Ok, today we embark on what Matt (our Tour Leader) believes will be one of the highlights of our trip: two days, one night on Moreton Island. With that kind of buildup, I'm certainly looking forward to it.
We walked on to our ferry at 8:30 this morning with our daypacks in hand and esky's trailing - basically the basics of what we'll be needing over the next two days - and started our hour and a half cruise over to the island. This ferry is quite similar to the CAT ferry we have in Nova Scota, but perhaps not as large. Its a twin hull catamaran and can accommodate about 50 vehicles. In addition to the vehicle deck, there's an enclosed passenger deck and above that the bridge and passenger observatory deck.
The biggest difference between this Cat and ours is that this one is designed to deploy vechiles directly on the beach. As such, the front of the Catamaran has a huge draw bridge type of thing that simply drops onto the beach head; serving both as an anchor for the catamaran and as a method to offload the ship.
It was sooo cool to watch the ship approach the island and then feel the power of the engines as it beached itself.
Moreton Island is like no Island I've ever been on. Physically, it measures 37 kilometres long, up to 10 kilometres wide and is wedge-shaped. It's primarily composed of sand with some deposits of sandstone. And despite the low nutrient sandy soils and tea-stained, hi acidity waters the Island is teaming with life; both vegetation based and animal based.
There are no paved roads on the island. All transportation is via shared sand trails in 4WD SUV's, typically Land Rovers or variations there of, including large 4WD tour buses and smaller quad bikes.
We were picked up on the beach by George, a guide with the "Hooked on Moreton" tour company.
We packed up our gear into the enclosed trailer and divided ourselves between our two jeeps. The one I chose will be driven by Matt... Was it the right choice? Only time will tell. :-)
We drove directly to the cabins we'll be calling home for this evening; deposited our bags and chilled for a bit. Then it was off to our first stop: North point for a quick hike around the Champagne Pools and Honeymoon Bay. The Champagne Pools, I don't think this is an official name, but nonetheless, get their name from the water that trickles down the backside of rock formations as waves come crashing up against them (like champagne).
After the quick hike and some quick photo ops; it was down to the beach for an hour or so of swimming and body boarding. The sand was quite similar to the sand at Whitehead Beach. Very white, although not as quite but fine and sweaky. The strangest sound. The water was beautiful: just the right temperature and very, very salty.
After expending a bit of energy trying my hand at body boarding I decided to just kick back and relax in the water. With the salt density just adding to my already quite bouyant frame :-), I had no problems practically lying on top of the water while the waves gently rolled over me.
This is heaven on Earth - completely separated from the rest of the world. I had heard on the ferry that the world was presently wrestling with a monetary crisis but for now that might has well been in another universe.
Just after getting out of the water, as we were preparing to leave the beach for our next stop, someone had noticed a couple of dolphins in the water. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get my camera out. But there they were two dolphins swimming together along the wave crests just where we were body boarding (and I was floating) moments ago - less than 100 feet from the beach. How cool is that!
After that little interlude, we were off on another short hike to Cape Moreton which lead up to Brisbane's first lighthouse. Built by convicts in 1857 of local sandstone, it still stands; albeit fully automated now.
Reaching the top of the hill to see the lighthouse was cool; and seeing the stretch of beach behind it was certainly worth the hike as well; but the pinnacle for many was catching views of several whales just off shore - humpbacks at that - feeding and playing. One particular humpback spent quite a lot of time splashing it's tail around and flapping it's flipper into the water. Not sure of it's intentent; but it certainly provided us with several very cool minutes of entertainment.
After this hike it was on to another swim; this one at the Blue Lagoon; and inland fresh water lagoon; surrounded by, you guessed it - sandy shores and a sandy bottom! This swim was a wee bit cooler than the ocean was; but it was nice to wash all that sand off. Then we were back to camp.
Just before supper, several of us ran down to the beach, walked really - not easy to run in this sand stuff - to witness the setting sun. Then it was back to prepare supper. Tonight was Nikki and Bart's turn again; and on the menu was Chops Killpatrick with salad - but instead of pork chops we had pork rashers (resembed super thick - like half an inch thick - bacon slices). Most definitely hit the spot.
Finally, before calling it a day, several of us once again headed down to the beach hoping to see some bright stars; unfortunately, the clouds wouldn't cooperate and in it's place we took in the city lights of Brisbane off in the distance; accompanied by the lights of planes coming into and taking off from the Brisbane airport... Not quite as spectacular as the stars hidden from us far above, but it will have to do.
I look forward to my second day on this sandy escape from reality.
Posts
2 comments:
Would've been cool to get a picture of the dolphins. I hope you brought me back some of that sand.
Adventure indeed. Islands are my favorite places i the world and that would certainly be one of them.
Sounds like its coming to a close but not without a whirl wind of memories. You will need another life time to get the emotion if the trip out in a speech.
Post a Comment