# Qld Barrier Reef - first trip after long break



## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

In the last twelve months (ish) there have been two sea kayak trips starting at Fraser island then heading through the bunker/capricornia group. I'd like to give this a go but sea kayakers tend to sprint through proving some kind of point that I dont really get, I'd like to stop and smell the roses. Or go fishing as it were. :?

And my family has some history in the area with Grandparants first camping on Heron (pre resort days)/Masthead/Norwest prior to WWII. Various family have been doing the trip from the early 70's until today. My last camp out here was nearly 30 years ago. Man how quickly we get older. The (now biannual) family camp group had some drop outs which opened space, so swmbo, myself and my mother in law unexpectedly joined the group - but returning early. About 8 days on the island. And me all keen on island tripping as a more enjoyable form of yakking these parts than sprinting past...










Heron Island is just off picture to the south. Norwest is the reef shaped like a fish with the island kind of where the eye of the fish would be. The reef is about 10k long, the island about 4k to walk around. Incidentally it's the largest coral cay in Australia and had a turtle canning factory that closed in the 1920s.

It's a major camping effort, carting our personnal stuff from Sydney, joining mum in Brissie where the heavy camp was added to a second vehicle. We chose to shop for fresh produce in Brissue and cart it up.










Those who know your weather patterns realise that Christmas is the start of cyclone season. Across decades of camping on the island at this time the family/friends has only been chased out ahed of a cyclone twice, and once weathered one going over. So generally it's OK, but this doesnt stop bouts of bad weather. Cyclones Fina and Grant setting up for an interesting introduction to this camp trip.

So load in Sydney. Load in Brisbane. Unload cars in Gladstone. Load Barge. Arrive Norwest.










No pics, but on arrival at norwest bird/bait boils are going off, all over the place. The temptation to leave the girls with the camp and chase spanish was almost over-powering. 
Unload barge (this time mercifully very little seasickness in the group) to the beach. Scramble for the best camp spots. Hump kit to camp site. Mother in law changes mind. Twice. To approx 400m further away than necessary. Build camp. This is the stuff that you need a long enough trip before your can look back with rose tinted glasses.










Promise myself to hunt spaniards tomorrow. BUT the weather has settled into a steady 20-25knots. You dont notice it at all on the lee of the island where we camp *north side), but it's blowing a gale. Rels get together to head out in the stinkie. But they are stuffing around. "Is every one here?" "Did you get the xyz...no...get it" "Do you remember what the mark is for crossing the reef edge?" etc.










So I gear up head out toward the green zone (shadows the island south covering the reef proper) around "sandy point, or the end of the island on the west most point. Straight into 20+kn. Bugger me. Fighting to turn the yak back toward the island (it's a skeg boat, no rudder and it's 18' long) I decide to pull in the lures as the 0.5% improvement may be important. :shock: And there's a fish on the down wind side adding to my problems turning. Let the bloody yak float to NZ while I land the fish, fight my way back to the beach to be met by the stinky.










Tide is still waiting :lol: What have you got Dru? Nothing much just a small trout (42cm). Out and back, fed swmbo, myself and mother in law, and these geese havent weighed anchor. Could be the start of building a reputation. No need to explain the difficulty with the wind, or that I didnt know I was hooked, or that it was a lucky foul hook... Unfortunately no photo of this catch, but I recant on my "best eating fish in Australia". Definitely the coral trout. No debate at all.

End of another hard day.










Waking up to this.










The whole area is yellow, green or pink zone, no professionals allowed. This guy is taking a break. Still 20km + out there. But I head out to the west edge of the green zone, changing my system and target. Thought I'd stay over the flats and snorkel for crayfish. Fail, all I got was this.

It's about a third through the trip, gets better, let me know if you want it. 8)


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## gonetroppo (Jan 29, 2011)

Nice trout, I concur with your thoughts re taste. What sort of lures are you getting them on? (I assume its lures your using?)


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Nice fail Dru, more please.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

The lure to trout #1 was a Laser Pro 160 deep diver - set to around 2m, I think getting a little deeper. I'd call it dumb luck as I had no expectation of trolling up a fish which is better targetted bottom bashing. Trout #2 was paddling out to a good looking spot on the flats at low tide then snorkling. I was looking for crays (1:million chance) and came up with a trout (one in 2 million).

20kn winds settled in. So I dropped any pretense of paddling around to the surrounding islands.  Sooner or later the camp would get over the new-ness and a spot would appear on the tinnies for me. In the mean time land based fishing was my opportunity. Walking around the island at mid tide in a clockwise direction. Everything in the water seemed to be travelling the same way.








