A salt water injection

The past two weeks have proved to be a little difficult to find my way free to get in some paddling, but I escaped for a few hours on Sunday afternoon to surf some wind waves in Moreton Bay.  It had the main ingredients of salt + water so it was all good!

I am starting to kick around some ideas for a bigger paddle in 2015 and have commenced some preliminary research for three to four weeks away island hopping through Queensland waters.  No firm plans as yet but the two main options are exploring the northern end of the Capricornia Cays or heading north and paddling the islands that dot the Queensland Coast from Townsville to Mission Beach, which will include Hinchinbrook Island.

In 2010 I paddled out to the bottom end of the Great Barrier reef from Fraser Island and island hopped my way up through the southern end of the Capricornia Cays.  It was an amazing experience paddling up to 100 kms off the coast in pristine waters and large seas, including the 96 km open sea paddle to Lady Elliot Island.  I'd be keen to repeat this experience, with the only caveat that these are very exposed waters and getting weather bound on these remote coral cays is almost guaranteed.  If it wasn't for needing fresh water it doesn't sound all that bad really!

Paddling up the islands dotting the Queensland Coast would be a little more protected from large swell coming from NZ as we would be paddling inside the Great Barrier Reef.  The only problem here is Crocodiles and some very nasty marine stingers, neither of which would be good to be in the water with.

In the mean time I will be working on my photography skills and there may be a few more land based shots than usual, as one of the reasons for this blog was for somewhere to catalog some of the images I capture along the way.