Wow! What a fabulous day!

We had to be up early to leave the park and drive to Pier One, Rosslyn Bay Boat Harbour to catch a Freedom Fast Cat for our Adventure Tour of Great Keppel Island. The tour we booked included:

• transfer to Great Keppel Island.
• Morning tea onboard.
• glass bottom boat tour with a Marine Biologist
• Some free time to explore the island
• BBQ lunch onboard
• Snorkelling on the reef
• Boom-netting (for the adventurous)
• Afternoon tea
• Transfer back to the mainland

Our confirmation email suggested we pack light for our tour so we set off with just beach bags, swimmers, towels etc. We didn’t even take our water bottles as they are heavy and water was supplied.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare and quickly checked in. Riley and I bought a waterproof pouch for our phones so we could take underwater photos. We weren’t too sure how that would go but we’d give it a try! We were all given pink wristbands to wear indicating which tour we were on.

Right on time at 9am boarding was commenced and our big catamaran cruised out of the harbour very quickly at 9.15am. Maddie became very excited as soon as we left the harbour because she spotted a pod of dolphins off to the left of the boat. The skipper heard her excitement and saw her frantic pointing so he stopped the boat so other passengers could take a look too. Not far further along Maddie spied more dolphins. She became our dolphin spotter!

It seemed no time at all, only 30 minutes, and we were pulling up at Great Keppel Island. The big catamaran just pushes up onto the beach and the crew man-handle a walkway that’s attached to the front of the boat and once it is settled on the sand people can disembark. Our pink wristbands group was told to stay onboard for our morning tea and the crew served us up some lamingtons and a delicious cake along with tea, coffee and cordial.

Next up was our glass bottom boat tour with Brenda, a marine biologist, who skippered us around to some reefs and explained the various types of marine life that we could see below. We saw thousands of fish of all sizes and colours, soft and hard coral, stingrays, sea cucumbers, clams, and more. We toured over one section of reef that had strange man-made star shaped frames over it and Brenda explained she was involved in that project. That part of the reef had suffered a bleaching event and the frames were an experiment to see if the reef could be restored. Small pieces of coral were zip tied to the frames and within 12 months new coral could be seen growing all over the frames. It has been a huge success. The coral just grew completely over the zip ties.

We had an hour to have a wander around the island and we followed the rest of the passengers off the boat. Great Keppel Island used to be home to a 5* resort but sadly the resort did not survive the GFC in 2008 and was forced to close. The buildings have deteriorated and are set to be demolished as they are too far gone to fix. A bit sad. The remaining buildings house a smaller resort called GKI Hideaway Holiday Village and after having a bit of a wander along the pathways and boardwalks Rich and I thought it was a bit run down and tired looking.

In front of the main building which houses a restaurant, bar and shop we found huge sandbags. They were the size of a bus. The sandbags were placed to prevent further erosion after the last cyclone hammered the island. We hoped they work or the building will end up in the sea!

Sadly it started drizzling rain during this time on the island so sitting on the beach or having a swim wasn’t very appealing.

Back on board we enjoyed a delicious and simple BBQ lunch with steak, sausages, onions, salad and a bread roll while the boat made its way to the reef where our snorkelling would be. And the best part was, the sun came out. It was a glorious sunny afternoon.

The snorkelling was definitely the highlight of the tour. All snorkelling gear was supplied so at the back of the boat you were fitted with your wetsuit, fins, mask and snorkel then you could enter the water from the swim platform that had been lowered into the water. I also chose to take a pool noodle with me. Ben was the first passenger in the water and he was the last one to get out. Safe to say Ben LOVED snorkelling! Every now and then his face would pop up from the water and he was wearing the biggest grin.

The marine life on the reef was amazing and again we saw sea cucumbers, an enormous stingray and a little one too, thousands of different fish, so many different types of coral, Ben even found a clam! The only thing missing was a turtle but no luck there!

Once everyone, including Ben, had got back onboard, the crew let down a boom net from the back of the swim platform. Our three kids and three girls and their dad were the only ones giving it a go. Crewman Liam followed behind in the rib in case anyone dropped off the net he could retrieve them. Of course Ben jumped straight in and when he surfaced quickly grabbed hold of the net and was dragged along. More big grins on Ben’s face. The others were all a bit more hesitant but eventually they all tried jumping in, crawling back up onto the boat and jumping in again. What fun! We reckoned all the kids would sleep well.

Afternoon tea was served when the boom netters were back onboard then the big cat manoeuvred back to the main beach to collect all the other passengers before heading back to the mainland. Maddie kept her eye out for dolphins and was rewarded again just as we approached the mouth of the boat harbour. We arrived back at Rosslyn Boat Harbour at 4.15pm.

Back to camp and it was a tired crew who sat around the dinner table. It was off to bed early for everyone. What a fabulous day!