#maloolaba

Maloolaba Beach

Some names are evocative. Kuala Lumpur. Bora Bora. Luxor. The all-too famous Timbuktu.

And then some give you the low down right away, on every map, on every highway sign, in every guide book. When you drive up the Sunshine Coast, there's no ignoring what you're going to get. It's staring at you right in the face.

Someone once said that the great thing was to move. I am incapable of holding still. Of holding in place. And I am starting to have an inkling that what we are so frantically searching for across seas and continents, on car rides, plane rides and boat rides, up and down coasts is an anchor. I'm glad I have not found mine yet.

The search began in the grey barrels in front of the Maroochydore surf lifesaving club. And if the dumping waves were a sign of things to come, they promised not to be easy. It was too choppy for an anchor. The search then migrated north to Noosa Heads, through paths of sand as fine as ash, down to the Gates of Hell, down to Alexandria Bay. But searching sometimes involves a lot of back and forths. Two six-hour round trips to Rainbow Beach to look out at Fraser Island and wonder if there actually were a beach per person on this vast continent, explaining why we always seemed to be alone. Two six-hour round trips just to drive, just to roll down the windows and scream bad song lyrics into the wind. No anchoring here. Kilometres of open road, of exits to beaches, of forests of trees lined like soldiers, of towns named Gympie or Eumundi. Back to Maroochy, down to Maloolaba, back up to Coolum, lost in the Glass House Mountains, dropped from a swing into a pool at the bottom of a waterfall, detouring through Beerwah and the Australia Zoo. And every night coming back to our corner apartment in Maroochydore, opening our doors wide onto the two balconies, the swell, the breeze, the mediocre sangria, the explosive games of cards, the uncontrollable midnight laughs and the hysterical anecdotes of life.  Of the search.

Opening the doors. To leave again. To go back out, looking.