While having breakfast this morning, we looked outside and discovered that it was raining quite heavily. We still weren’t sure what we were going to do today so we took our time with breakfast and when we were done, the rain had stopped.

We were debating between a 1 1/2 hour “cruise” along the Pumicestone Passage and driving down toward Brisbane and going to Bribie Island (the island you can see from our apartment). The drive won out and we hopped in the car to head south. First thing, though, was to fill the gas tank – at the first gas station we saw, the price had jumped 10 cents a litre overnight. We drove up the street a little further (two more roundabouts) and saw a station that still had $1.35 on their sign so we filled up there. That was the only place we saw at yesterday’s price so I guess they just hadn’t put their price up yet. Gas costs here are like in the United States – instead of all the prices in town being the same, they can vary up to 7 or 8 cents a litre.

On the way to Bribie Island, we saw the Glasshouse Mountains and they were so clear. We thought we would take a side trip to a lookout on Wild Horse Mountain and get views of the island and the mountains. Once we got to the parking lot, we realized that wasn’t an option – there had been a fire (turns out it was a controlled burn) and the hiking trail is closed until Monday.

Once on Bribie Island, we drove around to the beach area –

we had a nice view of Brisbane (across the water) from Red Beach (no idea why it’s called that – the sand is white) and then we drove to the east coast – the weather was beautiful, not even much wind; however, there isn’t much to see on the island as most of the area is a national park accessible by water.

We came back to Caloundra and went to Kings Beach for a picnic lunch and then walked along the rock shelves looking in

tidal pools. There were a few big ones that held some fish and crabs.

We also found an area full of crushed shells and small rocks and spent some time sifting through the shells looking for interesting pieces.

Then it was back to the condo to relax before our long day (and early morning) tomorrow. I probably won’t post until Saturday since I’m pretty sure we’ll be tired when we get back and there’ll be too many photos to sort through.

Temperature: 25 C – sunny with heavy rainshower in morning and some cloudy periods