Percy Pelican plays hard to get! Again.

A very leisurely start to the day. The early morning walks seem to have been quietly dropped from the daily itinerary. Partly because it has been cloudy in the mornings, but usually clears and warms up by midday. Any old excuse, eh?

Walked in to the river to check up on the exact spot where we have to be at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning for our Fraser Island visit.

Sat and watched all the goings on for quite a while. A family came in on a wee boat, having been out for the morning fishing. The women went off and dad and the wee girl were left with the boat. Dad got out his fishing rod and stood there, lost in thought, with wonderful clouds on the other side of the river and the sun just coming through. Perfect blip, I thought. I asked him if I could take a photo, which I did, and of course then we got chatting. It's always interesting to hear what Aussies think about the Aussie economy.

Walked on and there was Percy Pelican again. Just sitting in the water. I hadn't brought my Canon (it weighs me down sometimes). JR sat down, ready for a wait while I snapped away (she's been very patient with all this blipping lark). I turned to her to say that I really wanted one of Percy flying, when she gesticulated wildly. I looked around, and what was Percy doing? Yes.

Taking off!!!

Of course, I wasn't ready for him to do something so exciting, and a yell slipped out... 'You little ba*****!'

I turned to see a older couple sitting at a picnic table, chuckling, and I felt I had to explain my outburst.

Walked back to our luxury abode for lunch, very annoyed at missing out on Percy. We decided to go down to the marina, where we'd seen him before.

Parked and walked round to the water. No sign of him on the water. But there he was on his perch on top of the lamp! I hurried round, got my camera ready... He took one look at me, and flew off in the opposite direction. Drat! He is playing Very hard to get. I may lose interest.

I hung around a bit more and could see several pelicans following fishing boats on the other side of the river. I gave up and took a wander round the shops at the marina.

The evening cruise was about to depart. We'd noted this one, as it was only $10, and you don't get much for $10 round these parts. I happened to have enough money in my pocket (for emergency coffee and scones) so we jumped on as it pulled out.

It was brilliant! Cruising slowly up to Lake Coorolbah, past Richard Branson's island, and all the marvellous houses tucked away in between the trees, all with their own wee jetty, of course, on Noosa's 'North Shore'. Noted quite a few of them for sale.

The trees were glorious in the evening sunlight. The river was like glass, except where our boat made beautiful ripples. We even saw a sea eagle's nest and mum (or dad) perched on a branch nearby.

At one point the driver captain said, 'As we come around this corner, some butcher birds will come for a feed'. Sure enough, they came, and took crisps from his hand. I realised that what I thought were butcher birds, weren't.

The trip was timed perfectly to arrive at the lake just as the sun was setting ahead of us. It was amazing, but a pity (in a photographic sense) that the early clouds had completely gone. The lake was huge, but very shallow, probably only waist deep, but there was a deeper channel for boats.

I would certainly do this trip again, but I'd gladly pay $20 for the cruise sans muzak!!