Coolum Beach is a great place for a walk along the shore and especially so today now the recent showery weather has gone… for the moment at least.

The warm breeze from the sea increases the humidity and salt spray in the distance limits the view but it is still a comfortable temperature for a good walk. A brisk walking pace is made easy with well compacted sand, which is spotlessly clean with no wind blown junk or plastics but surprisingly few seashells scattered around.

The beach appears to be as popular with dog owners as casual walkers, though dogs must be kept on leads except where signed – not that many took notice. They were at least well behaved and a pair of Dachshunds decided they wanted to run along the beach with us and kept barking each time we stopped.

With a few KMs under our belts we decided to try a different lunch stop, this time at a place called Bean Head Cafe. I would like to say we would recommend it but when the All Day Breakfast option said to close at 2pm closed at 11.30am, the time we arrived, and a very long wait for our meal, then it is not one for our list of great eateries. But, that said, the coffee was excellent.

We had a few errands to run in the afternoon to prepare for the next leg of our trip but one last walk along the beach was in order – this time with a very tasty Campos coffee.

This time the sun was starting to head behind the trees to the side of us as and the distant clouds were starting to take on the late afternoon sun. We were watching a yacht sailing along the horizon when we noticed a rainbow forming in one of the nearby cloud formations. It looked as though there was a light shower being caught by the sun. Without a long lens at hand it doesn’t show quite as well in the photograph as we saw it.