I was determined to find the real Paradise, convinced that Mom and I had stumbled on the worst part and that it was really a nice place. I was wrong. My suspicions were immediately piqued when the girl at the check in desk announced 'This is a party hostel'. Then she told me the beach was closed because the tail end of the Fiji cyclone had whipped the waves into crashing monsters with a huge underwater drag. I figured I would explore the small town further up the road, looking for some moochy independent shops; it was a big town, with the same big stores as everywhere else. So there was no beach to surf or even sit on, no where nice to go and explore and I was kept awake all night by noisy drunk people outside my dorm window. Luckily I only had to stay 2 nights.
The next destination was the real surfer's paradise. Yamba. Recently voted the Best Place To Live In Australia, even though most Australian's have never heard of it. It's a sleepy old town, with only one hostel, a one screen cinema, and the biggest store was a Spar. And it is the best place to surf, with 4 beaches all facing a different direction, so there is always surf somewhere.
My hostel was full of surfers. Most people went for a week and stayed for 6 months or more. It was only small and everyone knew everyone, it felt like a family. Not least because the 2 guys who owned the place were always there, hanging out with us and surfing with us. Shane was the happiest, most excitable person I know, and he clearly loves his job. Each day at 9am he took a surfing lesson of up to 20 people - though most people just borrowed boards for $10 a day - beats every other place's $20 for 2 hours by a mile!
And in the afternoon, everyday is Shane's Tour. It's practically compulsory, and everyone in the hostel says 'have you done Shane's Tour yet? You'll love it!' And it was amazing. He told us all about Yamba, took us to all the beaches, and then on to Angourie, the next town over where we went to the famous Angourie Pools.We went cliff diving, which was slightly terrifying, but a lot of fun!
And we saw a lot of wildlife, Bunny in particular!
I stayed in Yamba for longer than planned, because it was just such a great place. I spent most of my days surfing, except for the 3 days I was in bed sick =( I even went to the tiny one screen cinema to watch the new Zoolander film (it's ridiculous by the way!) and I was the only person in the whole cinema =)
Then back up the coast to Noosa, and into the real wilderness. I stayed 4 days at Gagaju Bush Camp in Noosa National Park. It was a small camp in the middle of the forest, beside the Noosa River, with nothing for miles around.
There was a small camp kitchen - and when I say small I mean there were only 2 bowls, and I spent my first night drinking out of one and there were even less glasses! The staff were pretty harsh on people cleaning up; if you don't the mice come, and when they come so do the snakes. I woke on my first morning to one of the rangers with a snake wrapped around his neck, moving him out of the area. We spent the evenings drinking in the 'kitchen' before heading to our tents. Mine had a hole in it so I was constantly covered in ants.
In the days we canoed on the river. Everyone who arrives on the same day goes out together, so you got to know a group of people. We had a flotilla of 7 boats. I joined forces with Chad and JP, 2 Canadian guys, and we were on fire, always the boat in the lead! Our first canoe was 14km and it took us downriver, through a lake and down a creek. A few km down the creek we found a rope swing and stopped to swing out of the tree and into the river before heading back.
The second day canoe was a bit shorter, which was good because we all ached. This time we headed upstream to a different lake. Our instructions were to cross the lake and paddle to a picnic spot on the other side. But we were warned that the journey back would be pretty tough as the tide would have turned and we would be against that and the wind. The lake is only between 1/2 and a meter deep, so the rangers advised us to walk back around the edge, making sure we hit the ground with our paddle before we took a step because the lake was full of stingrays, some as big as a small car. That didn't sound like fun so we ignored the directions and took off around a couple of islands before paddling through the tiny trails through the reed beds. It was very intrepid, especially when we got to the ends with no room to turn around and we had to paddle backwards.
I returned to civilisation, excited for a proper shower and a clean bed, and found that in Halse Lodge, Noosa's YHA, arriving just in time to see the end of Noosa's Festival of Surfing. Unfortunatley I missed the dog and owner heats, and the tandem surfing, but I saw the family challenge, the finless comp which had a completely different shape board called an Alayia, and the finals of the normal surfing. I also fell in love with longboarding. It looks so much more relaxed and stylish, like dancing on water.
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