Black tip reef sharks I think are part of the whaler family but generally quite harmless. Seem to reach full size at about 2m. Walking the beach we came across at least half a dozen small schools of around 10 sharks. Some groups of sharks at about 500mm long, others at about 1.5m long. The pic above has a mix which was a bit unusual. The bigger shark is about 1.2m. The wind is creating murky water - these guys are in less than waist deep water.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

dru said:


> The lure to trout #1 was a Laser Pro 160 deep diver - set to around 2m, I think getting a little deeper. I'd call it dumb luck as I had no expectation of trolling up a fish which is better targetted bottom bashing. Trout #2 was paddling out to a good looking spot on the flats at low tide then snorkling. I was looking for crays (1:million chance) and came up with a trout (one in 2 million).
> 
> 20kn winds settled in. So I dropped any pretense of paddling around to the surrounding islands.  Sooner or later the camp would get over the new-ness and a spot would appear on the tinnies for me. In the mean time land based fishing was my opportunity. Walking around the island at mid tide in a clockwise direction. Everything in the water seemed to be travelling the same way.
> View attachment 5
> ...


Oops, fired off the post early.

No idea what the fish were. Fish and sharks mixed without confrontation. Odd, but clearly not chew time. Neither fish nor sharks would take my casts. 

Around to "rocky point" the eastern most point of the island.









No luck but plenty of rays, turtles, trevally, and I think morwong.

Bloody windy in the green zone (windward side of the island) but a nice walk. Settle to another night... oh yeah, forgot to tell you about the bloody night life. These miserable human hating bastards.








Beautiful on the water, but like a long range bomber they need a runway for landing and take off. And if you get in the road at landing they walk over, sit cute on your foot... and throw up the days catch with as much noise as a male dormitory hungover over after a big night. And they get confused by light leading to a need to fly into tents.










And all night long, they cry like wailing babies. Human babies. It doesnt stop till they take off the next morning. They cant land in trees, too clumsy, so live in sand burrows like rats. Watch where yuo walk or you'll end up to the knee in sand with a bastard mutton bird pecking your toes.

[edit] try this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge-tailed_Shearwater and go to "media" and click the sound bite. Now put it on a loop that goes all night. Nah, it doesnt take that long to get the picture.

Anyway time for another end of day shot










Noddies are lovely. when you bump in to them on the island they hover in front of you like an oversized black hummingbird. Gorgeous, but they do shit all over your tents. Better make sure you bring plenty of tarps.

Next day I'm going to get serious about chasing cray fish.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

So the art of hunting for crays is to look for feelers, hope you aren't mistaking a stingray tail, and grab it around the head. Push into the sand and drag out. Sounds easy doesn't it? So I'm back on the flats. Might be worth pointing out how Norwest works as a coral cay. At low tide the reef (fish shape from the google map earlier) comes completely out of the water. The whole reef is an island. But it all goes under with the high tide. The edge of the reef has been pounded by surf and compacted into a kind of rough concrete. Have a look.









Mostly this rough concrete edge is slightly higher than the rest of the reef so feels like a weir with water constantly running over it at low tide. As you get to the water edge their is a stark drop off to about 6-8m and the coral is quite live on this drop off.








Note not all cays work this way - Tryon just a few k away starts from the beach with a gradual drop to 10m and not much reef out of the water at low tide at all. At Heron they blasted a navigation channel through the reef edge, so no water-weir action, and the coral is poor as a result. Back inside the reef that dead hard coral rough concrete form, falls away to waist deep crevices between coral. Often this flats coral is bashed up form cylcones, but his year was wonderful.










THIS is where you look for crayfish. Inside the reef the the coral gives way and you have waist deep sand. Some cays it gets deep enough over this sand that the sand lagoon is actually deep water. Not on norwest though. We are looking for inside the reef on the flats with coral chunks and a sandy bottom. Like this!










There is nothing like being in the right place at the right time. I found 5 crays, was able to dig out 4, released one with eggs. The camp has not caught a cray in 10 years. So added to my trout luck, bringing home the crays has me dubbed NOT "fantastic fisherman" or "reef elder". No. I get re-named "ARSEY BASTARD" by the ingrats. You need a scale for these crays (either painted cray or green cray depending who you speak to). Three cray fish fed a camp of 26 people (OK, we had rice too).


















