Archeron Island

Magnetic Island to Archeron Island

The winds kept blowing through the night, turning more southerly which resulted in a shore dump to launch through by the time we were ready to get on the water.  You can't afford to be too precious about the bottom of your boat when you have to seal launch off coral beaches!

We had a few options today about where we were going to end up.  Option 1 was to paddle to Rattlesnake and Herald Island.  Option 2 was to paddle another 8 kms on to Archeron Island from Herald Island. Option 3 was to take a direct line to Archeron Island which would save a few kms on the overall journey, but would make it a longer day on the water.  We agreed that we would make the call on the north western side of Magnetic Island once we had a feel for what the conditions would be like with 20-25 knots of SErly wind and 2+Meters of easterly swell.

We took off into a solid headwind and beat our way through the clapotis around to Picnic Bay.  As we turned into the bay the sails went up and we started surfing our way up the inside of Magnetic Island. The swell dropped down as we started going over some shallow sea-grass banks, but we were still making good time with a strong tail wind.

We had a short break on the north western corner of Magnetic Island and made the call to use the breeze whilst it was still southerly to make our way directly to Archeron Island.  We were protected from the easterly swell, but we knew as soon as we got outside the lee of the island that it would become a factor in the crossing.

We were enjoying surfing the waves, sitting on over 10 kms/hr as we made our way north away from Magnetic Island.  It wasn't long before our one meter of wind swell started mixing with a couple of meters of swell from the east.  We surfed to our right hand quarter and kept a bearing out to the right hand side of Archeron Island until we felt we could take a less conservative bearing a make our way up the inside of the island.

The waves seem to build as they approach these islands, but the closer you get, the more the swell settles across the reef platform.  From 2+meters of swell, it turned into a meter or so of surfable waves as we came close to the island.

Our target was a coral bank on the north side of the island.  We didn't know what to expect as Google Earth doesn't show you what happens when you have a large swell wrapping around both sides of the island on an outgoing tide or what happens if the picture was taken pre-cyclones coming through and changing the landscape.  We had a small wave and a steep coral bank to lift our heavy kayaks up above the high water mark.

The good news about these islands (Archeron, Herald and Rattlesnake Island) is that they are used as a bombing range by the RAAF.  We had checked the mariners notice before we left Townsville to check for when the islands would next be used as target practice which happened to be later in the week so we knew we had to move on from these islands no matter what the weather was doing.

We kept to the coral bank and rocks surrounding the island.

Hammock worked out great for uneven rocky ground

Havannah Island can be seen in the top left of this photo, our next destination.

The eastern side of the island forms a natural headland and has another coral beach hidden behind the rocks, but not much flat ground above the high water mark.  This area looks good for a snorkel but watch for the Tiger Sharks or so I am told.

Phone Reception: Yes
Fresh Water Available: No
Best Campsite:  Northern coral bank
Toilet: No
Table: No
Green Ants: Yes
Sand Fly's: No
Mosquitoes: No
Reef: Yes

Magnetic Island

Pallarendra to Magnetic Island

Gary and April had stopped just short of Townsville the night before we took off and did the short drive to the Pallarendra for our pack and go.  Thanks to one of Jono's friends, we were able to leave our vehicles at their house which was just a few minutes walk from out put in, awaiting the end of trip car shuffle.

We had an 18 knot  southerly wind beam on for our crossing to Magnetic Island, which made the trip a little bumpy but comfortable in our loaded boats (some a little more loaded than others!).

We took a direct line across to Hawkings Point (between Picnic and Nelly Bay) before paddling around the corner in the clapotis caused by the waves rebounding off the island.  Our destination was "Base Backpackers", where we would spend the next two days.

I had been keen to commando camp on the north shore of the island in some of the more remote bays but this place had campsites available close to the beach,  so unwittingly we changed the plan to incorporate two nights here.  It wasn't quite the remote camping we were looking for with the music echoing across the water guiding us to what would be our home for the next two nights.

The views were great and with ear plugs it wasn't too bad. There isn't any teenagers in this picture as they were up all night at the bar partying loud and hard which is what the place promotes. I may have stepped over a few on the beach on my way to taking some sunrise photos.  

We spent the first two days exploring the island and eating out at the local Thai restaurant, keeping that dehy food for a later date.

Horseshoe Bay

Picnic Bay

The wind was up over 25 knots and we had showers for our lay day, so a perfect day for hiring some scooters and zipping around the island.  For the record, my scooter was the slowest and nothing to do with weight to engine capacity!

We took off for a quick morning paddle before the predicted winds turned up a weather change for the afternoon.

