Day 89, 90, 91 -Gagaju Bush Camp (Noosa National Park) - Friday 13th, Saturday 14th, Sunday 15th January 2012

Come morning it was time to check out and goodbye to Nikki and Danny, which was really sad as we had spent a month with them every day so it will be strange not being with them and chatting about our mate Bulldog! But we will see them when we get to New Zealand in about 2 months! They both walked to the Greyhound bus stop with us and waved us off as we headed for our next stop Noosa. After about 4 hours we arrived at lovely Noosa, the town is really well laid out and the beach is amazing with so many people surfing. Once off the bus we were met by Alan from Gagaju Camp… Our plan for the next 3 days was to camp in the bush, go kayaking and cook marshmallows on the camp fire!! We jumped in Alan's van with 3 other people and headed to the supermarket to stock up on beers, wine and food for our stay. Once we had stocked up we jumped back on the bus and drove off; this is when Alan told us that we could have a full main meal and a beer at the camp all cooked for us for $10 - bargain!! We arrived at the camp a little over half an hour after being picked up. The camp was massive it had one huge tent, like a dorm that slept 10 people and then about 20 other 2 man tents. It also had a camp fire, sinks, tables, gas BBQ cookers and even a TV with DVDs. We chucked our bags in the dorm tent and sat with everyone eating Alan's home cooked dinner of Nachos and exchanging our travel routes around Australia. The group of people we were with were really good fun and a right laugh!! The plan for the next day is to kayak down the river and back so with that in mind, we got an early night!

Happy birthday mum!!

The alarm sounded at 7.45 ready for our 8am briefing. The briefing consisted of Alan showing us a map and saying we were on our own! That and breakfast done, we walked to the canoe launching area equipped with our lifejacket's and paddles. We were 4 canoes in all with Ad and I in our own one. After 5 minutes the canoe with Rivka, Natalia and Lorri gave up and went back to shore - 1 down, 3 to go! It took us about 2 hours to get to the landing spot and to be really honest we were bored and knackered an hour in - nether the less we carried on and were thankful, plus covered n black grease, when we finally shored our canoe.

We walked through the park and arrived at the pub. It was like a yee old pub with all the locals and looked like it hadn't changed since it was built in the 1800's! We ate cake and coffee to restore our energy for the long row back and also played with the pubs little birds who strangely enough liked to be stroked under the chin.

Back in the canoe and the long journey back home began - it was horrific and by the end of it Ad and I just wanted a hot shower and a comfy bed, instead we had a cold shower and a tent! That said, Alan the owner was cooking us steak and salad so that at least was something to look forward to.

We later found out that we had canoed a total of 15km - wow, no wonder our arms were aching!!

In the evening we called my mum to sing happy birthday down the phone. Was lovely chatting to mum and we were both thinking of her through the day and sending her lots of birthday love!

It raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring……you get the picture! Today we were supposed to canoe the other way down the river and then do a 5km trek to the beach; instead we sat in the bush camp TV room and watched films all day. It was like a proper back home Sunday! We did feel a bit like we'd chickened out, especially when 3 of the girls we'd done the canoeing with yesterday still went out. But the rain was so bad and our shoulders ached a lot and so we allowed ourselves to just wallow on the sofa, drink tea and graze snacks throughout the day. We watched 5 films in total and then come 6pm we were served our amazing lamb roast all cooked in the camp via BBQ, camp fire and tiny oven - it was DECILIOUS!!! We literally swallowed it whole and accompanied it with a good glass of Australian red wine.

Square eyed, slightly woozy and full up we headed to our tent to try and sleep.