Sight seeing The Straits

We woke to another lovely day and jumped into the tinny and went for a mosey on around a few of the little islands including one called “Stewart Island”, which even though it is not advertised must be used as holiday letting houses, it is situated in the most brilliant setting. The island is only small with 7 houses but would make for a really lovely stay.

Chris, shin deep in mud

We then head onto Dream Island to have a look around and find a little locked up cabin that lead onto a private jetty.  We tied up the tinny and waded through the muddy waters, shin deep (as it was low tied) and had a quick look.  Beautiful views and am sure this land is worth millions.

Blue backed soldier crabs

Then onto Garry's Anchorage which is a National Park with signs “Beware of the Dingoes” which we were not surprised about but then turned around to see a sign “ Beware of the estuary crocodiles”.  You just never know what you will see.  We had a walk around the island and saw thousands of these little blue backed solider crabs, all scurrying around and digging themselves into their holes in the sand as soon as we got close by.

Water like glass from the tinny

Andrew having a beer, watching world go by

Back into the tinny and over to the other side of the Strait to see if we could find a shop for the Sunday paper.  The water was so calm, not a ripple to be seen. It just looked liked glass.  We took the tinny into a bit shallow water, so as the tide was slowly coming in we left her there  and once again waded through the water and shin deep mud and sand onto Boonooroo, to an area with plenty of very well kept houses with lovely gardens, but no people to be seen.  We were covered in mud, so were quite happy not to bump into anyone.  Then after a short walk around and not finding a store we headed back into the mud and into the tinny to head back to Mingo.  Once on, we decided that being such a calm afternoon we would head for a new anchor spot tonight, then sit back and watch the water world go by.

White Cliffs

Ship wreck.

We spent the night by a place called White Cliffs – the name says it all.  There is an old pier at White Cliffs which has Roman numerals engraved into each pillar to show how long the pier is.

   There was an old ship wreck on the shore – “so this is how the early adventures ended up when their motors broke down…” 

  The following morning we moved on a little further and anchored up outside Kingfisher Bay, which has a well known resort on the island.  We had a walk around the resort and had a nice coffee.  We had tied the tinny up onto the end of the pier about 2 foot from the platform and even though we had only been gone just over an hour, by the time we had got back the tide had started going out and now we could not just step back into the tinny as she was 6 foot from the platform.  I think we gave all the fishermen above a good laugh as we jumped into her again, thank goodness without falling in.  

Roman numerals on Pier to show how long it is.

"The 2 fish"

We spent the rest of the day fishing around the pier and around a wreck.  We could see hundreds of fish beneath us, but did we catch anything? NO.  we are thinking that we are going to start to starve soon.  So much for the hunters and gatherers in us.  Christie finally managed to catch two fish, and wasn’t she over the moon.  Do they really count as fish though.

Sun setting on 30th July.

It is 30^th July 2012 today and it is definitely a day Christie will remember.  It is Christie’s mother Robyn’s birthday. It is also today that Christie’s sister Ashli gave birth to her third son, Archer William Carle, weighing 11.5Lbs. So a new grandson for Robyn and Michael and son for Ashli and Lisa and brother for Flynn and Oliver.  Very exciting news, and Christie even though thrilled is feeling a bit despondent as she is not with the rest of her family to celebrate the birth of her third nephew.  Am sure it wont be long before we are back in Melbourne to meet the little (or not so little) new addition.  Also on the 30^th, Christie found out that she had been offered a job at Kirwan police station in Townsville, so Christie handed in her position at Policelink, which was a good feeling as she had been wanting to move on for a while now to a new position.

Andrew, all proud with his first catch

"Old Bluff Lighthouse"

On the 31^st July, we headed over to a very rocky “Duck Island”, not a lot to see, just a lot of bushes and scrub to climb through as Andrew had seen a house on the island and of course wanted to investigate.  Big "Keep Out" signs around, so only a quick look around the outside and back to the tinny. Andrew has a another go at fishing and yay he manages to catch a fish.  No sure it will be a very filling meal, but hey its still a fish.   The winds have blown up to 15 knots and we are being rocked around quite a bit, they blew up quite unexpected and we really were sitting in a very unprotected spot.  So moving on further to “Big Woody Island” to see an unused light house.  This light house called “ Old Bluff Lighthouse” is the second oldest in Australia built in 1866.  It was pretty run down, but the huffing and puffing of having to walk the 40 min’s up the hill to it was well worth the view at the top if nothing else.

We decided tonight that as the wind was blowing up more and more we would head into Hervey Bay Marina for the night to have some calm, especially as there are no protected areas to anchor in in the bay.   As we are heading into Hervey Bay, two baby dolphins are frolicking towards the front of the boat.   Into the fuel depot first then to a pen in the marina, with the winds pushing us in every direction but where we wanted to go, it was a real task for both of us manoeuvring and trying to get Mingo tied up securely.  With some help from other boatie's around we managed to get in without hitting anything around us.  Phew.

Our outside portable boat shower.

Once all settled into the marina, we showered (oh it seems like real luxury having a proper shower after our portable boat one) and some laundering to be done.  We then decided it was time to give the 69cc  motor on the push bike a run for its money.  So Andrew steering and Christie standing behind him on the stunt pegs that Andrew has attached to the bike, they motor off straight into a policeman, standing beside the road.  I think he got as good a laugh as everyone else we past, as he did not say a thing.  We motored the 2 km to the shops, did some grocery shopping and motored back with backpack full.   Yes I think we had every head in the street turning to look at us.  We felt like we were 16 years old again, hanging on for grim death to a bike that is going 30km an hour with both of us on it and wobbling all over the place.  Now that was fun.

"The Tinny'  after tide went out