Thinking Allowed: Beach Walkers

Mission accomplished - we made it to Noosa without much drama. The kids had moaned when Tamar came up with this plan - in Tova's words, "can you not have so many ideas, Mama?" But we set the weekly goal of walking 60 km up the coast, and we've all enjoyed it.

Most days, we'd pile into the car and drive a quarter-hour to some cute seaside town, then walk two-three hours to the next one. Some days were boiling hot, and we'd gratefully flop into the cool waters at Coolum Beach; other days our calves were lashed by sprays of sand whipping up the beach in gusts of wind. We learned to head out early or late, when it was cooler, and discovered the hard way that high tide means wet shoes and sloggy sand.

It's a beautiful part of the country. The beaches are soft and white, ghost crabs scuttle into tiny holes as you walk, and often the endless stretch ahead doesn't have a soul on it. Occasionally we reach creeks and have to wade across, shin-deep. Tova, Sophia and Zadie have all been carried across by Tamar at some point, with huge smiles.

The saga of Lilia and Marcus is endless. The black hole ended up unleashing three alien replicons on Earth, and our heroes set out on a mission to pursue them to darkest Africa. But the faithless CIA also sent Buster Biggs, a hotshot secret agent boy. Marcus, starstruck, ditched Lilia who was captured by poachers. until Buster, a heartless animal-hating meanie, abandoned them to be gored by a southern white rhinoceros. Luckily, the aliens saved Lilia and Marcus just in time - turns out they (the aliens) decided to just be chimpanzees and live a life of leisure instead of conquering the world. Buster ended up getting all the credit, but at least Guinevere's heart is safe.

We've now set the goal of walking south to Caloundra, to cover the Sunshine Coast end-to-end. This half seems a lot more built-up; yesterday's walk was mostly roads and sidewalks. We all noticed how much longer walking seems when your brain needs to process more sights and sounds, and I think we'll be glad when we return to beach walking where the miles float by to the quiet of the surf.