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jessflewitt · 8 years ago

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NOOSA -31st Jan- 15th Feb

NOOSA 30th-15th February

Can’t even explain how much we loved this place - definitely our favourite beach bum places on the east coast so far! We saw the most stunning coastline , wild dolphins- wild koala , canoed the Everglades and Fraser island was definitely a highlight of our lives, life memories and friends made there for sure. Noosa is a bit less hippie than Byron ( more up our street) and just beautiful everywhere. Apparently it’s where a lot of ozzies travel for a summer holiday. We didn’t want to leave…

When we arrived we had about 3 days to chill out before our first tour. It was baking hot so we spend most of time beach buming and trying to find water to swim in to cool down. The main beach was just stunning - we were playing in the waves on the first day and Oli shouted ‘Jess watch out!’ Then a wave tumbled over our heads before I got chance to hear what he said so I was freaking out thinking it was a shark or something! Turns out a swarm of blue bottle jelly fish had floated in - managed to get out without being stung but called it a day after that. Ended up going to Noosa spit - noosa is lined with beautiful houses along rivers ( boats parked outside like Miami) and they each have a little beach opposite where you can swim. Spent an afternoon there lounging in the water - we were sat still for too long though and both got bitten by fish!

Locals in noosa are just awesome and friendly- no different to anywhere else. We had just come off the beach and were chilling in the van having a coffee and a local came up to us giving us some shit about the crack in the window screen! English mindsets we first thought he was trying to sell us a screen or something but turns out he was just being friendly - introduced us to his daughter and we ended up chatting for about 40 minutes.

We visited the famous ’ Eumundi Market’ the next day - it was way better than we expected and we completely blew the travel budget… Oppsie. It was absolutely huge! We had to park so far away and walk in because there was just hundred of cars. Tried tapioca for the first time - great for me as I’m now GF. Grown in Brazil. Ol got a sexy new rucksack :)

Next day we did the coastal noosa national park walk and it was just stunning!

The gagaju bush camp took the next three days. 3 days canoeing the Everglades- awesome. We met the group and our leader at the supermarkets and brought all the food and drink ect we’d need , a couple of German lads we’d met the night before in a camp site were on the same trip so that was cool- drove in convoy to the camp - got shown around the hilariously shocking accommodation - (we were last dibs too because we were chatting too much - they were like handmade bamboo bunk beds with a bit of mesh hanging down you were supposed to sleep on - no mattress or anything - and Olis bit of mesh was ripped so he’d basically we sleeping on the floor haha - we ended up sleeping in the van). Did a small hike that night and saw about 10 kangaroos - two were mummies with baby Roos in their pouches was amazing too see. They let us watch standing quite close - and then the ( we assume daddy) got a bit wary and stood up towering over us on his tail so we backed off after that! Had a swim in the river when we got back and Had a fun night playing drinking games and getting to know our team for the next day.

We were up and ready to go canoeing at 7am - canoes were Canadian style with the single sided oar - and had three people in each. We were given a barrel to put our lunch and bits in - awesome day! Luckily the current was on our side so it wasn’t too difficult. The day before they had been fighting the current for the whole 16k and they looked absolutely jaded! There was some lads that were just hanging out their arses and Henry was still smashed singing the whole way so it was hilarious. We stopped off at this rope swing into the river- all the lads were doing it ( it was actually quite high and scary when you got up the ladder) I was all confident until I got up there but too late to turn back at that stage with everyone watching so just went for it! Only girl to do it though 💪. We carried on up the river to this little beach where we had lunch which was cool and then made it back for about 4pm. I learned how to steer ( the posh way by dragging the oar in the water ) by copying the Canadian guy Joe on the way back - life skillsss.

Got accidentally drunk that night on goon for the first time with this awesome German girl Kim. Never again. The next morning was a struggle but we made it out again- ( about 10 people didn’t!) shorter trip up the Everglades the opposite way. We were fighting the current day two so was much harder - half way we left the canoes on the sand and went swimming in a water hole for about an hour until we were all shaking we got got so cold!

