We had booked a tour cruising out to Australia’s everglades. (Apparently there are only two Everglades on the planet, here and in Florida, US) Rob and I had done this tour several years ago and really enjoyed so we thought it would be an enjoyable outing for Pat. The drive to the tour departure area took 30 minutes and after a short safety briefing, our group boarded the boat. You had the choice of canoeing for part of the boat journey and quite a few of the passengers opted to do this but the 3 of us were quite happy to just enjoy the boat without the extra exercise. The first part of our journey took us across a shallow salt lake. The wind was up so it was a little chilly and rough. This only lasted a short while before we stopped in a more sheltered area (Fig Tree Point) where some of us were headed out for a beautiful walk among paper-barks and many tall, dense cabbage palms. Half of the canoeing group set off up the river and the rest of us returned to the boat. We continued on our journey with the mangroves changing to more grasses, paper-barks and gum trees as the water changes from salty to fresh. The fresh water seeps up and into the river from the great artesian basin. In this the river there was no wind and in many places the river looked like a mirror. We continued on looking for various wild-life and birds until we came to our next stop at Harry’s Hut. (This was once a hut used back in the logging days and is now a camping area that can only be reached by 4XW drive vehicles or boat.) We stopped here and the canoe groups swapped over. We were treated to muffins and juice for morning tea. Very nice. We returned and picked the canoeists up at Fig Tree Point before heading back to our starting point. We had set off around 9am and returned at 1.30pm. A very enjoyable and relaxing experience was had by all. From here we travelled to Eumundi in hope we might make it in time to visit the famous markets. Unfortunately the journey took us 30 minutes and the markets closed at 2pm so most of the vendors were packing up as we arrived. Instead we visited the bakery for lunch before visiting some interesting shops in the main street.
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