Mirrored waterways

The tour bus was right on time and picked us up just across from our accommodation. We had opted for the Everglades Eco Safari tour as pick up was included in the price and offered the option of canoeing through the Everglades.

It was just over half an hour out to the Habitat Noosa Everglades Eco Camp which was a large complex, complete with a restaurant offering reasonable coffee.

Following a quick safety briefing, we headed to the open-sided boat which took us across Lake Cootharaba, with views towards Boreen Point, before entering the Everglades. It is one of only two Everglades systems in the world, the other being in Florida. The water is sourced from sub-artesian aquifiers and is stained dark due to the tannins from the surrounding tea trees.  

The skipper took a short detour so we could view the pelicans before we entered the Upper Noosa River.  We passed some cormorants and a bevy of black swans before reaching Fig Tree Point.  

We had been nominated as part of group 1 so were canoeing first.  Those canoeing later headed off on the Melaleuca Circuit walk, whilst we collected our paddles and made our way to the canoes.  We waded through the weedy water to clamber into the double Canadian canoes then meandered slowly away in the direction we thought we were meant to travel.  

Soon we were all afloat and headed in the right direction for a 5km paddle upstream through the mirrored waterways to Harry’s Hut. It was beautiful and so tranquil with just the hint of a current.  Just over an hour later we reached our destination and once we had docked the canoes to the cruise boat, we relaxed with some delicious muffins and a wander around the area.  

Harry’s hut was constructed in 1957 to accommodate timber cutters and was later purchased by Harry Spring, a local pharmacist, with the lease on the property reverting to the National Parks on his death. 

We had opted to leave phones and camera on board so took lots of photos of the waterways on our return cruise.  We stopped again at Fig Tree Point to collect the other canoeists and took the opportunity to walk the Melaleuca circuit.  

As the bus was picking us up at 3pm, we had plenty of time for lunch at the CootharaBAR – where Simon enjoyed a mango beer from the bar’s microbrewery.

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