Welcome to Hervey Bay

The day started calm and beautiful on Fraser Island – after tracking some dingo footprints we set off on our first crossing of the day to Big Woody Island. As seems to be the case with all channel crossings the weather quickly changed and we were chased by a rain squawl and fresh gusts of wind into the eastern side of the island. We found a rocky, sand free, spooky looking coastline that quickly became our favourite island of the trip so far. Huge donut corals were centremetres under the kayaks and the northern end looked like the an Opel had exploded with every imaginable colour in the shallows, shadowed in the distance by a very dark rain front. It was beautiful.

We got smacked in the face by rain and wind half way across to Hervey Bay so took shelter on Round island, pretty much a great big sand dune in the middle of the ocean. It was perfectly placed and we were very thankful it was there, so 20 minutes later we were rested and on our way again. The great Hervey Bay sand bar at five kilometres long took us both by surprise but treated us with a dolphin display – the video footage above doesn’t do them justice – they were born to have fun.
The paddle into Torquay beachfront campground seemed to take an age as we both had sore arms and had skipped lunch. An unbelievable day with so much crammed into a few hours – love the great sandy straights, Fraser Island and Hervey Bay. DT