Breakfree International Noosa

... place, he's so funny and he talks to everyone which is wicked. I don't think there's a single person in the hostel who he doesn't know.

Checked out the national park with Kim, went on a Noosa everglade cruise and went swimming in the river which was so refreshing, went out boozing with 2 canadians and an english girl who moved into my dorm and had an hilarious time hunting for food after the ...

... turned out to be a resort community which is not conducive to our style of travel at all, luckily we had the couchsurfing connection and a free place to stay. The first day the rains poured down and we holed up in our friendly hosts basement watching movies and trying to not succumb to the lingering colds we have both been fighting off. Finally the water stopped pouring from the sky and I was able ...

... join me, and we drove the 30 minutes north to Noosa arriving at the beach by around noon. i have to admit, we timed it quite perfectly (although not on purpose) and we got there for the last couple heats of the women's invitational longboard final. we happened to get a pretty sweet spot in the shade and watched the end of the women's heats. before we realized it, surfers were paddling out for the Noserider Invitational Men's final--the climax of the competition! score! the heat ...

... later i looked the fancy insect up in my "australian wildlife encyclopedia" (oh yeah, i got one) and learned that it was a blue triangle swallowtail. i was so stoked by my close encounter with the fragile kind, ironically i almost stepped on what appeared to be a small green grasshopper. but when i knelt down to take a closer look i wasn't so sure anymore--was it deformed? i later determined that it was a giant green ...

... Nous avons vu encore plus d'animaux bizarre, principalement des lézards et des oiseaux mais aussi un crapaud énorme. En soirée nous avons fait un grand feu de camp, nous avons mangé nos spaghettis carbonara (10 kilomètres en canoe sans même casser les oeufs) et nous avons sympathiser avec le groupe d'irlandais qui revenait de cette longue marche et qui nous racontait que l'un d'entre eux avait mis le pied sur un serpent. Les trois allemands de notre groupe étaient allés se coucher ...

... looking for some 300 cow horns filled with precious cow dung. In some cases, performing mundane chores revealed additional biodynamic practices: while fencing a grazing ground for the baby goats, Guy found a snake slough and was asked to keep it for peppering purposes. Peppering? In biodynamics peppering entails burning the body of a pest (which could be an insect, rodent, weed etc.) and spreading the ash as a repellent to that ...

... the busy city centers suited us fine. After a look on the internet we settled for a place called Mooloolaba. But like I said, we could have gone anywhere and had a good time. As it turned out though Mooloolaba was just perfect for us. We had an amazing time. It was like we had stopped traveling and gone on holiday. We had an apartment that was fully self contained situated right by a huge beautiful stretch of beach. I know this may sound ridiculous from someone not working and ...

... sights but you can only camp on the beach and as the road is the beach you had to stop driving at 3 before the tide came in so most days were a race against time to drive up to one end of the beach to see something and get back to your camping spot to camp for the night. Brilliant scenery though. Each night we cooked dinner with the company of dingoes, which are native wild dogs that roam the island and other parts of australia. They have ...

... our next destination, the jewel of the Sunshine Coast, and one of my favourite towns in Australia... Noosa!

Last time I was here, on my Oz/NZ trip 6 years ago, I was able to hook up with my friend Andrew "H" who lives in Brisbane ...

... a brief stop at the Duggan's for some morning coffee and pikelets (sweet little pancakes served with jam), we were on our way again.       Peter's house can best be described as...badass.  Out front he had parked a newly purchased fishing boat.  Next to that was a patio and a pool, providing a nice view from the hilltop where the house sits.  It was a small party, and though I obviously didn't know anyone, I was warmly welcomed.  And after the freely provided ...