I NEVER WANT TO SEE A CANOE AGAIN!

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So we arrived in Noosa - had to wait an hour for the Gagaju Bush Camp bus to pick us up and then we were taken straight to the supermarket to buy our own food for our camping trip (for Fraser Island our food was all provided for us) - maybe should have thought that that was some kind of indication of how our trip was to go, but we did proceed with it anyway...

On arrival at the bush camp, it was actually quite nice - apart from the rather disgusting mosquito-infested toilets - but we were shown a map, told to stick together, and told that it would be tiring....little did we know! That night we had our best nights sleep in a tent-like contraption but with the comfiest bunk beds, and we set off the next morning ready and raring to go!

We were divided up into two 3s and one 2 to go in the canoes; however the two on their own in the canoe had never canoed before, and ended up going round and round in circles, and even though they swore they knew what they were doing, and one canoe went back for them, we still waited for two hours on the beach for them, while the company that we went with went round, picked them up from the starting point, and brought them to us, where we all had to swap canoes to 'even it up'. After we then got lost several times (you would think that canoeing on a lake you wouldn't be able to get lost, but we managed it!) we finally managed to find the entrance to the Upper Noosa River, and after another hour and a half (by which time it was dark) we spied the sign for Harry's campsite where we were due to stay that night.
**Just to give you an idea, we had started canoeing at around 10.30 in the morning around a lake that was 5km x 10km (we couldn't go straight across as it was too choppy) and we didn't reach the campsite until 6.00 in the evening - ARGGHHHH!**
After dragging our stuff out of the canoes and pitching our tents in the dark, we went to start cooking, where I looked in the food bag and found that I had left a whole portion of our food bag behind (and it was all the decent stuff - baked beans, pot noodles, chicken curry, marshmallows) - even worse!

Woke up the next morning to pouring rain, and after the whole episode of the day before, nobody wanted to go out again to visit the sandpatch that we were supposed to be visiting that day, so four of us had a leisurely row up the river to the next campsite and had a picnic (it had almost stopped raining by this point, but we made make-do ponchos out of plastic bags - deja-vu methinks!) and then came back and spent the rest of the evening drinking goon and playing drinking games! The next morning we were supposed to leave at 5.30am so that we would be back in time for the next group to start out with the canoes...well, we only left 45 minutes late, it was sooo windy, and by the time we reached the Information Centre where we attempted to ring our company for the next 20 minutes and they didn't pick up, we were rather fed up. Luckily, we met a kayaker who was going that-a-way who offered to let our company know to pick us up on the beach where we had waited previously for the other two in our group. However, it was so windy that every time we tried to canoe, we just kept getting blown into the side of the river, so we spent the next 3 HOURS dragging our canoes through freezing-cold, waist-high water and pouring rain back to the beach where everyone else was waiting for us. ARGGGHHHHH!

Needless to say, Noosa was not one of our favourite places, especially as we spent one more night in the perfectly pleasant YHA there, and the next day it poured with rain the whole time....hmmmmm....not one of our most successful trips (hence the distinct lack of photos!)

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Photos

Before the catastrophe
This was the only picture either of us took...