Noosa

On my first night in Noosa, I stayed in Noosa Nomads, my first Nomads experience (I wasn't very impressed to be honest) where I met the very hungover Charlie from the Watford area. The first person I have met on my travels so far who is also from Hertfordshire! We spent about an hour chatting about A Levels and what it's like to finish school and start travelling. We were later joined by his 3 friends, Harry, Guy and Buster or Alex. 

That night there was another free "Sausage Sizzle" which I ate with another one of my room mates, Charlotte, and then we all headed into the hostels bar before heading to a club, which was so empty it was kind of embarrassing but I made the most of it anyway by dancing stupidly all night long. 

The next morning, I was up early as I was going to the Noosa Everglades Canoe Tour. I got a shuttle bus back to Noosa Junction, and then got the Everglades shuttle bus to a shop, where we were told to make sure we had exactly $75 ($50 for National Park Camping Licence, $20 as a deposit and $5 to rent a sleeping bag) and to have enough food and alcohol for the three days of the tour. 

We then all piled back onto our bus which drove for about another 30 minutes to get to the Gagaju camp site, which was directly next to the river. On the first night, we slept in dorm room style rooms with hammock style bunk beds (see picture below). I slept pretty well in them, though some of the other girls complained about how uncomfortable they were the next morning so maybe I was just super tired!

The first morning of the experience started at 7 am in the morning, a 5 minute walk up the track to a warm shower and flushing toilets facilities, and then back down to camp to eat breakfast and to make sandwiches for the afternoon. At 8 am we had to be ready at the side of the river, with life jackets and our belongings in a big blue water-proof tub.

"This is a self guided tour, so we wont be coming with you..." 

We were given directions to a rope swing and a beach and then we were pushed into the river and let loose. The mornings weather was pretty crappy so none of our group was really in the mood to row for 16 km, but eventually we got to the beach and then the weather started to turn for the better.

In a boat with English Leo and Harry.

With the weather slowly improving, we ate our lunch and took a couple of group photos, including an attempt at making a huge pyramid but it kind of failed a bit, due to lack of strength and climbing ability! (In case you're wondering why I am placed where I am, it is because my camera has self timer, so I had to run to get where I am each time.)

By now it was starting to get really sunny, so we decided we would go to the rope swing. One of the German girls on another boat took a couple of photos of me jumping into the river, which she put onto my memory stick later but some how they didn't transfer properly so now I don't have a copy of them any more, sad face!

On the way back, Leo, Harry and I decided we'd take it real slow and basically let the current take us back while we lay back and enjoyed the sun. The sweet life ;) We were the last back and arrived when the kitchen was real full, but I still made enough Spaghetti Bolognaise for me, Harry, Leo and a German girl whose soup had been stollen!

That night we played 'Risk' on Mexican Santi's ipad. Dutch Mike won both times, while Santi was always occupied in taking Mexico and Harry came second both times with his "all or nothing" strategy. Rens and Dylan were also there, who I'd met earlier on my trip for one night in Surfers Paradise. It's really great bumping into all these people I already know!

The next day started a little later, at around 9 am we got into our boats and paddled in the opposite direction to the day before. (About half of our group had decided to leave early this morning as they hadn't enjoyed the first day or the nights sleep in a tent as much as they thought they would).

This time we had better luck and it was sunny right from the start. This made paddling a lot more fun and it felt like no time at all before we reached the lake that we had to cross to get to the beach.

Harry enjoying the sun

Joining our boats together for a more sociable row

The best rowing team!

After a bit of confusion where we tried to park our canoes on someone private property, we found the correct place, tucked our equipment underneath the canoes and walked the 2 km to the beach. This was one of my favourite days so far. The sun was out, the people were funny and we had food and Goon (the backpackers drink here in Australia). So of course we got a load more funny pictures.

Of the 4 English girls who were in my group, only Sam stayed longer (the others left on the second morning) and I am really glad she did as otherwise I'd have been the only girl on the second row day. (There were other girls too, like the German ones, but they were anti-social and Dutch Steph and Laura were in our group too but I didn't actually really speak to them until the last evening!)

Tommy and male Sam really enjoyed their practical jokes that day (including Sam and Harry capsizing both our boats on the way back to the camp site) and Harry continued his tradition of taking at least one bare-bum-photo per country...

The whole group, without those that left.

The day ended with us paddling back to camp a little later than we were told to do so, and after the previously mentioned capsizing, we were slowly running out of day light. Female Sam had climbed in with Leo and me, we left male Sam and Harry to deal with their own boats and peddled on. Unfortunately they caught up with us pretty quickly again, but after I asked "nicely" for them not to capsize us again, they didn't. 

Instead they decided to start a race, to see who could get back the fastest, but that blew up in their own faces as Harry counted "1, 2, 3, swap" (on swap they would change sides peddling) but as both guys changed sides, their slightly filled-with-water-canoe tipped over and capsized them both again. It was pretty damn hilarious to watch! Especially because Harry had literally counted down for it to happen - "1, 2, 3 Swap" and exactly on "Swap" they capsized!

