Rockhampton and Great Keppel, October 2002

I took the bus south from Airlie Beach to Rockhampton. I was planning on staying there one night, then doing a night on Great Keppel Island, then back to Rockhampton for the evening. I'd arranged to stay at the YHA which does a package with the YHA on Great Keppel. By the time I'd sorted out the checkin arrangement and had a shower, it was 8pm. Wandering up the main road in the same end of town as the YHA, there was very little open. Even the two pubs shut their doors at 8pm. It was a Sunday, but it was very quiet. Fortunately, there was a pizza takeaway open, so I didn't starve, even if I couldn't get a beer to wash it down with.

View of the beach on north of island

The next morning, I caught the bus to the ferry. Things all went quite smoothly, if with rather too much queuing, and we were soon heading across the bay the Great Keppel Island. It was quite windy, but the ferry was pretty stable. At the other end, the boat just pulled up onto the beach and lowered a ladder. There was a guy with a tractor and some trailers to put our luggage in. The YHA was a short walk along a sandy path.

The hostel itself is made up of permanently sited tents, though with lockable doors and proper furniture inside. There was also a bar on the island, a couple of shops and takeaways and the Great Keppel resort. The resort caters for the 18-25 market, and most of the facilities such as the bar and restaurants are open to the public.

By about midday, the weather improved and the sun came out. The water looked nice and clear, though it's a bit on the cold side in October. There are two dive schools on the island. One near the YHA and one in the resort. They both seemed to charge the same price, but having just done a liveaboard trip in Airlie, I decided to give it a miss. There are some nice walks on the island and the beaches are worth visiting. Even the beaches near the accommodation weren't busy. On the other side of the island, they were completely deserted.

That night I went down the resort bar. There was a band playing. It was all cover versions, but they weren't bad and it was a reasonable night out. Prices were a little bit higher than you'd expect to pay on the mainland, but not too bad. I could have done without the 9am checkout time in the YHA though. It's the earliest time I encountered in the whole trip and not really what you need after a late night.

The ferry back to Rockhampton was uneventful and I spent a quiet evening in being eaten alive by the mosquitos. I seemed to get more bites that evening than on the rest of the trip. The next morning I was catching the Tilt Train down to the Sunshine Coast. It had been almost fully booked and I was lucky to get a ticket. It's a lot quicker than the bus and goes all the way down to Brisbane. A film was shown, which admittedly was awful, and each seat had individual headphones, so you could actually hear the dialogue. The top speed is around 160km/h, so it's no competition for the Japanese or French, but by Aussie train standards, it's alright. I don't know how often it hits the top speed though. It felt like it was constantly speeding up and slowing down. Still it was only 15 minutes late on arrival.

After spending a couple of uneventful days on the Sunshine Coast, I flew out of Brisbane to Vanuatu.

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