Serious Bushcamp

The drive from Hervey Bay to Noosa wasn’t a bad one, only about 2 and half hours. We thought we had left enough time but as we were leaving town we grabbed brekky at Maccas, then Makenna wanted postcards so we went back down to the esplanade and by the time we really left we were cutting it close. Since we had called the Gangaju Bushcamp the day before and told them we were coming in at noon, they had informed us that there was a shuttle bus at 1pm. Even though we had our own car they recommended we follow them since the Bushcamp was apparently difficult to get to. Of course we rolled into Noosa literally at 1:05pm....we contemplated rushing to try and meet the shuttle but I had called when we were 20km away to tell them we were running late and they said the next bus was at 4pm. Since neither of us had any clue where the bus stop was that we were supposed to be meeting, we figured we would just take our time and wait for the next one and I am glad we did. We found our way down to Hastings St which is the main esplanade in Noosa and where everyone had recommended. I was shocked. For some reason I had pictured Noosa to be more of a small town when in reality it was like we had arrived in Newport, Beach in the OC. Really cute boutique shops and quirky little stores, small expensive grocery stores and beautiful houses. Not what I expected at all. Once we parked we walked into a couple of the cool shops to kill time and just moseyed around. After that we drove around town some more, saw the view even though it was raining and then went to find the bus stop. On the way we ran into an Aldie, which is a super super cheap grocery store that is a German company. It is almost like a Grocery Outlet, where it has lots of cheap stuff but usually the knock off brands. Considering how poor we are, it was gold and we knew that this trip did not include food and we had time to kill so we stopped.

We stocked up on food and spent too much money, surprise, and then really did go find the bus stop. We were meeting at the greyhound station which luckily ended up being pretty obvious. Since we were still a good hour early we decided to boil some water out the back of our van for a classy lunch of cup of noodles (equivalent) and settled in to watch an episode of New Girl on Makenna’s computer. I won’t lie that boiling water and making lunch in a main parking lot during the middle of the day was an experience. It gave off a very homeless feel to it. Finally, the bus pulled up and I went and told the guy who we were and that we were ready to follow him wherever. I guess we were waiting for two more people but they never showed. Now this fellow was very interesting...he was an older gentleman with a no nonsense attitude but clearly someone who has been living in a tent a while. He had pretty bad teeth and smelled like a good ol Olympia hippie but he was a character that’s for sure. And boy did he take us on a journey to the camp. We ran errands behind this guy for a good 35 minutes, including two stops at Woolworths (main grocery store) before we finally headed to camp.

The road to camp seemed normal enough until the main road ended and it turned to serious gravel and potholes. We drove on that for a good five to ten minutes passing what was similar to a tent city or at least a lot of motorhomes set up for long term use. Still further down the road we finally saw a sign that we were in the right place and he got out, directed us to park and showed us around. The camp was truly that, a camp, a bush camp. There was only cold water unless you hiked it back up to the one flushable toilet and showers up by the residents, there were tents for everyone to sleep in, a small outdoor common room and a kitchen. Drinking games had been banned since apparently people in the past had been very destructive, lighting stuff on fire and breaking stuff...I found that interesting. The first night they did offer us a ‘bed’ in their dorm room which had pretty cool sling/hammock style beds but we didn’t feel like spending the extra five bucks to rent a sleeping bag when we could just sleep in the van. Turns out that was a good plan as most people froze in there and later we had people bargaining with us to sleep in our van with us. We went to bed early which seems to be a pretty common thing this trip and since everyone was watching a movie that was too far in to join in and not very sociable it wasn't worth staying up.

We woke up early the next day because we were told to be ready by 8am, which we were. However, we were the only ones. There were 9 of us going on our first day canoeing and two of us (Makenna and I) were ready on time. At first I tried to be patient because I myself have been known to be running late. However, after waiting nearly an HOUR I was irritated. There literally was nothing you had to do to get ready... just grab a life jacket and a paddle and listen to the directions. The slowest of the bunch were two Irish girls who seemed shocked that we were all waiting for them. Around 9:30 am we finally were off. The canoe held three people so we added in one of the guys from another group, an English lad named Jessie.

The water was beautiful and the river was pretty massive. It was less impressive to us only because we're from the NW and are used to rivers being like that. The unfortunate part was that we were not going with the current for most of the trip and my arms burned! If anything was to show off just how weak my upper body has gotten... So this trip was unguided. The funny guy gave us a short five minute run down of what we were supposed to do and where we were supposed to go and sent us on our way. At first we pulled off onto some sandy beach because we wanted a break and Jessie was complaining he was getting sea sick. We had a brief chat on the beach, took some pictures and realized if we wanted to get to the beach we were supposed to park our canoe at, we would have to get back in the water and canoe around. It was also super windy and a lot colder on the beach then in the canoe.

We got to the proper beach, got out and headed up the path to find the pub we were told to go to. When we got there is was a super cool little place. Strangely, it was a huge biker hangout place but they enthusiastically waved us to come in. Apparently, it is also one of the oldest pubs in the area and was very historical looking. We ate our packed lunch, splurged on some ice cream and laid in the sun for a bit. When we all decided we were good, we headed back to the canoes where we then struggled to find the mouth of the small creek we were told to go down. After getting it wrong about four times, we finally found the opening and paddled down to the well known rope swing. I won’t lie and I was hot from the workout but it was anything but hot out. The sun was starting to lose it’s strength and most of the creek was in the shade, but most of us, apart from the Irish girls, all sucked it up and used the swing to jump in. Talk about refreshing! And it was fun.

After we all jumped in, with photos as proof of course, we started to get chilly and got back in the canoes. There was some minor confusion about whether the creek went all the way through and looped back around or if we had to go back the way we came. I ended up being right and we had to turn around. Now so far I have left this small detail out, but it would not be a proper representation of my experience if I did not fully express that Jessie, the guy in our boat, drove me insane. Absolutely bonkers. He was literally the most whiny, lazy, know-it-all who made the most ignorant comments repeatedly and was always trying to tell us which direction to go even though he was wrong. As a quick reminder, Kenna did rowing for a lot of years in her life, so we had her at the back steering and choosing our direction. The nitwit could not seem to grasp that he was clueless and useless and the longer we were in the boat with him the more I disliked him.

We got back to camp before dark as we were told and jumped to get the first showers. We again decided that socializing was over rated and unlike our previous trips, there wasn't the same kind of camaraderie as a group so we made dinner and went and watched New Girl in the van. The next morning we were much slower getting up and getting ready because we figured that everyone would be late again and we didn’t want to wait for them. It turns out the first day we canoed over 17km which would explain why I was so tired and sore. Luckily, the second day was a mere 7 km total. This day we were told to go to the other end of the river which was another lake, park our canoes, and walk to the beach. It was much easier to find but once there the beach was freezing. Like we were all sitting there pretending to be enjoying ourselves with goosebumps all over. We gave in earlier than the previous day and got back to camp before 3pm. Again, we jumped on the fact that no one else was back yet and got the hottest showers. it was awesome and since it was so early in the day I didn’t feel bad about taking my time or using hot water to my leisure. After that we cleaned up the van and organized our stuff to pass time before repeating the night before with dinner, New Girl and bed before 10.