A Mudjimba Getaway - Exploring The Maroochy River

We just got back from what will probably be our last little getaway of the summer. Things have been frantic around here this term. Which I am sure you could already tell as my blogging time has definitely been affected.

All of us needed some sun, fresh air and some time to just be together so off to Mudjimba, on the Sunshine Coast (10 minutes north of Maroochydore) we headed.

Mudjimba is still relatively untouched (although that seems to be changing) from the fast paced development that seems to happen with most beach side towns. There's not a great deal of 'commercialisation'  in walking distance and that's nice.

We need to make our own fun, with the help of the sun, the pool and the beach it really isn't hard.

On this particular day we decided to go hunting for the 'lagoon' that a local hairdresser had told us about earlier. In all the years we've been coming here, we've never heard of a 'lagoon'.

I only knew of the vicinity (head down North Shore Rd), but it's not a huge area  so was confident we would find what we went looking for. After asking some fishermen in the car park one of them suggested we take the track on the far right, as there were 3 tracks to choose from we weren't sure which way to go.

New adventures are always exciting! For a few metres we were enclosed in the bush of this track and all of us had a little doubt about the way we were heading.

A few seconds later we saw it, the glimmer of water, that had to be the 'lagoon'.

We were greeted with a massive body of water, that definitely had the feel of a lagoon and I can see why the locals call it such. Really it is simply a massive bend in the Maroochy River, not far from it's mouth where it meets the ocean.

Surrounded my mangroves this was a fabulous place to explore. What hidden treasures would we find today.

Within a few minutes we noticed a structure of some sort a few hundred metres down the beach. No one had to think twice about heading off to explore it.

And what a place to explore it was. Climbing several stairs, that once the tide comes in would be over the water, we were presented with a jetty like structure, stretching far back into the mangroves.  After meandering along for some time the interest of getting to the end dwindled, we decided that it obviously came out near all of the huge beach side homes that we could just see in the distance.

 

I took the opportunity to try and grab some sibling shots, I think I took close to 30 in a matter of a few minutes but didn't have a much luck. This one is completely in the wrong position,

And by this stage Little Surfer Dude had had enough and wasn't up for co operating.

We took our time heading back around the 'lagoon', inspecting the mangroves more closely along the way. We did spot a brilliant orange crab hiding within the roots, waiting for the tide to come back in, but he retreated rather quickly as soon as I got close with the camera.

Lego Lover tried desperately to jump up and swing on this rope, that appears to have seen better days, but he simply wasn't tall enough. Probably a good thing I think as I'm not sure it would have held his weight anyway.

Little Surfer Dude carried seed pods along his walk and used them as boats and other vessels, in the end he wanted to see how far he could throw them out into the water.

Whilst I sat and rested the kids decided to head in the other direction to see what they could find. Red Ochre, or at least a clay like substance so like red ochre that we were happy to call it that was dug up from the ground.

We've read and experienced a considerable amount of Aboriginal Culture over the past couple of years, so they were pretty excited to find their own ochre to adorn their bodies with.

Aside from the fact that the Midgies were quite bad during our time here, this was a great place to hang out exploring. The children could head off in various directions, whilst I was still able to keep in them in sight.

We will definitely put this on our must visit places when next at Mudjimba, it's a great spot to connect with nature for both kids and adults alike.