by It was somewhere beyond the last melaleuca tree that I decided the broiling temperatures had finally taken hold for me. For a few hours before I had been strolling up the hill, in the damp Queensland evening air, surrounded by trees, while trout’s beaks splashed in front of my boots and cicadas hummed with reassuring regularity. Then, suddenly, I seemed to have reached the top of a mountain – but instead of a summit strewn with rock and scrub, it was capped by sand dunes rising to the sky like a grand prize podium.
“I think the heat is getting to me,” I told my guide, Vivienne Golding. She smiled knowingly as I stepped towards the dunes and I felt my shoes sink into the sand immediately. This was definitely true.
If there was one thing I was learning on this three-night trip to a less-visited part of Australia’s east-central coast, it was that there are many unknowns in Queensland. state residents even there. “There are never any fences in Australia – you mean Florida,” was one response I received. But here in the “Sunshine State” of Australia (Florida has the same sobriquet) the other evergreens (large areas of underwater grassland) in the world outside the USA. Although they are smaller than their Florida counterpart (40 miles long, compared to 100 miles), they are just as impressive when it comes to wildlife.
Getting there requires a two-hour drive from the Sunshine Coast capital to Noosa Heads, a beachside town that attracts hipsters, surfers and – judging by the restaurant offerings – vegans. I checked in the night before to the light and airy Peppers Noosa Resort & Villas, where rainbow parakeets perched on my balcony, and from there I decided to go for a walk that started on the boardwalk in the city center at Hastings. Street.
Within minutes I was fully in the middle of the old-growth forest, paddling along the Tanglewood trail through pandanus, pine and macaranga trees, listening to the call of bush turkeys and cicadas humming a dusky chorus. The route took me to the tip of a peninsula where waves were crashing around me on three sides and sea lions were barking, but no one else to be seen. And all this was classified as one of Noosa’s urban walks.
The next morning I made the 30 minute drive north, eager to experience the “official” wilderness of the Everglades. The distinctive scent of tea tree filled the air as I arrived at Harry’s Hut campsite to meet Vivienne. A former Olympic white-water canoe champion, 20 years ago she decided to retire, leave the medal glory behind and offer kayak tours on the Noosa Everglades instead.
“You can spend days exploring here. And the great thing is that you can make it as wild or as light as you want,” she explained as we left the riverbank, splashing the water with our paddles, creating our own welcome breeze. “The Harry’s Hut campsite is good for people who don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere and where other people are usually around, but the further up you go – especially when you go past Camp Three – the yes the more remote you are and so are you, and nature.”
We were now heading to Camp Three, where we would do a 7 mile round trip, to get a good view of the Everglades. What Vivienne didn’t reveal until I got to the top and thought I was suffering from heat-induced delusions, is that the summit contains the Paper Sands of Cool Aodha, part of the Great Sands National Park which was the K ‘gari (previously better known Fraser). Island) which sits just over 30 miles to the north.
The walk started right from the jetty, where we tied up the kayaks, and followed a winding path through scrubland, forest and nesting birds (44 percent of all the country’s species are found here in the Everglades).
By the time the trail leveled out and we came out onto what looked like a high desert, I could look down and see the full expanse of the Eurglades below my feet.
“That’s where we’ll go tomorrow,” Vivienne explained as she pointed to a huge tree-lined lake fed by veins of watery channels more than 300 feet below.
That evening we headed back along calm water as the sky turned into a blanket of orange and purple clouds. At the campsite we ate homemade curry that we had baked over the camp stove, washed down with local wine and fresh strawberries picked from a nearby paddock that morning.
Then the next day, getting up early, we headed towards the lake – Cootharaba – which we saw from the top of the mountain. But before that we had to negotiate the narrow channel they call “River of Mirrors”. Due to tannin-rich waters that are dark and still visible, everything that grows above the water can be seen on its surface with amazing clarity.
Not satisfied, I asked Vivienne if she had seen any bull sharks in the area; Her answer, “not in two decades,” was positive, but as something splashed in the water below, I wasn’t sure I’d be brave enough to swim here, as she did.
Eventually we reached a wide expanse of lake where a scoop of pelicans bounced on a slip of sandbar, occasionally diving for fish. We watched them for almost half an hour, practically at eye level. Then as we approached our collection point, we had a spectacular finish – black and white swans took off in a flurry of monochrome feathers, their calls echoing across the lake.
Fundamentals
Kanu Kapers Australia offers expert and self-guided kayaking and camping tours that last from one to three days, starting at AUS$110 (£60).
For more information about the Noosa Everglades see queensland.com.
