for quite a distance. However, there are still rocks to avoid in the water. In this picture, you can just make them out right under the surface (you might need to click the picture to enlarge it):
The tide pools here are very cool. There are lots of fish in them, and crabs as well:
I just love how colorful those crabs are. The bodies get really bright green and the claws are intensely purple (though, the lack of sun hides this fact).
These tiny little snails are everywhere:
And, strangely, the corals (or barnacles, or whatever they are) spit out little streams of water when the waves cover them then recede:
Also, I learned something about the size of this country. The distance from Brisbane to Cairns(1700km)is almost exactly the same as the distance between Atlanta and Boston...and they're in the SAME STATE! Melbourne is almost exactly the same distance away, but to the south.
