Day 7 – We saw 50% Of The Worlds Everglades In One Day

Defiinition of everglade: a swampy grassland especially in southern Florida usually containing saw grass and at least seasonally covered by slowly moving water —usually used in plural.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/everglade

There are only two places you will find the everglade environment in the world, Florida and right here in our backyard, Noosa Australia, and we were headed to see that today! We drove about an hour out of Mooloolaba north to visit Habitat Noosa camp grounds, which has tours leaving from their pier into the Noosa everglades. I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of what makes Australia special, with its unique areas, biomes and habitats while on this trip, and todays tour was no different. After arriving at 9am, we were given out tour lanyards and piled onto a boat with about 20 other passengers to slowly make our way across the lake and into the winding canals that you may associate with everglades. At the entrance, we were shown a rangers cabin that is situated right on the water, which unfortunately was about 1 metre under water with the recent Queensland floods. Trevor (our tour guide who has been running tours personally since 1973) told us that this area had water rise about 2 metres, whereas Gympie, which we visited yesterday and is just over a ridge from Noosa, had their water rise 23 metres. It’s hard to even imagine the scale of water that was in the area. Another curiosity of this rangers cabin is the stories that have been shared over the decades of phantom steps being heard upstairs from the rangers who lived there, and the fact that most of them only lasted a couple of weeks before asking for a transfer out of that position. There’s no physical proof of haunting, but the similar stories make you think…

We pulled up after a little more sailing at a small dock poking out of the trees. As we pulled up, we noticed the lily pads surrounding it have started to bloom with beautiful purple flowers. We were at this location for a comfort stop, but also so Trevor could set the first group of paddlers out in their canoes to start making their way down the winding water to the next pier. The rest of the crew was able to explore this shady, forested area while they were starting their paddle. The 4 of us where in the next group, who would be paddling back down from where we came, launching off from our next stop.

Once the first group was going, the rest of us boarded the boat again to head towards a local landmark called “Harry’s Hut”. Harry was a gentleman who owned a piece of land here and had built a hut out in the bush for escaping the hustle of everyday life. But when the government wanted to turn the area into national park, he held on to his little plot of land, and his hut remained here until this day. While we were on the way to Harry’s hut, the water had changed from the brown water, stained by the flood and the tannins in the water, to an even darker, almost black colour. This is what helps this area get it’s nickname of River of Mirrors – as you’re sailing down, you are blessed with magnificent reflections from the trees above on the calm still waters, which only get disturbed by the periodic tours and kayakers. It’s a magnificent sight, and anyone who has the opportunity to see this place, should definitely take it.

We ate a quick morning tea at Harry’s Hut, had a quick explore around the area and then headed to the boat again to start our league of the canoe paddling. We were tasked with paddling the 5.5km back to where we launched he boat from the first stop. Having not been inside a single paddle canoe really ever before (I don’t think being 4/5 and sitting in the front while your dad paddles counts), this was going to be humbling. I tried my best to pull my weight, but I do think Drew put in most of the hard work. The trip was so peaceful though. We stopped paddling occasionally just to drift and listen to the sounds. Whenever we did this, all we could hear was the lapping of the water on the canoe sides, the bird songs and a very slight breeze through the trees and reeds. Pure magic.

For some reason, we came to the decision that we were going to race the boat back. They had given us a head start of about 15 to 20 minutes, so it was going to be a challenge. We were making some good time and thought we had it in the bag when we were only 200 metres of so away from where we were supposed to land and stow out canoes when we did hear the boat putting along behind us. Having had the relaxed portion of the paddle, and taken a few pictures, we decided to go hard and see if we could win this imaginary race we were in. We somehow did land before the boat! High fives all round! This last push is probably why my back and shoulders are screaming as I type this, but hey, at least we have bragging rights, right?

Once we had stowed our canoes away, the second group boarded the boat back to the Habitat Noosa camp site for lunch. We were treated to a lovely BBQ and salad out in the sun to finish up our everglades experience. It was pretty special.

We finished up here at roughly 3 o’clock, so we did have some time before heading back to the room. To fill in our schedules, we decided to head to a look out just outside of Noosa proper, which gave us a magnificent view of over the lakes, beaches and hills of the area. With the sun laying pretty low in the sky at this point, it made for some gorgeous photos. We still had some time after this stop, so we headed to the beach nearby, which has a boardwalk along the cliffs above the beach, which again has some amazing views. This particular area was heavily forested along the beach as well, which is something you would never get to see down south in Victoria, so we really appreciated he views here.

Just off from the beach, there is a short forest walk loop, which heads away from the waves, but into the quiet calm of the trees, with nothing but bird sounds and insects. We learnt about the fig strangler tree, which is a parasitic tree that will spread its seed in the winds, germinate its seed high up in the hosts branches, grow down to the ground and kill the original host tree by inhibiting its sap production. We were in the area of the forest that was so old that we came across multiple fig stranglers who stood with no host tree remaining at its centre. This was a fascinating find.

One we completed the loop, we headed back to the car, completely spent from the day. It was time to go home and not do anything for the rest of the night. We ordered some Japanese food in, and have struggled to move from our spots since. I honestly don’t know how I’ve managed to write this blog and maintained any train of thought along the way!

But now I think it’s time for another early night. We are heading to Australia Zoo tomorrow! I’ve always wanted to see where the Australian icon Steve Irwin built his animal kingdom and started his Wildlife Warrior army.