Trip Through Paradise: Paddling Through The Everglades

"Here We Go"

While In Noosa I decided to go on a three day and two night canoeing and camping trip up the Noosa River System, into the Great Sandy National Park, and into the Central Australian Everglades. This is an area of lowlands, forests, and winding rivers that have basically been untouched in hundreds of years. The Noosa River System is very unique in the way that it is fresh water but it is also connected to the ocean so you can find salt water species of fish like bull sharks and rays also living in the fresh water river along with the other species that are native to fresh water.
Seeing as I am just one and its pretty hard to paddle a canoe and gear by myself, I found a girl at the hostel that was willing to give the trip a try and we booked the trip for the next morning. When the bus came around to pick us up and bring us to collect all of the gear needed I wasn't to sure what to expect. Nor did I know how many people were going or who these people were going to be. We were the first people picked up and throughout the rest of the pickups along the way to the base there was one fad, as you would say, that was pretty consistent. . . . I was going to have to spend the next three days with 11 girls and just one other guy!!
I know what all the guys are thinking, "That's three days in heaven!." And I can assure you I also had those same thoughts in my head, but those thoughts soon changed to, "What did I get myself into!"
The first day of the trip we picked up our gear, took a speed boat 7 km across Lake Cootharaba to the mouth of the river, picked up our canoes, got maps and a quick briefing of where to go, and the dos and donts of the national park. After about 30 minutes we were on the water and paddling towards our first campsite which was just over 7 km upstream.
We all reached the camp after about 3 hours and took the rest of the day just relaxing and getting to know each other in the beautiful weather. When the evening finally came everyone was in bed by ten from either being knackered from the early morning and exercise through out the day (which is something us backpackers are not used to), or sleepy because of the plethora of beverages (which is something all backpackers are quite use to) some shared for concoring the mighty Noosa River and the first 7 km of our trip.
The difference between this same group of people at 7:00am in the morning the first day, and 6:00am the second morning was quite a change indeed. The first morning everyone is friendly, happy, and excited for the days journey ahead. Whereas the second morning everyone is still friendly, don't get me wrong, but everyone's now tired, sore, and all dreading what we had planned for the day the evening before. Before we even set out for the second day we already lost two who, "weren't feeling good" which headed back to the base to catch the ferry back to town a day early. Of the two that bailed from the group early was the one and only other guy in the group!
Yup now the score was now
BLOKES=1 GIRLS=10.
The second day we had another 7 km row upstream to where we threw our oars in for a pair of hiking boots, and hiked uphill a further 6km with our destination being, "The Great Sand Patch."
I know that name is a little deceiving so I will explain to you what it really was . . . . .It was a really big patch of sand. Alright now that I made it sound quite ridiculas, I do half to clear things up a bit cause it was truly amazing and quite a phenomena to me. This Great Sand Patch is on top of a hill with beautiful ocean views and is surrounded by forests (I'm still very confused about how that happens), and is spectacular in size. I didn't have the energy to walk and explore the whole dune, one might call it, but I did walk for about an hour and still came nowhere clear to walking from beginning to end of this sand monster.
The next few hours were spent napping and lazing in the sun, trying to recover some energy for the return 14 km trip back to camp before the daylight faded.
Once back in camp I went for a quick bath in the river and spent the rest of my night sitting around with my girls.
The final day is when the incredible amount of estrogen around me started to slowly get on my nerves. Its hard being the only male, as I am sure most females would agree. I was the only one not talking about how good a shower will feel seeing as I had a swim and I felt pretty good, or the only one not talking about a decent night sleep, proper food, and clean clothes. All I could think about was, "Come on girls, its only been 2 nights!."
All jokes aside though I had a great couple days and I really did, even though it may not sound like it, enjoy my three day canoeing adventure into centrals Australia's everglades. I met some very fun and interesting people and also learned that most guys idea of a perfect camping trip doesn't exactly play out the same in real life.

*To any of the girls mentioned here that are reading this I truly had a good time. I hope you can all find the humor in this and that at the very least it put a little smile on your face. If it didn't all I have to say is, "Whats the Name Of The Game . . . . SLAPS, What The Aim Of The Game . . . . . . ________________!!!!*