Day 39 - Kinka Beach (Yeppoon)

Ditto

We pre booked a day trip to Great Keppel Island (GkI as all the signage said) for today, so we needed to be a little more organised this morning.

We jumped in our nice shiny cars (although Gail and I bummed a lift with Julie and Peter) and headed to the ferry terminal.

While the ferry’s were as big as our Rotto boats, there certainly didn’t seem as many Tommy tourists as we get for Rotto.

Embarking was a little traumatic for one of the barkers. Poor Peppa was initially hell bent on not climbing the steps, until Anne dragged her up. Both Peppa and Stevie were not big fans of the journey over. If Peppa could have, she’d have been up on Anne’s lap much the same as Stevie was with Peter and Julie

The journey was only about 30 minutes.

You know how you can arrive on Rotto, walk off the boat onto a jetty, and walk or ride along the bitumen road anywhere around the island………well forget that about GKI

We read a few things about GKI before arriving, one of which was you were beach landed. For a place so well advertised as a major tourist attraction it seemed a little pre historic.

In fact much about GKI had that same pre historic feel. Yet, that also added to the charm. It surprisingly hasn’t been over commercialised.

Anyway, back to our adventure. After downing the gang plank onto the island we headed to the Bistro/Pub……we’d commenced travel arrangements so early we missed breakfast.

Monkey Beach was the chosen destination. Highly recommended by mainland based staff and island staff alike. I’ve mentioned pre historic twice before, now a third time.

To get anywhere was a “Bourke and Wills” expedition. No paths or roads to follow, just tracks worn out by other bewildered travellers. Fair play, there were a few hieroglyphics carved into a few white ant destroyed signs to guide you.

We started up as the first sign suggested. Up we went, then more up, then more up. Dodging rocks and tree roots all the way. Then more up.

By now there were serious concerns about ever reaching Monkey Beach. We hit the first of those hieroglyphic signs the same time as three intrepid young women did coming from an alternative direction. They too were on their way to the same beach. What fascinated us was that 2 of them chose not to wear foot wear. Absolutely mind boggling. (That’s the polite way of saying effing nuts).

After reaching the “non recommended” short cut route, with still over 1500 metres to go for the recommended route, a group meeting was convened.

After the usual preamble, consensus could not be reached resulting in a fracture. Graham and I chose to head on while the others returned.

Graham and I descended the “not recommended” route with the skill and tenacity of any “Survivor” contestant.

Apart from the camaraderie and banter, so glad we did. The water was crystal clear. There was some marine life and coral but not as much as we’d expected.

It had taken roughly an hour from the time we started till we’d reached our destination. So to leave enough time for at least 1 beer in the pub before departing the island, we carefully calculated the timing of our return journey.

Up and over what seemed like an “Everestian” climb to the pub we went, encountering some of natures wildlife on the way.

It was no surprise the fracturing group had congregated at the pub already.

We had time for a few beers before departing for the mainland. The canine patrol definitely seemed more at ease this time.

Back to the vans, showered and cleaned up before BBQ chicken for dinner.

“It was a ferry good day”

PS. Another interesting fella we came across was in his 80’s, from Dianella, travelling solo. His reason for making my list of interesting folk was his mums plight as a Polish refugee during WW2,Read more