So I hop on the grey hour bus at 6:45am in Byron... at 1:30pm I get to Noosa! It's a really pretty, warm sunny day.
The Gagaju Bush Camp van picks me up at 4:30 and we head to the supermarket so we can buy our food for camping. We rock up to the camp, and it's funny! It looks just like the camp from that old TV show "MASH". And some people live there all year round! (I'm so tired, that i'm sure I'm forgetting stuff)
I meet the other people that are going to be in out group. 4 scotish people, 2 boys and 2 girls that are traveling together, 2 frenchies, a girl and boy that are traveling together, and me! We had to get all our stuff in these plastic bins so they didn't get wet canoing. We went over the map so we knew where we were suposed to go, and the next day, they sent us off.
two 2 person canoes and one 3 person canoe. And that's what we did for 3 days! canoe! i think it was a total of 30 Ks by the end of it. We were really lucky with weather until today. It was BEAUTIFUL! We canoes up the upper noosa river to get to our camp ground. The water is really clean, but it's dark in color. So all the trees were reflecing on the river as though it was a mirror. It was so peacful and pretty! really sunny and hot too. it was great! we got to our camp site, set up our tents, and played card games. we also met the other canoe campers from Gagaju, and a different tour. Straight up bush camping... no showers... no nothing. Well, "toilets"... i guess you can call them that.
At night everyone at the camp was drinking goon (boxed wine... aussies college kids and backpackers love it here because it's so cheap. it's gross though, hang over in a bag. uhhh) and playing card games. Lots of blokes from the UK, a few canadians, germans, a guy from hollad who was hillarious, irish guys and girls... i'm always the only American...whcih is fun. I guess americans just arent travelers compared to the rest of the world.
The second day, we canoed about 8K to get to a trail head, where we hiked 12K to get to this massive sand dune in that one top of a mountian. it was so weird! everglades, lush forest... and then a massive sand dune! On the last day, which is today, we had to get up at 4:30am to pack up camp (in the dark, we had no flash lights or torches) and be on the river by 5:30am. Unforturnetly, it started raining last night around 10pm, so we woke up soaking wet, b/c i guess the tents arent very water proof. We had to pack up in the rain, and canoe in the rain. at 5:30am. BOOO! not ammused. ha. THe river was OK, we were all really tired and of hung over. One of the scottish girls puked over the canoe and while she was packing up. poor girl. The lake we had to cross was really hard though, lots and lots of rain. it killed the shoulders! took longer than it should have due to the choppiness.
It was fun! glad i did it.
Next: rainbow beach. Hopping on the greyhoud at 9am tomorrow to head to rainbow beach. (3 hour drive) from there, staying in a hostle one night, then off on another 2 night 3 day camping trip on fraser island. Will meet who i'm jeeping it up with tomorrow at the 1:30pm breifing. Google fraser island if you want to know where i'll be!
Might go for a walk now, just to keep from falling asleep. If i lay down, i won't wake up again. Noosa is really pretty, and has lots of pretty beaches. Wish I had a full day here to just check it out, and beach it up. Ah well, next time!
Love you all!
:)
Merry
PS - i checked my bank account and i got a random $600 from US Tax return. but i already got my tax return money back in Feb. Is this that "extra" money thing from the government to help the economy...thing??? I'm guessing that's what it is.
PPS- I really wish my brothers could have come on this trip with me! It would have been 300% more fun with them! Actully most of the things i'll be doing these next 3 weeks i wish my brother were here with me! We just have so much fun together ... even if it's in germantown, maryland. Imagine the possibilities if we were all together canoing for miles and miles in the australian outback, or camping on one massive sand doon, or on a sail boat around tropical islands for 3 days. Sigh. One day guys! We'll have to have a really fun sibling holiday! just tell Paul to stop having babies.
