Gagaju Bush Camp

We got to see sea kayak races at the beach on our second last day in Mooloolaba. It was pretty amazing to watch. The waves were strong and they had to overcome them for the race. It went on for most of the day. We wandered the beach with Gen. We walked out on a point of land and watched some people stand up paddle boarding on the ocean. I have so much respect for people that can do that. We also got to see a sea turtle swimming along the point and some fair sized crabs crawling on the rocks. It was a great day. When we left Mooloolaba, we went to Gagaju bush camp in Noosa.

We love the bush camp. We spent the first night in the dorm in beds that were much like hammocks. It wasn't bad. We then went canoeing the next day. We canoed 5km down the river to a lake, then across the lake to a beach where most of our group wanted to just lay in the sun. We made friend with three people in our group. Hannah and James from England and Viktor from Denmark. We had a lot of fun with them canoeing. We then canoed halfway back across the lake to canoe along the beginning of the Noosa Everglades. It was beautiful. The water had a dark brown colour, almost like coca cola. It was permanently stained by tea tree oil. If you swim in it, you can hit pockets of the oil where the temperature of the water is slightly warmer. Mike, Viktor and James jumped off the rope swing that was tied to a tree along the water. When then canoed 5km back up the river against the wind to the bush camp. It was so beautiful. We canoed 16km total. After we got back, we walked down to the old quarry that has filled with water. Everyone went swimming. The rock was beautiful. It was orange and purple. The water in the quarry is very blue from the minerals in the quarry like copper.

We took the next day off from canoeing because we were pretty sore from the day before and sleeping in the tent that night. We had a pretty lazy day watching movies, walking around the bush camp and going into the town of Noosa for a bit.

The next day we joined another group for canoeing. This group was better than the first and we were pretty small. Six of us total in two canoes. We had a blast with them. There were two Germans, Kris and Finn and two Brits, Ed and Patrick. We canoed 3km along the river in the other direction to another lake. We went about halfway across the lake and dropped the canoes on the shore. We then walked about 2.5km to the beach and the ocean. The waves were very choppy and high so we didn't go into the water. We sat on the beach talking for awhile with the group and then walked back to the canoes. When we canoed back, we were going with the current, so it was nice and easy. We drifted for part of the way and just enjoyed the scenery. Mike and I made pizza for supper in the little pizza oven they have here and spent the night watching movies and chatting with the guys from our group. It was a nice night.

Since people generally only come to the bush camp for the canoe trip and leave right after, all the friends we have made leave pretty soon. We are the only ones here currently that have stayed longer than two nights. We have really enjoyed staying here.