Let Loosa in Noosa

So on the suggestion of the travel assistant in Brisbane who organised everything for us – buses, accom, Fraser tour - we headed for Noosa. We didn’t know a whole lot about Noosa before but really took to the place once we arrived. On departing our bus we decided to try to walk to our accomodation following the map, however after 20 mins of not knowing where we were going we decided to return to the bus stop to find a courtesy pick up bus to our hostel waiting for us!! We missed it last time! How stupid! The accom was really nice, an outdoor pool, nice kitchen, pool table, table tennis table and a clean, new 6 bed dorm. The room was really a converted apartement with the 2 bedrooms being 2 separate rooms, the living/dining area was populated by 3 bump beds and a perfect kitchen was there but wasn’t to be used. A little Japanese lad we called Yoshi was our other roommate, id say he was glad to be leaving the following day when he seen the sight of us loud, boisterous and crazy Irish lads.

That first night at Noosa we relaxed, availed of the table tennis facilities and went for a nice meal in ‘Tapas’ a fancy restaurant along the riverfront. I got a Piella which was nice but nothing on the Ilha Grande one. After splashing out on a fancy meal we went for a cheap dessert at an ice cream parlour, it tasted cheap too – my honeycomb ice cream was like eating a scoop of cold dust! Yuck! So we returned to the hostel and ended up chatting to some of our fellow hostelries, a young London lass who couldn’t understand Kieran and he couldn’t understand her!! It was funny stuff as Kieran misinterpreted her talking about the ‘nightlife’ to talking about ‘Koalas’ and after she finished telling us about the nightlife than asked ‘So whats the nightlife like?’!! We played cards than with a bunch of hippy Canadians and a Scot who supported Dundee.

We woke up to the morning sun and decided it was the ideal day to discover Noosa and the National Park. Firstly, we took advantage of the free kayaks and went to the river for a gentle row. It was relaxing and a good way to start the day but got a bit boring after a while. We got a nice breakie at hostel than to set us up for the day. We strolled around Noosa and went on the beach for a while, kicking ball and taking some pics. We had a good auld chat with an old Croatian guy who is in Australia 40 years and still has pigeon English, a bit of Italian he says and has forgotten his Croatian! After the beach we headed to the National Park. We got a map and headed off on the Coastal Track. It reminded us of the trek on Ilha Grande, fascinating forestry, passing by various little quiet beaches and good view points across the ocean. There were plenty turkeys flapping around, they are like pigeons at home, everywhere. Gary, Mike and Kieran headed down a slope to Alexandria Beach while me and Conor took a different trek home. Gary and the other two jogged back to save time and work off all the alcohol and shit they were eating!

Crikey shes a beauty!!! Yep, today our next adventure was a trip to the world famous Australia Zoo where the late Steve Irwin displayed his crazy crocodile skills in the past. Gary and I picked up some toast and a takeaway tea before boarding the free courtesy bus with the other lads to the Zoo. The bus is class, covered in signage outside and the seats have designs of little animals. Its roomy, comfortable and the Steve Irwin documentary, shown during the hour and half trip, about his life was intriguing and made us appreciate where he came from and who he was. The first thing we saw on arrival at the zoo was a huge tortoise and Michael, I call him the zookeeper cause I don’t know what else to call him, gave us a demonstration. Next up was feeding the elephants which was a 2 second experience but cool none the less. The Wildlife Warriors show, which Steve Irwin used to star in, is the highlight of the zoo and was next up. The Crocoseum was class and well set up for the show. The show involved all types of exotic birdlife, elephants, snakes and of course the crocs! Terri and Bindi Irwin were the stars of the croc show throwing him food, toys with the purpose of displaying his power and ferocity.

The kangaroos jumped up next! We saw the latest edition to the zoo, the red pandas which were playful furry tings that could climb along trees and were a lot smaller than the traditional panda. The tigers were sleeping were asleep initially but returned later to see an awesome tiger demonstration in which the tiger handlers played games with them, fed them and even got them swimming. With the glass screen protecting the audience it allowed a really close up but safe demonstration of the awesome grace and beauty of the tigers. The elephant demonstration which Conor and I saw was also excellent with insightful commentary about elephants as they were washed, scrubbed and than dirtyed again by the zookeepers!! One fact I remember is elephants skin colour is actually black, there grey appearance occurs from dirt that is layered on the elephants by themselves to act as a sun protector. Now for ya! Gary, Mike and Kieran held a python aswell for a while for the photo opportunity. Overall the zoo is cool, lots of hands on experience and as close encounters as you can get from a zoo. While the range of animals is quite limited (no giraffes, lions, monkeys) the ones that are there are demonstrated very well and it is all the best of Australian wildlife. After a long day at the zoo we were shattered so just drank some coon, played some cards with our roommates Lizzy, James and Colin. Tomorrow we had another big day planned.

Gary and I had to try surfing yet having been here since Novemeber we still haven’t been on a surfboard. So Gary, James, Lizzy and I headed to the beach with the free surfboards from the hostel to try our surfer dude poses! Mike and Kieran went to do Jet skiing on the river and said it was unbelievable!! Kieran wants to buy one when he goes home and drive home along the Corrib Saturday nights! Drink driving laws don’t count on the water!! While we were doing all this Conor went to get his hair done!! The surfing wasn’t very successful but the waves were shite and it was very hard to get into a rhythm when one good wave would come every 20mins! We got the surfboard pic though and can say we tried it. That evening we boarded our greyhound bus, next stop Rainbow Beach!!!

Tom