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Published: September 27th 2009
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After a lovely but windy day at Kemp beach we made our way back to our much coveted corner plot (!) and within ten minutes of our chairs being out our new neighbours (on both sides) were round for chat! We were staying in between two sisters and their husbands ; Graham and Val and Bob and Bev. Not only were they hilarious they were so kind to us lending us kettles, putting up a tarpaulin on the fence to stop us being blown over by the wind, lending us DVD’s and giving us lifts to the harbour, it was like having grandparents again, it was really sweet! We found out there was a tea tree plantation about 50 km away so we booked ourselves on a tour early one morning. Unfortunately we had our one and only casualty of the trip that morning, to stop the table and chairs blowing away in the night we put them in front of Clyde but we forgot in the morning and drove right over the table -$60 down the drain- oops! We arrived at the plantation at 8.30 and the tour started off with a ride on a horse and cart about 100m
through the farm and then back to the coffee station - bizarre but sweet! From here we went on a open sided pick up with garden chairs on the back down to the Creek where all of the drinking water for Yeppoon comes from. It was a gorgeous setting and the trip was on an electric boat which was eerily quiet. From here we went back on the strange bus thing to see the actual tea trees and were shown how the oil is processed. It’s become a bit of a running joke over this trip, whenever either of us has a cut or itch or bite or anything my solution is put some tea tree on it so it was pretty cool to see how the oil is made and I was pretty much right; it does everything! We also managed to get half a litre for $40 - bargain of the year, that should last us till we get home! From here we went and checked out the ‘Internationally Acclaimed’ Nob Creek Pottery; some of it was gorgeous but a lot of it was Vietnamese and Cambodian; it was a bit confusing but we managed to leave without
The horse and cart !?1
The horse Christmas was 23!! parting with any cash! We decided that as we had the van we could only really go over and stay on one island during our time on the East Coast so having weighed up our options we decided on Great Keppel Island which is just 30 mmins from Yeppoon. Great Keppel is a pretty unspoiled island, there is a resort on the island which is closed so other than the tents and cabins at the YHA it is just untouched. We managed to get an absolute bargain deal of $99 for two nights in a safari tent and the return boat trip so we went on a spree to Woolworths and armed ourselves with baked beans, soup and microwave popcorn for the weekend. Bob and Graham insisted on giving us a lift to the harbour and also made us park Clyde right next to their caravan for the weekend to make sure he was safe! There were only about 20 people on the boat going over and on arrival we were very kindly upgraded to a cabin rather than the safari tent - sweet - a real room with an ensuite! We sorted ourselves out with snorkels and on the
The very rare Byfield Fern
It's a prehistoric plant that only grows in one area in the whole world! advice of the receptionist set off across the rocks to find the hidden monkey beach. We didn’t realise just how far it was across the rocks and after a while Tel decided to wade through the water;- my phone has been playing up for months so two days ago we decided to buy a new phone, unfortunately Tel had it in his pocket and so the phone got drowned two days into it’s short life! Eventually we made it round the rocks and spent a few hours on a deserted white sand beach reading an snorkelling. We made our way back via the path which wasn’t really a path more of a trial and error method but we eventually found our way back onto the path to the hostel. We were pretty shattered so we had our beans on toast and headed to bed only to be entertained by the possums for about half an hour on our balcony. Australia has so much wildlife - it’s pretty cool! We were up quite late for us having ventilation and curtains that block out the light meant we manage to sleep in till about 9 - very late these days for us.
We decided to go a bit further today and made our way over to shelving beach which has a better reef to snorkel. We managed to find the way there although the path was pretty steep, flip flops are not a good idea on bush tracks. We spent yet another lovely day snorkelling and reading and lying in the sun. At about 4.30 we decided to make our way back to the hostel; we were doing ok up until we stopped to take photo and then all of a sudden the path disappeared. We started to go in a different direction and ended up totally lost, I was totally paranoid as we were walking around in all the leaves and the island is covered in spiders and snakes and the later it got the more lost we got. I was starting to get really worried as we had no water, the sun was going down and no one was going to come looking for us; the final straw came when my foot went through some leaves and something slimy went through my toes - luckily it was only a mushroom bit it scared the living daylights out of me and
I was really starting to panic. Luckily, after a few minutes of getting our bearings and a lot of swearing we found the path again and were safely on the main beach half an hour before the sun went down. When you read stories in the paper about people going missing you wonder how they manage it but its actually pretty easy, I have a new found respect for shoes with covered toes and watching where you are going!!! After our bush adventure we had a few beers in the bar and then had our delicious tinned soup for tea! The boat didn’t leave until 3 on the last day so we had a full day on Putney beach which was close to the hostel, I wasn’t going exploring again!!! As Tel had drowned the phone we couldn’t ring our lovely neighbours to pick us up but another couple took pity on us and dropped us back to the caravan site -the Australian grey army are so helpful and sweet, we have been so spoiled by them. On our return to the campsite we discovered our much loved corner plot had been given away but we were cooked a gorgeous
roast beef dinner by our lovely neighbours and we had a brilliant night eating and drinking with the Tasmanian massive! A brilliant end to a really lovely few days ; out of all the island of the great barrier reef I’m so glad we chose to go to Great Keppel, it was so peaceful and unspoiled and it actually felt like an adventure rather than yet another beach experience! After a quick bacon sandwich and some goodbyes we were back in Clyde and off to the Outback for a change of scenery - Emerald here we come!
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