We all went to bed pretty early that night - after two days of paddling we were all a bit sore. In the morning, we realised that all of us except female Sam were on the same Greyhound bus to Rainbow Beach, plus Harry and Leo were going one stop further to Hervey Bay. So when we got off at Rainbow Beach, we said see you later to Harry and Leo, and all checked in to the same hostel. (Frasers on Rainbow). I was checked into the same room as Dutch Laura and Stephi (who by now I had started talking to and we were getting along great, so that was really lucky!) and Tommy and Sam were in the room next to us. We also saw Rens and Dylan again, and I found out that Marco from Surfers Paradise was in the hostel next to us! We were also all going to be in the same tour group...

Next stop - Fraser Island!
Lucy xxo

Mooloolaba

I arrived in Mooloolaba at around 12 noon. I got dropped off at the side of the road (which is a first, as usually the Greyhound buses have a big bus stop area with tourist information and shuttle buses to the hostels) and was a little confused as to what to do without the extra help. However there was a hostel across the road, so I thought I'd try there, either it would be that one or they could help me find the one I had pre-booked.

Turns out it was that one, so I checked in, made myself a Chicken Mayo,  lettuce, sweetcorn, cucumber sandwich and then went to explore Mooloolaba for a while, as well as to try and find the library for some free internet access.

The weather wasn't at it's best, with greyish skies and short bursts of rain, so I used my raincoat for the first time since coming to Australia and walked along the rocky beach feeling impressed by the moody scenes in front of me.

I walked from the beach near the hostel for about 1 hour along the coast line until I got to the library, with bursts of sunshine and bursts of rain, it was a pretty sweet walk. At the library, I created a temporary account and booked myself an hours internet access, during which I managed to update my blog about Byron Bay. (http://lucyslocations.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/byron-bay.html).

Sea-salt Skating 

The next day, I got up early again to go to Australia Zoo, home of the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, via the big yellow Australia Zoo bus, at 9.20 am from around the corner from the hostel.

Stephen Robert "Steve" Irwin (22 February 1962 – 4 September 2006), nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian wildlife expert,^[1][2] television personality, and conservationist. Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series which he co-hosted with his wife Terri. Together, the couple also owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by Irwin's parents in Beerwah, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of theQueensland state capital city of Brisbane. Irwin died on 4 September 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming an underwater documentary film titled Ocean's Deadliest.

I arrived at the zoo around 10 am and headed straight for the kangaroos, which I had heard you could feed and stroke. Before that though, I came across a lizard just sunning itself and wondered for a couple of minutes whether it was a wild animal or an escaped one... I also got to hold a little alligator on my way over to the Kangaroos, the underbelly was so super soft!

Big old turtle

Escaped?

I bought some "Roo Food" for $2 and then went into "Roo Haven". At first I couldn't see any at all, then I saw a very small one lying on the ground in the shade of a tree. I went up to it slowly, a little nervous and amazed that I was allowed to do this unsupervised. It got up and hopped over to me, very interested in what I had in my little brown pouch and not at all bothered when I started stroking it. So cute!

After a while, I got back up off of the floor and walked around, over a little stream and suddenly there were about 30 kangaroos all lying there in the sun. I was one of the only people in the area so it really was something quiet magical. I fed a couple more Kangaroos and then decided to head over to the Koala Walk.

A Wild Turkey and Captive Kangaroo friendship

Koala's are also really soft. They don't do much but sleep and eat either as apparently the food that they eat, doesn't give them a lot of energy. I think they have really strange eyes while Kangaroos have really weird mouths!

After the Koalas, I wasn't really sure what to do, so I just had a wonder around the park, saw some elephants, two red pandas, was impressed by the tigers and then headed over to "Africa".

For Abigail, no big pandas, so this will have to do!

The tigers made me think of James Welch, how are you doing Lion Boy? Unfortunately there were no lions in this zoo, but I hope you like the photos of the tigers just as much! And carrying on the animal dedications, Becky Lewis, this place does have Giraffes but unfortunately they were not out in their field because they were constructing a new area for the Rhino Babies, so I don't have any Giraffe photos for you. :( but here's a Zebra instead...

Casually grooming a Rhino

Taking a Cheetah for a walk

On the way to the Crocoseum for the 12.30 Wild Warriors show, I saw some pretty birds and some red Kangaroos.

The show started with at least 15 birds flying around our heads, from big vultures to tiny little green parrots.

Then the snakes came out, including a little demonstration on what to do when you get bitten by a snake.

Then this little bird stole a $5 note from a lady in the audience and then flew back to give it back. Pretty sweet trick!

 But then the real show started and the crocodiles came out! Baaaaboom Baaaboom Baaaboom...
They fed them live in front of us and told us a little bit about their hunting habits, like how they can move through water without causing ripples, so there's no way you can know that they are there. Eep!

 After that excitement, I went for another little walk through the park and saw an Emu and then went to the 15 minute Elephant talk. Including a look at an elephants tongue - weeeiiiiiirrrddd.

After that, it was getting pretty late so I walked back through the park, had a quick lye down with another Kangaroo, saw some tropical birds, a wombat, some cute otters and then headed over to the Animal Hospital.

Angry little bird.

Access to the Animal Hospital was just an extra $2, and you got a little view of the rescue operation area, how they help wild Koalas who get hit by cars etc. and some information on how you can help protect the "Steve Irwin Dream".

I had a pretty good day at the zoo, although I think it would have been a lot better if I hadn't been on my own. Zoo's are definitively a multi-person activity!
Lucy xxo