Well what can I say about Noosa really apart from that its freakin' amazing! After the the best time of my life on Fraser Island, we trailed down here in our camper with some new campervan buddies we met on Fraser and checked out the 'informal' Alexandria Bay nudist beach! An eye-opener...kind of...although we saw no naked women! The beach was pretty lame, yeah cheers for your recommendation fellas!!! They must have got an eye-ful of somethin we didnt!

After our night camping just out of town with our new camping buddies Danny and Vikki, we rocked up back in Noosa Heads for AUSTRALIA DAY!!!!! Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy...Oi Oi Oi!!! That's how we do Ozzy Day down here! Again...and again...and again...to every other car with flags hanging out there window! Patriotism doesnt even touch it!!! We spent a full day out on the beach in the scorching Oz weather then had to go and check in for our 3 day Canoe Safari in the Everglades!

Jeez were we not ready for what was ahead of us! At our night in the 'Gagaju Bush Camp' which was basically a camp setup in the middle of nowhere, sourrounded by freakyish hillbilly's, a load of mosquitos and a group of people staying at the camp who were just wasted!!! I can think of better things! Next morning after our 6am start we got to Lake Cooriboi and met the somewhat gloomy group who just returned! Great we thought!

Task 1 - Canoe across the lake - easy...no! 7km across the lake, you can see your goal but never quite get to it! Bonus though, we kind of had the wind with us! We made it across and stopped for lunch before heading off agin into the river system towards our camp - another 7km upstream! Oh yeah and that doesnt include the 5km we went getting lost up dead ends!

First night camp was cool, we all drank...and drank...like you do and got merry. We had a funky mix of people there - English, Israeli, Czech and German. We swam in the river - even after being warned that Bull Sharks have been known to roam the river system! You gotta watch out for those dam Monitor Lizards tho! They knew we were there and they wanted us to know we were in their territory - they passed by a few times but it wasnt til morning that we met them properly! Then we found that they'd trapped us in our tents - standing guard on the one path connecting our tent to the river!

Task 2 - Canoe another 6km upriver then hike for 12km before canoeing back the 6km again! This wasnt too bad...at first! By the time it came to paddling back, no-one could be bothered! The trip took us to the Sandpatch - funnily enough, in true Ozzy simple style, its a patch of sand! A big, pretty amazing patch mind! Imagine a pristine desert but surrounded my rivers and the ocean and forests - well dont imagine just check the photos when i get chance to upload them! It was cool, but was it cool enough to have to walk 12km for it...probably not! At least at Fraser Island we had a nice cool lake to jump into - not here!

Anyway, another night at camp then a bloody early start for the journey back home - 4am alarm...4:15am roll out of bed...5:30am start canoeing back. Now that wouldnt be so bad, i dont mind early starts - but we had 14 KILOMETRES TO PADDLE and had to do it in 3 hours! The river wasnt too bad but that Lake was hard work! Wind against you, 7km to go, can see the other side but again never seem to arrive at it!

A life moment of realisation kicked in here - have you ever been in a position where you just think i really cant be assed! But...you're up shirt creek and nothin and no-one is there to pull you out of it, you have to just pull your finger out and keep paddling! Well yep, that was my moment! We managed it anyway - with a few 'motivational' games of "I went to the shop and i bought..." which began with whatever we had (and resented) around us including a lake, mountain, trees, canoe, paddles, sunscreen and proceeded onto all those things that we wanted when we got back...can of coke, crisps, hot shower, massage etc.

An experience to say the least, enjoyable, but i wont be going canoeing again for a little while! Next stop 1770!