Today we were off to explore something a little different. We headed to the Noosa Everglades to do a boat and canoe tour. We were up early and drove the hour dive to Habitat Noosa where we would be taking the cruise from. It was quite a pretty drive up to Habitat Noosa.
When we got there we joined the our tour boat and head out to start exploring the everglades. This everglade system is one of only 2 in the world, the other being in Florida. A everglade is described as “A tract of low, swampy land characterized by tall grass and branching waterways”. The extra special part of this everglades apart from no alligators is that the tea trees have leached tannins into the water making the water reflect like a mirror. Pictures of this will be later.
The boat tour took us to our first stop which was Fig Tree point. Here we explored a small forest walk which was pretty cool. Anthony keeps saying it reminds him of Jurrasic park which is quite true. We completed the short walk while half the bat was getting ready to canoe and then headed back onto the boat. We were going to be swapping people canoeing after the next stop.
The next part of the tour was right through the river of mirrors and my god was it spectacular the reflections were amazing. The photos in no way do it justice. It was so silent and serene taking the boat down just admiring the views and the reflections. We could hear lots of bird noise but didn’t see many. It took about an hour to get down to Harry’s Hut which is where we stopped for morning tea.
Harry’s hut is a rest stop on the everglades system. It was constructed in 1957 to accommodate timber workers who, because of the nature of their employment, had to remain `in the bush’ for perhaps a week at a time. Later a local Harry bought the property and used it for a weekender. He refused to sell it to the National Park and it didn’t join the national park until after his death. We got some morning tea at this stop and had a quick look at Harry’s hut.
It was then our turn to canoe. It was a 5 km canoe and our guide Trevor said he would meet us at the other end as it’s very rare for the canoeist to make it back first. We had a 15-20 min head start as the last lot of canoers were having morning tea. Then we were off. Once settled in the canoe it was actually very relaxing. The mirrror reflections were more evident from down here and it was absolutely stunning. Even though we sopped every now and then to make in the serenity we mananged to beat the boat. I think I paddled faster to get away from Anthony’s David Attenborough impressions and the constant singing of Marshall vs the machine (from how I met your mother). We beat the boat back by about 3 minutes. Go us!!
Once we arrived back at Fig Point we rejoined the boat and headed back to Habitat Noosa for lunch. They offered steak, fish or vegetarian sausage rolls and salads which was very welcome after our canoe adventure. We were finished just before 3, so we took the opportunity to head into Noosa. Our first stop was Laguana Lookout. This lookout is very pretty and well worth the stop on a trip.
We headed to Noosa National Park which I have to say is one of the most beautiful National Parks I have been in. On one side is the most beautiful stunning beach and on the other side is lush beautiful rainforest. We headed into the park and decided to do the coastal walk up to Boiling point lookout. It was really one of the most impressive beaches I have seen.
After the coastal walk we decided to do the rainforest walk which is a 1.2km circuit through the rainforest. It was pretty surreal being in the forest and knowing you are only less then a km away from all the tourists. The trees were huge and beautiful and there were cool vines everywhere.
We got back and were so tired we ordered in dinner and did nothing.