QLD Odyssey – Part Four: Noosa

From Craftsville to Glossville; coffee and a rare gelato; not-so-rare bush turkey sighting; a peach of a beach; kraken good salad at Peregian Beach; Bistro C review

With the prospect of sunshine and a predicted midday high of 22 degrees Centigrade – in the middle of one of the coldest spells seen in these parts for a very long time – we headed for the famous seaside town of Noosa*.

Beach bunny Verne in her element – and Roy? Not so much

(* Properly pronounced by locals in a faux-posh accent as Nyooosa, with a pinched nose – or so I am reliably informed.)

Noosa is less than half an hour northeast by car from Eumundi, the crafty hinterland haunt where we were spending three nights.  But these two towns could not be more different.

Noosa town

I don’t know what we were expecting. Something more casual, more laid-back – more Australian, right? Not this glossy and cosmopolitan resort mecca.

Roy in his element – somewhere you can smell coffee brewing; Hastings Street, Noosa

On a glorious Sunday morning, every clothing, jewellery and home décor boutique was open for business, and Queensland’s famous café society was in full swing.

With no tables to be had on Hastings Street, the main strip, we resorted to this slightly off-the-road Mexican food stall for our coffee – and it was fine!

Even better were these gelatos, Roy’s his favourite vanilla  and mine the dulce leche macadamia and salted caramel. (This is a rare and uncommon treat, let it be known. Roy didn’t lose 34kg since March 2020 by feasting freely on gelato.)

Rare gelato moment

Bush turkey moment

Rare wildlife in Hastings Street – a native brush turkey, fully protected in QLD

Interesting to discover that this native brush turkey (or bush turkey, or scrub turkey), an arguably handsome fellow that’s fully protected in terms of the Biodiversity Act 2016, “is now recovering in areas where they have not been seen for many decades”. (Particularly in Hastings Street, Noosa.)

Also in favour of the long-term survival of this species is that it does not taste like chicken, according to one article. The recommendation goes, “When you cook a bush turkey in a pot, throw away the bush turkey and eat the pot.”

Noosa Beach

Finally, we made our way to the beach – it’s not visible from the town – and immediately saw exactly why Noosa has become so desirable. It’s not just the perfect waves peeling onto a pristine stretch of pearly beach, and the promise of a picturesque river estuary around the corner; there’s also a leafy, rocky promontory that defines the end of the beach and marks the start of Noosa National Park. Truly the best of all worlds.

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For lunch, we headed south down the coast to pretty Peregian Beach. There, we lunched on hearty kraken salads ($22 each) at The Captain’s Daughter – super-casual, but definitely recommended.

Kraken salad at the Captain’s Daughter, Peregian Beach
Peregian Beach – no rival to Noosa, but then what is?

Review: Bistro C, On the Beach, Noosa

Max and Trevor – and plenty of others on the internet, incidentally – had recommended dinner at Bistro C in Noosa’s On the Beach development.  It was outstanding! – delicious food, sterling service and a relaxed and intimate space.

Bistro C, Noosa

We started with half-a-dozen fabulous Coffin Bay oysters with tobiko and wakame ($24), followed by caramelised pork belly, artichoke mash, pickled red cabbage and crackling ($39) for Roy. For me, the high country lamb – 12-hour braised shoulder and cutlet with saffron pearl cous cous, goat’s curd, ruby quince and pomegranate syrup ($42), plus a side of crispy Brussels sprouts ($12). A couple of glasses of red for me and just one for Roy, who would be driving us back to Eumundi – thanks, sweetie! – and it came to about $150. (Do book – this was Monday night, the place was full, and most of the tables around us were turned over at least once.)


Noosa estuary view
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Verne Maree

Born and raised in Durban, South African Verne is a writer and editor. She and Roy met in Durban in 1992, got married four years later, and moved briefly to London in 2000 and then to Singapore a year later. After their 15 or 16 years on that amazing island, Roy retired in May 2016 from a long career in shipping. Now, instead of settling down and waiting to get old in just one place, we've devised a plan that includes exploring the waterways of France on our new boat, Karanja. And as Verne doesn't do winter, we'll spend the rest of the time between Singapore, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand - and whatever other interesting places beckon. Those round-the-world air-tickets look to be incredible value...

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