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After leaving Rainbow beach, we headed down to the complex town of Noosa, where there are many different parts to the town all beginning with Noosa so we opted for Noosa Heads to start our exploring. As part of a package we had booked in Cairns, we were eligible for a free 3 day canoe trip in the Everglades National Park at Gagaju Bush Camp but when we rang to book it up they said that we had to in fact give 14 days notice. So we gave up on the idea, but whilst in the supermarket getting our rations we bumped into the owner who was luckily wearing the Gagaju Bush Camp T-shirt and he said that there could be a cancellation but we would have to wait until later to find out. So we spent our afternoon wandering the posh town of Noosa which was really nice, especially as the town had a bit of character unlike most of the other brash Aussie towns. It's full of smoothie cafes and art galleries and we tried to blend into the scene although to be honest we didn't really look the part in shorts and 3 day old T shirts! We sat on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine until we found the Gagaju coach which luckily had 2 spaces on it! We rushed to pack our bags and were taken out to their bush camp where we were to spend the next 3 days. The drive through the wilderness was bumpy but we were pros after our time on Fraser Island and arrived at the camp which was pretty basic. We were put in a dorm with canvas beds and were told to brush our teeth in the tree stump sink!
After a briefing the next morning we were out in our canoes in a group of 7 and we canoed downstream for a couple of hours and reached a little weather station where we parked up. The rivers and lakes were awesome and it was so peaceful everywhere. The only thing that could be heard was the sounds of the birds and the slosh of the water from our canoes. After parking up we walked down to the beach for lunch, but after 10mins we were pretty cold and so retreated to the local pub and chatted to some locals. The trip back upstream was a lot more difficult than we thought, especially when I tried to move seats in the canoe and ended up capsizing the whole thing! Dans face was classic as he was thrown into the water and we ended up waist deep in muddy water which our belongings floating downstream. We managed to find everything again luckily and nothing was damaged but our pride as the girls canoed past! Back at the bush camp we cooked up some sausages and sat around the camp fire with some marshmallows and a guitar.
The following day we headed upstream for 3 hours in the pouring rain and camped on the side of a huge lake. The tents unfortunately got pretty wet and we spent most of the afternoon huddling under the shelter in the freezing cold. We did however brave it to the local hotel for a beer but the place was really strange and there were a lot of mountain people with beards staring at us! We swiftly left and spent the evening with a box of goon, some stodgy pasta and a greedy possum. Luckily the weather was great the next morning and we enjoyed the heat as we paddled back to base. The water was so calm and still that we could see the reflection of the trees in it.
We spent the afternoon around the town of Noosa and wandered the art galleries before heading south to Brisbane. Was definitely worth the stop and it was a really nice place but if we hadn't of done the canoeing there probably wouldn't have been a lot left to do but admire the rich families who actually had enough money to buy the healthy smoothies! We enjoyed our free tap water though don't you worry.
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