Had a few beers this night. Arsey bastard indeed. :lol:


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

So I am going to admit that the wind was backing off by the last couple of days, but I preferred to spend my time helping others find trout and crays. Got lazy with the yak and took to chasing spaniards in a tinny. No catch.  But others did, I 'll post pics when they get back and I have photo's to choose from. The water clarity is NORMALLY gin clear. But the messy weather had dropped visibility between 3 and 4m. So sorry about the quality, but here are some random reef shots for perusal.

















































































I'll drop some shots into the wildlife photo thread rather than boring fisho's with bird shots. No I didn't get my spaniard. Didn't catch that much actually, but it was all quality. And the weather was shite. But what a place. Weather dependent just perfect for yakkers from beginners to pro distance sea kayak sprinters.

Add it to your bucket list if you have any adventure left in your life.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

There used to be a hut on the island. Built and re-built over the years by visitors including my Grandfather. Parks removed it (cultural trogladytes). It had a quote from a poem of some sort. It's the best way to end my rant.

_*Island paradise of our dreams - tempted by reality.*_


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## Pkat87 (Apr 19, 2011)

Wow that looked insanely awesome, I would'nt even know how to begin organising a trip like that..

Thanks for the pics, I felt like I had been there too haha


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## DougOut (Dec 31, 2006)

Top account of a Magical Paradise Dru ...... love your work.


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## gcfisho (Oct 31, 2009)

Enjoyable read and some cracking photos.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2012)

Awesome Dru. simply awesome.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

indiedog said:


> Might have to make that one of the group camping locations soon hey?


Brad, I was hoping you might think like this... Next year.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

A truly magical place Dru.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Trevor


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

DRU!
Fantastic place. Thank you for giving us the full report.

What are some of the costs of the ferry and sites? You may PM if you wish. Is this a lavish type of camping, paying a premium for the privilege to go there?


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Pkat, Brad, Zed

Arranging the trip is relatively easy, at least not much more complication than heading off on a big camping trip anywhere. The Barrier Reef is a marine park these days, you can only camp on allocated areas. In the Capricornia/Bunker Group these are:
x Lady Musgrave, access ferries from the Town of 1770. Reputed to have lots of day trippers, better facilities for yacht anchoring though (note Salti)
x Masthead, similar to Norwest, little smaller, more rock beach, Norwest is meant to have better sand flats for anchoring dinghies.
x Norwest.

Both Norwest and Masthead are accessed from Gladstone, there is only one ferry service these days - Curtis Ferries. The barge (ferry) takes 50 people, yes this is crowded and Curtis will arrange trips to keep it fully loaded. The Barge drives up on to the beach at the island drops the nose onto the sand and you walk off. They also sort out your water (no water on the island of course). $10 for a 44 gal drum, allow at least 5l/day/person. The barge has reasonable space for dinghies, boats and yaks. But they do restrict in the name of safety, so be clear up front when you book. Travel times will be set by the ferry - only certain tides are ideal for loading/unloading at the Island.

In theory the ferry wont let you board unless you have a camping permit from National Parks. Permits limit to a max 150 on the island at any time. In reality most times of the year it is nothing like this. Christmas holidays are the peak, but even then with the permits fully allocated, logistics mean there isnt normally more than 100-120 on the island. Parks provide "island Hosts". They manage the toilets, monitor things, keep abreast of weather reports and can call help if there is an emergency. This usually involves helicopter ambulance (it's ion action every few years). Parks close the camping at roughly feb to April - Turtle hatching period (also the peak of cyclone season).

So all you need to do is hook up the tinny, yak on top, load the car... and drive to Gladstone. Something 6 hours from Brisbane and 16 hours from Sydney (taking the inland highway and avoiding SE Qld).

links:

Parks: http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/capric ... mping.html camping fee is a couple of dollars per day per person.
Ferry: http://www.curtisferryservices.com.au/dropoffs.htm it worked out at $200 - $300 per head for the ferry.

Best weather is probably Aug/Sept but you wont have the seasonal creatures - Mutton birds, turtle laying.

Doug - I think you are closer to 1770? Definitely worth doing. Gcfisho, you live in god's own country, get your arse out there!


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

> Parks: http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/capric ... mping.html camping fee is a couple of dollars per day per person.


Beauty.
No matter what the venue, I can't understand paying more than a hotel room for a camp spot. Sounds like a dream trip, thank you.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Zed said:


> > Parks: http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/capric ... mping.html camping fee is a couple of dollars per day per person.
> 
> 
> Beauty.
> No matter what the venue, I can't understand paying more than a hotel room for a camp spot. Sounds like a dream trip, thank you.


Zed, you know you're hooked. When are you coming? :-? :?:

We'll clear it of spiders. 

Trevor


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

kayakone said:


> Zed said:
> 
> 
> > > Parks: http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/capric ... mping.html camping fee is a couple of dollars per day per person.
> ...