We left that day and headed back to Noosa- found a cute little campsite close to the beach and had another few days buming round Noosa. We did the national park walk again (once wasn’t enough) and we were lucky enough to see our first wild koala and a whole pod of dolphins playing in the surf! Amazing. We got the long baords out and went all around the coast too which was cool.

Fraser Island filled our next few days and it was just UNREAL. We got a free nights stay in noomads hostel the night before and the night after the trip … So we went there on the 8th for our first briefing. Got shown lots of boring videos about how to drive safely on sand. There was about 100 girls and 4 lads so that worried us a bit - didn’t want to be stuck in a car full of girls. So we went to the bar that night will full intentions of making a bline for all the lads - that didn’t happen and we ended up spending the night talking to this Irish couple that weren't even going on our tour 🙈but just before we went to bed we bumped into nick! Got on like a house on fire & instantly decided to team up:) next morning ( our 5 year anniversary what a way to spend it !) we got the two hour bus to rainbow beach where we picked the jeeps. Met Bailey ( Canadian girl) who was ace - then two more people , Olivia ( German but South American parents and spoke Spanish) and Andreas ( from Chile). We all just clicked - spent three days tearing around the beaches with all the windows down singing our hearts out. Ace! All the stop offs were just dreamy - lake McKenzie the water is so clear you can drink it - so we did , sand is so fine you can brush you teeth with so we did, exfoliated our skin- played volley ball , made a human pyramid in the sand, Eli Creek - was like a natural lazy river and the water was ice cold ( the boys have about an hour footage of trying to feed the fish with horse flies they caught 🙈) the champagne pools were awesome- were really rough , we got hit by a wave that dragged most of us across the coral into the next pool - Lucy and I have the scars to prove it! And a fish took a chunk out of Lucys bum which was hilarious! Indian head was a small cliff we climbed up for the view - saw a stingray from the top which was cool . Saw a ship wreck and on the last day we stopped off at lake wabi which was actually my favourite of the whole lot - we hiked through the sand dunes ( which was a killer for me who was dying off a goon hangover again!) and then there was this awesome lake in the middle of the dunes - absolutely stunning. You can see turtles there so we spent a while looking for them but didn’t see any, they have the fish that eat your dead skin so we all sat in a line with the fish eating our dead skin, then our guide said he would give $50 to anyone who could catch a catfish with their bare hands so we had a go! Obviously failed but we fed them flies haha.

We named are car Toni-( before we found out the name of our guide which was Tony lol!) he made our trip he was just fantastic. Really got involved with us , full of awesome stories and knew everything there was to know about Fraser- he caught a sea snake - told us all about it and released it - even drank with us at night and chased a dingo down the beach ( such a good Australian) he catches sharks in his spare time- once caught a tiger shark - took him 16 hours - he was harnessed to his truck and he made beans on toast twice durning the time- awesome!

We were all fighting for the drivers seat but split it fairly- it was just amazing bombing along next to the sea- our hostel was pretty basic but there was a pool we could use in our down time which was cool. Would recommend it to anybody- best trip ever. We came close with a few girls from the uk in a different car too- Lucy, little and Emma.

(We attempted to GoPro video the entire canoe Everglades tour and it was ok but the videos were too short to clip- so we did it again for Fraser - literally had about 60 videos and some of them are class! So really excited to made a Fraser video whenever we get a rainy day) Slept the entire way back to Noosa and the hostel put on an after party- free pizza and drinks which was cool of them. Some pretty dire games that we got involved in accidentally that might have been funny if we were 18 ha but we didn’t care we were still so hyped from the trip.

