EC-Rider Travels

We had a fairly pronto start and headed north to the Noosa Everglades, where we were to join a canoeing trip! The Noosa Everglades is one of only two everglade systems on Earth, the other being in Florida; though our guide Peter questioned this! It is a network of pristine, slow-moving waterways and wetlands lined with coastal mangroves, sawgrass marshes, endless different varieties of eucalyptus, scented tea-trees and floating lily-pads. The Noosa Everglades has a unique ecosystem and is home to over 40% of Australia’s bird species and provides an important sanctuary for many of their endangered creatures.

We arrived at a huge eco-camp in the middle of the Noosa National Park on the bank of lake Cootharaba. We joined our group at 8.30am and headed off with Peter to our boat. It was the most gorgeous day and Peter was very chatty with the facts and figures as we crossed the lake (the second largest salt-water lake in Australia) to the Everglades.

Here we were assigned our canoes, given directions and instructed to meet him 5km up stream. Luckily Diana was an experienced rower (though kept reminding me that this was very different from canoeing!) and certainly had more of a clue as to what we were doing than me. But we cracked it and had a really lovely glide up the glades. Quite achy arms by the end, but it was utterly beautiful, escorted along the way by a deafening cacophony of bird song from the 140 different species of birds. Few however, sadly wished to come out in the midday sun. What we did see, which was rather amazing was a cob-web stretching from one side of the river to the other – like a zip wire. Must have been a lot of work! The water is crystal clear and dyed red from the tea-trees which spread themselves across the water. The water is fresh by the time it enters the everglades but slightly acidic and oily from the tea-tree, meaning that only seven varieties of fish live here and birds tend not to want to wash in the water.

After about an hour we were somewhat relieved to sight the boat and joined the others for some very welcome drinks, muffins and delicious watermelon. We were chuffed to see that we were not the last! We handed over our trusty canoes to a second group and after feeding the catfish with the left-over muffins, and admiring a rather magnificent monitor lizard who had joined us, we boarded our boat to head back to the camp.

The serenity and beauty continued and it was clear why the river was known as the ‘River of Mirrors’. We had a brief siting of a pair of azure kingfishers which we learnt built their nests in the abandoned termite mounds. They live on three varieties of gudgeon which live in the water, always eating them head-first so the scales don’t damage their throats. They have had serious fires in the Everglades which have got out of control and caused devastating damage. They now take Aboriginal advice, from the local Gubbi Gubbi people, on how to prevent these.

We had a leisurely drive back to Peregian Beach via the rather sweet town of Eumundi where we hoped to catch the market but sadly just missed it. Early evening we had a lovely walk along the beach to meet Amanda Bell, a fellow Principal friend of Diana’s, for a really delicious prawn supper! Quite tired now!