We set sail
for Great Keppel Island which is en-route to the famed Whitsunday cruising
grounds of Australia. We had long
looked forward to reaching these waters as it was our introduction to the Great
Barrier Reef and is the famed Australia Mariners Playground.
En-route we
saw our first of many Humpback whales playing, breaching/splashing, some a little closer than we needed. The mother whale on the right came up and out no more than 5 boat lengths from us...they are thrilling to watch. There are thousands of these huge mammals migrating to these warm Australian coastal waters to give birth before heading back south.
We looked forward to spending a few days at Great Keppel island enjoying the company of friends Brian and Eva and Wes and Stine, Mark and Jasmine, and William and Allison. We had become a flotilla of fun. Those of us that could enjoyed a spirited hike/climb to the lighthouse.
We looked forward to spending a few days at Great Keppel island enjoying the company of friends Brian and Eva and Wes and Stine, Mark and Jasmine, and William and Allison. We had become a flotilla of fun. Those of us that could enjoyed a spirited hike/climb to the lighthouse.
This was the first place in all of Australia where we actually
went swimming, but even here the water was coooold!
We spent a couple of days at the Rosslyn Bay
Marina and enjoyed a
spirited road trip to Rockhampton with Brian and Eva visiting the local veggie
market at 5:30am…to get the best buys, and enjoying a lunch at a local hotel whose portions were enormous (so might I add, were many of the patrons).
Returning to Great Keppel we met up again with Murray
and Carol Clarke, Sv Jams, a New Zealand couple who we had not seen since our first time in
Bundaburg…little did we know then, how fortuitous this meeting would be.