Phone Reception: Yes
Fresh Water Available: Yes
Best Campsite:  Northern side of the island for the remote experience but Base for the amenities
Toilet: Yes
Table: Yes
Green Ants: Yes
Sand Fly's: No
Mosquitoes: No
Reef: Yes

Logistics

After tossing some ideas around about how to minimize a 5 day car shuffle, we didn't have a viable alternative apart from jumping in two cars and driving from Brisbane to Townsville, where we would launch our boats and leave our cars, awaiting our return three weeks later.

Our plan was to paddle to Mission Beach where we had organised a car hire from Sugarland Car Hire and do the car shuffle to Townsville to pick up our vehicles (2.5 hr journey each way).  This is a relatively cheap and easy option for car shuffles (cost around $85 for the car hire with insurance for a day and around $45 fuel).

We booked into a cabin at the Dunk Island View Caravan Park which was a short walk from the beach.  They let us drop our kayaks and gear off early and have access to their facilities as well as giving me a lift up to the car hire place rather than have us walk to pick up the hire car.

The Journey North

After packing the car in the morning, Jonathan and myself took off around lunch time with a view of camping on the side of the road somewhere between Brisbane and Townsville.  After a late dinner in Rocky, we pushed onto Clairview where we slept near the beach, far enough away from the highway not be woken by the frequent road trains.

We went into Bowen after an early start the following morning and drove up to the lookout to check out Gloucester Island and the coastline north of the Whitsundays which might be the subject of a future trip.  We were in Townsville around mid-morning, giving us time to do some sight-seeing and to check out the best put in for our paddle across to Magnetic Island.

Castle Hill Lookout - looking south towards Cape Cleveland

Castle Hill Lookout - looking north towards Cape Pallarendra

Magnetic Island from the Seawall near the marina

Gary had found an article of a 4 meter croc swimming in the Townsville marina just a couple of weeks before we were due to take off so we thought we should check out the territory to ensure we weren't taking off from some croc infested mangrove swamp at Pallarendra.

We were lucky enough to have a contact in Townsville who lived near Pallarendra where we could store the cars as leaving cars near boat ramps in Townsville is a bit risky.  The beach at high tide gave us protected access to the water for the start of our Journey.

The Journey South

The journey north was a comfortable two day trip, but the journey south had an extra day car shuffle.  You need to allow for 5 hours of driving and another hour at least of stop time so it is an effective way to kill a day of the trip.

April stayed behind to clean the boats and wash down our gear whilst the three boys did the car shuffle.  We paddled over from Dunk Island in the morning, arriving in Mission Beach around 8:00 am and by the time we had carted our gear up to the unit, showered, picked the car up it was around 11:00am.

Car shuffle complete, we prepped up for a night on the town!  Sorry, no incriminating photos but a couple of us were alcohol free for the trip so we needed no encouragement to have a drink or three over dinner.  There is a bar and grill right next door to the Caravan Park which had great food so we only had to walk about 50 meters back to the unit before crashing out in preparation for the return journey.

We had a lazy start to the morning and took off around 9:00 am.  We were joking about the clock work Cassowary that came out every hour for the tourists and on our way out of town he (I assume a he), was waiting for us.

We didn't have a set plan for the trip home, but we ended up having a late dinner in Rocky and as there were showers and an impending Antarctic Cold Front on the way, we drove straight through the night, sharing the driving so arrived back in Brisvegas around 4:30am after 17 odd hours in the car.

It was certainly a shock to come back to Brisbane after our coldest day away was around 18 degrees Celsius in the morning with the average day time temperature getting to 27/28 degrees - that's a winter I could get used to!  The westerlies were blowing this morning, Stanthorpe got a dumping of snow - the largest in a decade and I rode my bike to work with every bit of kit I could find to keep warm.  I should have kept paddling to Cairns! 

Hinchinbrook 2015!

I had been tossing around ideas for a North Queensland paddling trip for the past few years, googling the various islands that dotted the coast from Townsville to Cairns dreaming of a trip that might be worth the long hike to North Queensland. Whilst facing crocs in their home environment didn't hold much attraction, paddling the islands dotting this coastline was certainly on the bucket list.

Visiting Hinchinbrook Island was certainly central to this trip but this island in itself wasn't a big enough draw card to travel a few thousand kilometers by car to paddle from Lucinda to Cardwell, a comfortable two day paddle if you were going point to point. In balancing conflicting priorities, a plan was hatched to have 19 days on the water paddling around 250 kms from Townsville through to Mission Beach via a number of islands that dot this section of coast line.

It was important to determine the mix of on water, in water and off water activities and schedule the trip accordingly so it wasn't simply a point-to-point kayaking trip to tick the box.  We were all keen to explore these islands properly so we incorporated time to do a lot of snorkeling, hiking and rock hopping once we were off the water. Getting the right mix of people with the same objectives was key to the success of this trip.

This could trip could of easily been titled "Down wind paddling in North Queensland" as the trade winds provided us with 15-25 knots of southerly push for the entire trip apart from one day where the wind dropped under 10 knots and we actually had to slog out the paddle without much wind assistance.

