Great Keppel Island

Since our first visit here, we have been continually told to make a trip to Great Keppel Island. Well, this past weekend, we finally made the time and caught the ferry across to visit this gorgeous place. Great Keppel Island has 17 different beaches, and is also part of the Great Barrier Reef. While lots of people go there to enjoy the clear water and do some snorkelling, hiking is also popular. We decided that our first visit here, we would focus on hiking so we could explore the island and just see what the fuss was all about.

So Sunday morning, we got up early and drove the few minutes to the ferry terminal.

It’s only about a 30 minute ferry ride across to the island so we got there nice and early.  Rob was smart enough to pack some thermoses with coffee so we spent the first little while relaxing and taking in the amazing view.

When our coffees were done, we set off to explore the island. There are many different trails you can take, so we decided on one that was supposed to take 3 hours or so. We somehow made a wrong turn at the start and ended up passing the island’s green site (read as dump site!) in the first few minutes of our walk. I will admit, I was beginning to wonder why so many people make the effort to go across to hike, but then we found the trail and were treated to views like this:

These pictures make the hike look pretty flat…it wasn’t! I think I just couldn’t navigate both the trail and my phone for pictures on the steep parts! As we got near the top of a never-ending hill, we came across this gorgeous beach. Unfortunately, you could never capture the colour of the water or how clear it is in a photo. It was truly stunning!!

And there was pretty much nobody there!!

After relaxing a bit on the rocks at this beach, we decided to head back to the main part of the island. It was Sangria Sunday on the island so we certainly didn’t want to miss that!

After a few drinks and some lunch, we made our way back to the beach to do a bit of walking and a bit of laying around too. We noticed that the rocks along the water here had seashells embedded right in them. Very cool, but also very sharp! (Yes, I did cut myself!)

So our first experience at Keppel was incredible! I think I’m still mostly in awe that we live somewhere so beautiful! I’m looking forward to our next trip to Keppel when we have our gear and can actually try some snorkelling!