Lake McDonald and Rain

Saturday October 22

My best night's sleep in Australia. Was it the Four-poster bed? More likely the mattress totally suited me and my wrist disn't wake me up for the first time in three weeks (broken blood vessel and spectacular bruise).

Sara and Mike had left for Eumundi Market soon after 6.30, bliss for them to do so without the children. They returned at 10ish to show off their purchases - I got a bag of avocados - Sara had a flattering new outfit, a dinner gong (! maybe the kids will hear it) and Mike a couple of shirts. The boys got new Tshirts too. Both of them will only wear black or blue, Harry started it.

After Sara had cooked them an eggs on toast breakfast, they all went to Marcus Beach, one of the few beaches where they can take the dog, south of Noosa. Pam and I toured the extensive Lake McDonald, finding several widely scattered access points, the only trip list addition a distant Jacana.

After lunch at a lakeside table, we set off for Noosa Heads - in increasingly heavy rain. This continued all the way to Noosa and back to the house, where we found that the family had arrived back five minutes before us. Luckily, the rain had started as they left the beach.

Pam Josh and I sat on the back porch watching birds for the rest of the afternoon. He loves using my bins, uttering joyous cries of admiration at the colourful plumage one can see close up. To our astonishment, a Buff-banded Rail sneaked across to the flower pots. Josh picked it up exclaiming 'Waw, it looked like a brown bird until I looked through the bins'.

Buff-banded Rail

.The Honeyeaters love the banana flowers with the emerging 'nana bunch small and green above. I don't think Josh had seen that before. We three sat happily chatting, occasionally joined by Sara and /or Mike whilst the rain continued.

Sara offered to take us to a good view-point in Noosa, we three women went off for an hour. We found the sea view place in the driving rain, glimpsing a goodly number of birds on a distant sandbank. Noosa is popular for weddings - Mike and Sara were married here - not a good day for the album photos although there was evidence of ceremonies.

I still haven't been able to get a good pic of the beautiful Pale-headed Rosellas nor the Blue Faced Honeyeaters. They're very wary - and Mojo's not a help either. When the rain stopped, he had a run out on the back grass with his toy.

Everyone decided that the pizza place 'Orange' on Sunrise Drive would be good again, table booked for six and inside this time. Everyone wore a woolly. I hadn't realised that a) it was called Orange and b) the glasses, candle holders and napkins were orange.

Another long wait for the food, an opportunity for the adults to chat. The boys were introduced to my laser pen as we left, five weeks plus in my bag and they didn't know. They were impressed when the beam reached the stars. Street points for Grandma.

After downloading my photos (battery down to 12%), we all, except for Harry, played a board game called 'Dash About Australia'. Very like Trivial Pursuits but you play on a map of Australia answering questions when you get to the major cities. I know very little about Australia as it turned out. One of my questions was ' what's the name of the purple shirted Wiggle'. What's the Wiggles? Children's programme.

We called it quits at 9.30.

A lovely relaxing day despite the rain  or maybe because of it. WiFi access means that we see very little of Harry but he's happy.