We had a very good sail from Island Head Creek to Great Keppel Island. The wind was coming across our port beam giving us a fast reach and allowing us to sail directly without tacking. I think this is the first day of off the wind sailing since I left the west coast of Australia. As we were approaching Great Keppel, a catamaran sailed out of the anchorage at North Keppel and closely passed us. It was a friend Steve on his yacht Jester.
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| Jester |
After anchoring we went ashore, picking Steve up on the way. As we walked up the beach towards the pub we found this interesting creature at the edge of the water.
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| A sea slug - Euselenops luniceps typically found in sandy environments |
No one wanted to touch the creature until I looked it up with google and we determined it to be a sea slug.
After having a happy hour beer at the pub with Steve as well as Dan and Aya we had met at Middle Percy, Steve invited Nancy and I to his boat for a lamb curry dinner. Nancy is vegetarian and had already eaten so just I went taking an appetiser of the last of the pizza we made at Percy and brownies for desert. While eating the appetiser, Steve spotted two large manta rays just behind his boat. We watched them for quite a while but none of my pictures came out. The dinner was delicious and company good.
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| Sunset at the Fisherman’s Bay, Great Keppel |
Then next morning Steve and I took a hike over to Monkey Bay and had a nice swim on Long Beach. We chatted with other yachties and returned to Fisherman’s Beach where our yachts were anchored by mid afternoon. Steve came over to True North for a dinner of meat pies, cheesie garlic potato bake and broccoli.
On the third day at Keppel, I went on a long hike which consisted of a loop taking me down both of the long coasts and out to the lighthouse at the far end of the island. I started around 08:00 and arrived back at Fisherman’s Beach around 14:30. The hike was over paved and unpacked roads, ATV tracks and mostly rough hiking trails. It had a lot of climbing which was ok at the start but was not great in the early afternoon when I climbed Mount Wyndham in the full sun after already hiking 15km.
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| My Great Keppel Hike |
I had hiked to the lighthouse on my first visit to Great Keppel with my French backpacker crew Andreas. It was a difficult but beautiful hike so I wanted to do it again. The route I took this time led me past the old homestead that was abandoned in 1945.
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| Some of the furniture was still in the home |
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| The sewing machine was probably used often |
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| The main living room |
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| View of the pasture from the house |
After passing the homestead I started climbing up the steep hills headed towards the lighthouse. The path was under low trees up a knife edge ridge consisting mostly of rock with little soil. As I got higher the views of the surrounding beaches, islands and ocean appeared. Eventually at one of the high points I reached the start of the point which had the lighthouse.  |
| The lighthouse is 3km distant on the tip of the point at the top of the photo |
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| I made it to the hike’s goal! |
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| Old trees clinging to the rocky point near the lighthouse. Note the goats shading under the tree. |
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| The view back up the point from the lighthouse. Note the trail heading up the hill in the background! |
I returned back to Fisherman’s Beach partially along the same route but by the homestead detoured to climb Mound Wyndham. It was extremely dry and the midday sun was intense. |
| A dry lake near the homestead |
During the hike I saw many goats, peacocks, a small, thin black snake and numerous lizards ranging in size from a few centimetres to over a metre. When I reached Fisherman’s Beach I went directly to the pub where I downed several glasses of water before celebrating my hike with a schooner of cold beer.
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