I spent a Christmas lodging with my father and step-mother in Brisbane some years ago around the time of my move to Rockhampton (exact dates lost to memory but around summer 2003).  One particular day it was very windy, at least 20 knots, and I decided to go for a paddle around Peel Island, about 7kilometers off Cleveland (Wellington Point).  The trip out was windy but uneventful the wind mostly side-on to the direction of travel.  I decided to land on the beach of Peel Island.  Waves were breaking and I easily landed.  After 20 minutes or so I decided to leave.  I was unable to launch into the frequent waves breaking on the beach.  I know the platitude methods of launching on a beach :– get into the kayak on the beach where the water from the waves is breaking and walk the kayak out on your hands into a floating situation then paddle like hec  -- unfortunately this only works when the waves are not too frequently pounding the beach.  I tried everything to launch and eventually, after about 45 minutes, got off the beach and started paddling home.  The sea on the way home was, by now, tremendous: about two metre lines of swell-waves with a ten metre frequency and white capped.  Luckily the waves were coming about fifty degrees off my bow and were easily rideable by the kayak.  I held on to the paddle and forward-stoked the way back to Cleveland although I pointed the kayak about 20 degrees from my direction-of-travel into the wind to compensate for drift.  I was now about two hours past the time I said to my father I would be back.  When I eventually made it to the boat ramp I noticed my father had made the journey to Cleveland and saw me.  He reckoned he got a sickening felling when he saw my car at the boat-ramp and no sign of me.  He looked out in the distance with binoculars and could just make-out someone paddling when I was on the crest of the waves.  Dad said he nearly phoned the Coast Guard to start a rescue of me, he was that worried; it is one of the rare occasions he criticized me by jokingly calling me a crazy bastard.  I was very tired phyically from the days paddle Dad and Step Mother said, 'you must be very tired' to which I answered, 'no, it was just another paddle'.  That night Dad and I sat up watching TV; it took all self control I could muster not to fall asleep to prove to Dad that the days event was not a physical challenge.  Another story to put in my mis-adventures.  

I recently, 4 May 2015, did a trip to the Keppel Bay Islands of Miall Island and Humpy Island.  There is no outstanding adventure story to this trip.  I had a bit of trouble deciding which Island was Miall  -- I had to pull out the map/chart to finally decide and head in the right direction.  Miall Island is small about one nautical mile perimeter and has a small (40 metre) beach.  You are unable to explore the island by land because it is low bush (heath land) with no walking paths.  After a night on Miall I headed to Humpy Island.  It was a few nautical miles to the south of Miall.  Humpy is a beautiful Island both from the sea and on the land.  It has a walking track leading along the ridges of the hills on the island revealing many 'lookout' areas.  After spending a night on Humpy Island I left to return to Keppel Bay Marina.  The seas out near the island were mountainous.   About two-and-a-half metre waves with white-caps; the wind was blowing about 18 knots.  I did not realize this when I pushed-off the beach as it was in the lee of the island.  I was so tired from the previous two days paddling that I could not sit-up in the kayak properly.  The waves were not head-on and the kayak rode them without difficulty.  The problem was that I needed to be heading toward the marina and I could not point the kayak in that direction due to the waves; I was heading towards Ritamada point about two nautical miles to the south of where I was going.  The wind and waves calmed down a lot when I got further in-shore as the wind was blowing over the land and the tide had turned.  Someone at the boat ramp asked if I needed a lift with the kayak and I gladly accepted -- I was very fatigued.  I did the trip alone and have been told by several people, kayakers and lay-persons, that this was not good for safety reasons; however, I did put a trip report in with the Coast Guard.  Another adventure over.  Enjoy the photographs.  A video is coming when I visit more of the islands in the near future.  David.

Humpy Island from the sea, can you see the cat.

Me on Humpy Island

Humpy Island

Looking at Great Keppel Island from Humpy

Humpy at sunset

Humpy Island

Humpy Island

Drag marks Miall Island

Just landed Miall Island

Miall Island

Campsite Miall Island

Sunset Miall Island

Miall Island

I finished my university degrees and started a job in Western Queensland, away from the coast.  I took my kayak with me.  The only place local to the town I was in, Barcaldine, was a very small stretch of the Alice River where a weir had been built.  The stretch of water was only a couple of hundred meters long and I only paddled it a few times.  This river, the Alice, is seasonal, so only runs when it is raining an extended time and when it runs you would have to be the best-ever white water paddler to try it; it is like those Olympic slalom courses.  The nearest stretch of river of a decent length was at Longreach, a one hour drive; it, too, was only a dammed (Weir or barrage) section of the Thompson River about three or four kilometres long.  On one occasion I thought the Longreach tourist boat was going to run over me; the driver was not watching where he was going; when I paddled past the bow of this boat one of the tourists yelled out ‘do you want a sandwich’ – we were that close!  There was an inland lake about three hours drive away called Lake Dunn.  

Lake Dunn

Road to Lake Dunn - This is as nice as it gets out West Queensland as the scenery is usually very uninspiring.

This is the Alice, near where I lived it was only a trench a few hundred meters long.

Lake Dunn, Jabiru birds

Lake Dunn at sunset, a water skier pictured.

I went there on two occasions and camped by the lake.  I saw Jabiru birds and other bird life there (I have not seen a Jabiru bird since).  I paddled the perimeter of the lake (quite a distance) and found out how tough my kayak was:  I was paddling through sunken trees, with their tops protruding through the water, when the kayak become stuck on top of a tree limb.  When I leaned forward the kayak rocked forward and when I leaned back the kayak rocked back – so stuck was I that the kayak was turned into a seesaw.  The kayak was unloaded but I had gained weight on my body and weighed 87 kilograms, so the full weight was supported at one point on the hull.  I eventually got off the limb and paddled on.  Lake Dunn is a nice place to visit, considering the area, and I only wish I came more often before I moved to Rockhampton after one year.