Let the regaling begin!
Noosa is a small, laid-back coastal town. It's somewhat like Byron Bay except without the strong hippy influence. The hostel that I stayed in - Dolphins Beachhouse - is in a quiet area of an already quiet town, near to the beach and Noosa National Park. It's a smallish hostel split into 'apartments': two dorms of four beds with a kitchen, bathroom and lounge, plus a communal back porch and a central lounging area. There's a bus to the shops and the transit centre every so often but mostly everyone sits and chats and chills out.
The apartment set up seems to be the best way I've seen to solve the problem of washing up. In the Arts Factory, you had to go to reception, put down a $10 deposit per pan and leave your name, then you washed it up and bought it straight back. Everyone washed up their pots and pans, but some people were more lax with the plates and cutlery that were freely provided. Also, having to have $10-$20 in cash about your person every time you wanted to cook was a pain. In City Backpackers, pots and pans were freely available but you had to put down a $10 deposit for everything else, which you kept until you checked out. This was a total failure as most people didn't wash up the pans and theft of plates/forks/etc was rife. In Dolphins, everything is there for you to use but, perhaps because there are so few people, everything gets washed up.
But I digress. I spent a pleasant evening there then headed on to Gagaju bush camp. This is the camping-hostel hybrid place operated by the folk doing the canoe safari. It was really, really cool. The 'dorms' were tents big enough to hold three bunk beds, then the kitchen and the lounge were built from woodern supports, canvas and corrugated plastic and had two and three walls respectively. There were mosquito coils burning pretty much constantly in all the rooms, so insects weren't a problem. I met the three guys who were also coming canoeing and we were given a briefing so we knew where to go, rules of the National Park, etc. In the morning, the Gagaju guys drove us down to Boreen Point, put us and our stuff in two two-man canoes and waved us on our way. I'd like to say there was a palpable air of excitement, but it was far too early in the morning for that sort of thing.
We had to start out early as Lake Cootharaba needs to be crossed before 9am as it can get rough. Early in the morning, though, it was still and flat - no sign of the bull sharks that are said to inhabit it - and relatively easy paddling. It took us a few hours to cross the lake and head up Noosa River to our campsite. I loved every minute of it. Yes, it's hard on your shoulders after a while and yes, it was a hot, humid day. Still, it was so quiet and peaceful and the scenery was absolutely stunning. The river is wide and dark with tea tree oil so that it reflected everything like a tinted mirror when it was still. (The metallers amongst you may be amused that the leaflet mentions the 'dark tranquility' of the waterways. Heh.) If you look at the reflections in the water too long, you get the disconcerting feeling that you're paddling through sky, or that you're upside down but somehow able to carry on, or that you've wandered into a Dali painting. The banks are lined with tall trees and there are plenty of birds and lizards to spot.
I think I should be more careful about what I read and when. At the time, I was reading The Lost World by Arther Conan (Crom!) Doyle. There's a passage near the beginning, when they are heading out to the plateau of the dinosaurs, which describes paddling along a river in the Amazon surrounded by forest and lizards. I was half expecting to see a Stegasaurus emerge from the undergrowth by the bank...
Our campsite was absolutely in the middle of nowhere; I believe it can only be reached from the water. There are no washing facilities beyond swimming in the river - no bull sharks this far up - and the toilets are little more than a seat over a hole. We set up camp with some other canoeists who were on a similar 'safari' and spent most of the rest of the day lounging on the jetty and exploring the area. There was absolutely no sign of any dinosaurs. The closest we came to a pterodactyl stealing our dinner was a bush turkey (unsuccessfully) trying to raid our food stores.
It gets dark quite early over here - about 5:30-6pm at the latest - although it still feels like a summer night. Obviously it gets dark much later in the summer in the UK, so it does trick your body into thinking it's much later than it is. Also, canoeing/adventuring all day is quite tiring. We all got a very early night and got up early on the second day for more canoeing. We headed further up the river and went for a 12k walk up to Cooloola Sandpatch. It's basically a lot of sand on top of a big hill, but the views are impressive and it was a nice walk. The third day came around all too quickly, and we set off even earlier to get across the lake while it was still calm.
In short, I had a really great time but I'll admit to being very glad of a shower once I got back to Noosa. I stayed in Dolphins for another couple of nights and did some more adventuring on foot. I explored the nearby and wittily named Noosa National Park, viewing such sights as Paradise Caves, the Devil's Kitchen, Hell's Gates, Fairy Pools and Witches Cauldron.
But onwards, ever onwards! After a couple of days I left Noosa to head up the coast to Rainbow Beach and new adventures...
