We're Just Walkin' Around...Lookin' Around...

I went out with the Walking for Pleasure Brisbane group yesterday for one of the all-day walks.  Anyone who wants to go pays a transport fee and we all ride together in a hired bus/van to a scenic locale. We went north to Minyama, Mooloolabah and Point Cartwright. It was about an hour and a half ride up and we did 4 different walks in the area with picnic stops for some BYO morning tea and lunch.

This train station screen is a stand-in for the comedy-of-errors beginning to my trip. First, the train was different from the online schedule, so I arrived at the meeting spot with only 10 minutes to spare. Then, the pedestrian "tunnel" I thought I would take wasn't open for the day. Then I needlessly ran/speed-walked around the block twice, wearing a backpack and a raincoat (it was not raining). The lovely group members waited for me and looked for me and I made it onto the van only about 10 minutes late. 

 

(Sorry for the wobbly phone/camera and the wind noise)

 It was totally worth it because the walks were so great!  This is the group walking along the Esplanade Park beach. The other photographer is also a group member, he was smart enough to bring a real camera.

 

The beach was about 8 miles long, but we only walked a couple of miles along it. This pic was taken from Point Cartwright, which has a working lighthouse on it. This is the Coral Sea, the Eastern shore of Australia is on the the Coral and Tasman seas.

(Caution more loud wind noise)

We saw some surfers at a break on the north side of Point Cartwright. They were all wearing full wetsuits as it's the middle of "winter" here.

 

 We walked along another, more sheltered beach surrounded by parkland and walking paths. The Surf Lifesavers had flags out and were patrolling the beach, so people could swim. These beaches were all posted either no swimming, or swimming only between the flags.  Check out the Australian Surf Lifesavers, making ocean swimming safe in Australia.

 

I'd like to go back and explore these tide pools some time, anyone want to join me?