We had a couple of 40 kms days, but for the most part we were on the water around 9:00 am and off the water by 1:00 pm.  The SE trade winds had generated 2+ meters of easterly swell which made for some great down wind paddling in our fully laden expedition kayaks.

After leaving Magnetic Island, we rarely saw another boat on the water or people (apart from the hikers on Hinchinbrook) until we rejoined civilization with a hot shower at Dunk Island.

The trade winds had been blowing consistently leading up to, and for the duration of the trip which was great for downwind paddling, but not so great for water visibility which meant we didn't see a lot of sea-life on or in the water, not to mention making us work hard to get a feed where the zoning would allow spearing.  We wouldn't of known if we were being visited by sharks with visibility down to less than 5 meters.

This area is still feeling the effects of cyclone Yazi, both environmentally and economically.  The reef platforms are relatively dead and haven't returned to pre-Yazi health.  The bird life in the thick rain forests is relatively non-existent.  The silence in the forests is deafening and the upper-canopy has still not recovered so under-story species are changing the ecological makeup of the forests.

Out of 19 days, we had a day and a bit of rain at Zoe Bay whilst we were hiking around the island but the rest of the trip was fine with the occasional passing shower.  We escaped the need for a wet pack up so given we were in the tropical north we should be thankful we passed the highest rainfall region of Australia with the little rain we did get!

When putting together a team of people to spend 19 days together in close proximity it is imperative that everybody is on the same page as to what the expectations for the trip were and that we had done multi-day trips together previously so knew what to expect in terms of paddling speed, on water group dynamics, etc.

We were all paddling fast touring sea kayaks, with three of us paddling Pace 17s and one in a Taran 16.  The boats performed up to expectation with 19 days of kit and food for remote camping.  We had planned around not carrying more than 22 litres of water at any point in the trip, and most times we were only carrying around 12-13 litres given the availability to resupply at various islands along the way.

We had a trouble free trip thanks to Jonathan, Gary and April who joined me on our North Queensland adventure!

The following links will take you through some images and stories from the islands we visited on our way from Townsville to Mission Beach:

1. Logistics
2. Magnetic Island
3. Archeron Island
4. Havannah Island
5. Orpheus Island
6. Hinchinbrook Island - Zoe Bay
7. Hinchinbrook Island - Nina Bay
8. Hinchinbrook Island - Sunset Beach
9. Brook Islands
10. Coombe Island
11. Dunk Island

The wrap up

We should of kept paddling to Cairns!  We certainly had the wind for it but three weeks away from the family and eating dehy is enough.  I have completed two trips of nineteen days duration and I maxed out the boats carrying capacity both times so longer than 19 days unsupported would require a resupply.

The only thing I took that I didn't need was my tent.  I slept in my hammock for 19 days finding trees at every campsite.  I only used my sleeping bag as a sleeping bag twice on the trip, but that was pre the Antarctic Vortex which still has me shivering as I sit here editing my photos!  I used my sleeping mat as insulation in my 'Ticket to the Moon' hammock, noting that I was using my sleeping bag for insulation as well if I was exposed to the wind.  I used the 'Ticket to the Moon' fly-screen as well which kept all bugs at bay so I could sleep comfortably and found that having the end of the hammock you have your head on a bit higher than your feet is the way to go.

The poncho tarp worked well, but in heavy rain you needed a bit more covering you to stop the wind blowing the rain in at the ends. I was also using a bit of bungee on the head part of the poncho to stop it pooling water and dripping through.

For the first part of the trip I made a fresh tub of yogurt each night which worked really well with cereal.  My space blanket delaminated towards the end of the trip and wasn't holding in the heat as well so I will need to sort that for the next trip to get a better result.

After three weeks on dehdrated food, some fresh food becomes a more of a need than a want.  Gary and April always bring a few less meals than nights to ensure the right motivation for getting a feed of fish.  This time the fishing wasn't that easy and we had to work hard for a feed.  We had a lure off and I think the result could be called a tie.  Gary caught 2 with his XXXX Gold lure, but I caught three with my plastic, 2 of which I returned due to size and unknown fish type (1 small ambitious rock cod and 1 pike I think - long and not easy to fillet!) and 1 stripy which pipped the other 2 on the scales :-)

Gary and I had been trying to catch a crayfish unsuccessfully on previous trips.  This time we decided to bring a small spear gun to assist with the retrieval.

A new favourite food was discovered on this trip.  Try mixing your fresh coconut with nutella!

Apart from my tent, I think that everything we took on the trip was used and there wasn't anything we wouldn't take again.  My personal thanks to the Jono, Gary and April for help making the trip so enjoyable - look forward to the next adventure!

A cassowary bidding us farewell from Mission Beach!