Didnt I mention the wolf spiders and the centipedes?


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

dru said:


> kayakone said:
> 
> 
> > Zed, you know you're hooked. When are you coming? :-? :?:
> ...


"....Centipedes". You've never seen 'em Dru till you've seen these.

WARNING: This story contains creatures that may freeze your privates.

Ball's Pyramid is a massive 'sea stack' (rock jutting out of the ocean) 23 km SE of Lord Howe Island. when 'we' focused our sights on it it had been climbed a couple of times by large parties of rock climbers.

I was one of the two that first climbed Ball's Pyramid in a day. We were to sleep on top overnight , and the dinner and sunset from 562 metres (1,844 ft) was spectacular, especially knowing we were the first people to ever experience such a sight (first to overnight on the peak). Don't roll over in the night!

Night brought creatures. Not long after total darkness, my climbing companion, comfortably prone on a sleeping mat, reported a large crawly creature slowly making it's way up his trouser leg. This was not a good place for nightime dramas. There was an 1800 ft drop within metres of us on all sides. "What'll I do?" he squacked, sounding extremely uneasy, if not more than a tad panicky.

As minutes ticked by he became increasingly agitated about it's progress towards his nether regions. A minute or so later,as it neared the family jewels, he became somewhat hysterical . I was quite analytical, as it wasn't my jewels at stake. "Just crush the bastard", I replied.

"But what if it bites me?"

"Just crush the bastard". And he did, millimetres from the jewels, but not hard enough, and it stung him. The scream could be heard on LHI 23 kms away. More fist smashing and the jewels were saved. It was a huge centipede, at least 20 cms long. But it was only similar to a wasp sting, and subsided after a few minutes. We both eventually settled for a well-earned sleep.

That is, until I felt something onto my crawling right ear.

Don't panic! I told myself, it's just another of those 20 - 25 cm centipedes.

Oh crap! It crawled slowly up the side of my face. I dared not even blink as I whispered the horror to my companion. Slowly it made it's exploratory way across my forehead, then eventually, painfully slowly, down over my left ear.

Don't panic! (he says, with a heartbeat of 180 per min.)

As it's head made it's way off my left ear onto the ground I resolved to strike. It's 'tail' was still on my forehead! I mean who wouldn't strike...... the highest hotel room in the world and there are monstrous bed bugs!

I smashed it directly on the head. It had at least 300 legs. Hard to go back to sleep, but eventually 16 hours of physical exertion and adreneline won over giant centipede concerns.

Sleep tight

Trevor


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Sweet.
Rock me to sleep, Trev. Heh. Cool story! Makes yo wonder how those things got there. I mean a bare rock in the Pacific? Centipedes? Did some bird drop a female with young at some point? Or maybe crap centipede eggs? Amazing.

We've got wolf spiders! I know them. They turn up in the bath tub, for some reason. I haven't reasoned if they come from the drain or they are after water, but they can't climb out of the tub. Gray and hairy, looking like a size small tarantula. I was out in the garage once at about 12y/o, talking to my mom who was just finishing sweeping. She was just getting to a particularly stubborn dust bunny --that's what she called lint/dust/pet fur balls-- and as she swept it, it took off straight for shelter, namely me, and it ran right onto and over my foot. I felt its spiky hair, and the weight of the thing on my bare instep. I somehow ran back into the house w/o my feet even touching the ground again, I think.

Thanks again dru. Incredible place and I appreciate the report.
Slide night?


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## SamT (Feb 27, 2011)

kayakone said:


> ...... the highest hotel room in the world and there are monstrous bed bugs.


I hope it wasn't one of these.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Nope. Giant centipedes. Not even sure if the scientific community know they are there.



Zed said:


> Sweet.
> Makes yo wonder how those things got there. I mean a bare rock in the Pacific? Centipedes? Did some bird drop a female with young at some point? Or maybe crap centipede eggs? Amazing.


I wonder how they got there too.  

Getting back to Dru's amazing adventure, I'm sure I can handle the centipedes and wolf spiders. Bring it on!

Just wondering, all you scientific AKFF'ers, is there a connection between sea birds and centipedes? Asking because the Pyramid is covered in sea birds too. Surprisingly though, at the level of our camp on the rock shelf (just above sea level), there were no centipedes. But high up....

Trevor


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

kayakone said:


> A truly magical place Dru.
> 
> Thanks for sharing it with us.
> 
> Trevor


My thought exactly!


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Hey Con,

Whatdaya reckon?

Next year's group trip? We might even invite Dru.

And Zed.


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