Last night was a weird night, primarily down to the fact I was staying in the rainforest with so many diverse sounds and with its muggy heat to add to this. It was too hot to sleep with my sleeping bag which I finally had a use for saving me $5, although there were also too many mosquitos to sleep without anything covering myself. To add to this these Germans decided to stay up until the early hours of the morning drinking and made an absolute racket when returning to the dorm. All in all was a good night sleep considering we were staying in a canvassed based shelter constructed into a dorm. Breakfast this morning consisted of a pizza which I had previously bought from Aldi. I thought I better use it up as it was meant to be frozen and it was left in the fridge. It actually turned out really well in the end and set myself up nicely for the busy day ahead. In addition to this it was an absolute luxury to have a shower this morning after expecting the absolute basics in our rainforest based bush camp. It did remind me of a classic camp shower with its muddy floors though! In the mosquito department I actually fared rather well getting just a few bites on legs compared to some people who had their whole back nibbled upon!
By now I had established that we were to be based at the same campsite for the duration of the trip, paddling one way on the first day and the other way on the second. As I stayed in the Bush Camp dorms the first night, I had to pack my bags to leave in secure storage ready to collect later that evening when I will camping for a further two nights. We were meant to be canoeing at around 8 this morning, but by half 8 we were still waiting for some people which was frustrating. We were told from here that we were doing a self guided paddled and were shown the route on the map which was to paddle up the river to this lake, before turning into this creek to find a rope swing and picnic area for lunch. Sounds simple. After sorting out groups of 3 to paddle in as there were 18 of us, we finally set off along the dense rainforest of the Noosa Everglades, although shortly after starting these girls decided to paddle into the trees and refuse to move. This was frustrating as we were instructed to stay as a group, but after they just started laughing at us we decided to continue up stream, now as a group of 15.
Before long the once densely packed rainforest became these dry and bare tree which had obviously suffered from bushfires at some point in the past. The lake then came into view and we soon found the creek, which we paddled down before reaching these signs saying private property with no signs of a rope swing. We therefore paddled back out of the creek and continued round the lake, landing at this small area with a couple of seats. It was here we assessed the situation, before losing two people in the group randomly. After a short search and shouts with no luck, we started to freak out a bit, but about half an hour later they returned saying they went for walk. We decided from here to continue around the lake in the hope of finding somewhere more spacious. I was paddling with these two German guys who were real powerhouses and after getting ahead of the others, and seeing them land at this small landing point, they were keen to continue round to this beach in the distance. I agreed and we were soon on these lush white sands. I was going to go swimming but apparently there are these stingrays in the shallow water where we were so I went against it.
From here we walked along the beach, paddling in the water which was nice on my now sole blistered tow. It is really gruesome stuff! We then continued on this road to this shop, this time not good on my feet as the road was boiling on my bare feet. I left my sandals in the boat. We soon established we were at Boreen Point campsite and it was nice to get a nice cold drink of water here. When heading back along the fine sands to the canoe, the others arrived and we sat down to have lunch here. I had ham sandwiches and crisps here which I prepared on the beach. Before leaving the campsite where we started we were given these large plastic barrels which meant we could keep things dry and prevent things getting squashed. It was nice taking in the views of this beautiful area spanning in all directions, consisting of dense rainforests and this big sand dune as well! It was really hot by this time on what had been a funny day in terms of weather with a really hot start, before going cloudy and creating a breeze, and then going hot again. This was better than the previously predicted thunderstorms though!
After spending around an hour here we left to go back across the lake. I forgot to say that on the way we were paddling against the tide which made things extra hard work, and it was same paddling back as the tide had changed direction. Especially across the lake where the water was going into us sideways meant it was extra hardwork to steer, but the two German guys paddled on and we were soon ahead again, mainly because the one of the groups behind capsized. We continued on, powering back down the river and arriving back at around 3. Despite taking my camera with me it was difficult to take pictures on the water, and especially ones of myself because when stopping when going against the tide causes problems. The others didn't arrive back until like 4, which meant I got first into the showers to wash off the annoying sands which get all over you so easily, as well as the murky waters we had been paddling in. I also established here that I had got bad sunburn on ears when scrubbing them, as well as my upper legs which had burned where I hadn't suncream under my clothes. My legs are now brown, red, white! In addition to this, my hands were blue which I guess was created by the sheer heat of the day and me holding the plastic paddle.
The evening consisted of just chilling and playing pool, and catching more of the winter Olympics. Dinner this evening was either cook yourself, or fish and chips. Well it would have been if the owners of the camp didn't decide to time how long it took five of them to down 24 bottles of beer. It took them just over 2 minutes if you're wondering. They instead gave us the option of ordering pizza, which I opted for despite having it for breakfast. It was nice end to the day with a few beers. It was also nice to gain some people to the group as people stay here for three days, which runs on a continuous cycle. I was known as a day tower by the people running the group. We also had a big fire this evening, burning cabinets and beer boxes! A few hours later I headed for bed, going via the toilet which was once again full of frogs, before settling down in the tent which I had all to myself, pure luxury!
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