Next day we we returned to our baby Hayley and drove up the coast to Rainbow Beach ( Again) probably would have been better to drive up and meet the guys there but then we might not have met the gang and had such a good car so hey) rainbow beach is another beach with 4x4's racing down it - it’s like a beach highway - so cool. And Its surrounded by this awesome cliff face that is actually all different colours. Walked the length of it had a coffee then drove up north again until it got dark - parked up in this really creepy campsite with only one other car ( met this German girl who was a complete drag but had dinner with her) then next day headed to Hervey Bay - this is usually a whale watching town but it’s not the season for it so there wasn’t a huge amount to sea. It’s a marine national park so you can see manatees and sea turtles and everything if your there at the right time. We walked the pier and met a fisherman who told us a spot to sea two huge sea turtles ( which we did- was cool) and then that night we had the most amazing experience. Paid $12 each to watch baby turtles hatch and run into the sea for the first time. Mon Repos is a turtle breeding beach that is patrolled every night by Rangers. As the turtles are so endangered they have a special tagging system for the ones that are high priority and the ones that return so they can track numbers - there was videos and presentations about the guy behind the whole conversation programme and it was pretty amazing listening to all the work they have done over the years. When turtles hatch they join the south east Australian current ( finding nemo lol) and they go all the way to South America - eating things like plankton and jelly fish - they are more protected from predators in the current. They don’t return until they are about 16 years old and then they stay put as they are big enough to not be a prey target form bigger fish and sharks. They only go on land to lay - and they return to the same beach they were born on ( they know where to go because when they run from the nest to the sea for the first time they made a magnetic imprint that they remember ( amazing) and they can lay up to 500 eggs at one time. The estimate is that only 1 in a 1000 make it back to the same beach! So when you see a big one it’s pretty amazing. When the female lays she does so at night and goes straight back to the sea and has nothing more to do with them- so the conservation team patrol - and when the eggs are laid they build a cage around it to stop foxes and birds of prey taking the eggs - when the baby turtles climb up through the sand they take 10 ( out of about 70 usually) if it’s us a priority mother ( so endangered or local or retuning mother ) weigh and tag the babies - and then release them. The rest in the nest are realised straight away.

When the babes are doing their run to the sea they make sure no crabs or anything take them and make sure they all reach the sea! Some get tired and need a helping hand - we got to see a priority nest being released after they had been to the lab- your not allowed to use lights are anything they are guided to the sea by natural light . They were all so tired it was so cute and when they reached the sea it took them about 6 attempted each because the waves kept washing them in - then we stayed late ( most people went home ) and we got to see another nest running to the sea - these were not priority so there was tons of them and they had loads of energy and were running to the sea - amazing. And then the conservation team dig up the nests 24 hours after the turtles climb up to check that none have been left behind - because if one gets trapped for some reason they are not able to climb on their own so they die. So we watched a ranger dig up a nest and we rescued 2! So we released them into the sea - they also count how many eggs don’t develop and check what stage of development the eggs are at so they can monitor it. Amazing experience.

The next day we drove up to 1770 - there wasn’t too much going on but had had a small Fraser reunion and also bumped into some friends from the canoeing tour. We’d planned to go surfing the next day but the conditions weren't great- also found out we can’t go inland to do the national parks up here because you need a 4x4 - still have about 10 days to kill till Whitsundays so we’re going to try and find some casual work ( fruit picking or something ) for a week.

Day of the Everglades trip - we arranged some farm work - living with a family in cairns and learning how to run their farm for the first month-12 cows- few pigs - chickens - 2 dogs and the second month we’d be running it on our own while they went on holiday to Scotland- would get accommodation - food - live in the house and 2 months of our farming signed off so we could extend our visa) we weren’t going to be earning much money but thought it would be worth it to get a chunk of our farming signed off for a good experience. Found out today that we don’t think they can provide us with all the credentials we need for it to be legal - which we’re gutted about because we were really excited- still waiting to here but pretty sure it’s not going to happen. New plan is probably try to find a small farm and suck it up for 3 months- you can earn a ton of money and means we can extend our visas if we want to once we get to Melbourne- so that’s all ongoing - bit up in the air for now.

Currently just entered croc zone! So no swimming in rivers anymore. It’s dark so about to pull up to crash. It’s the 15th Feb …. Up to date woop!

#noosafraserevergladesrainbowbeachsunshinebeachhervybay1770

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