Pirates of Hinchinbrook Island - Sunset Beach to Gould Island

July 31st - Sunset Beach to Gould Island - Day 7

A 14.5km trip with an expected paddle time of 3.5 hours in medium conditions

Another early morning, skies overcast, wind not too much and seas pretty good. We were on the water by about 9.30am

Same paddling groups as previous, setting off to Gould Island. The root was to follow the coast of Hinchinbrook, around the trip of the island that put us in lee of the prevailing winds. Pulling into a beach at the top of the island before doing the cross island open sea crossing, to hit the middle of Gould Island and then the paddle westward to round the island, paddling in lee, then around to our camp site.

We headed off to plan heading to the last beach on Ramsay Bay. Along the way we saw several sea turtles. They are funny things. They surface, breath, swim around, but when they spot you they immediately dive. Some were quite large and it was great to be able to see so many. A beach landing in Ramsay Bay would have entailed a surf landing. So we opted to go around the tip and dropped into lee for a nice paddle into Orchid Bay. We pulled into the bay at about 11am for a break and budgie bar leaving at about 11.30am before our open water crossing to Gould Island.

The beach had a restricted area because of - either something like the old resort or special conservation value. There was a remnant of some old structure, lots of croc signs and no camping.

We left Hinchinbrook and it struck me that we saw so little in the way of terrestrial animals. A ratus ratus, cane toads, the boys say a goanna and very few birds. So odd I thought for an area that is lush green and plenty of water. There were small animal paw prints on the sand, but the jungle was so thick that it is entirely possible that the island was teaming with life.

Our open water crossing was without incident and seemed to take forever. Once we got across and into lee on Gould Island, the paddling was alot more easy, we saw sea turtles swimming under our boats. We paddled over what looked to be soft corals.

JB made an emergency dash to one of the first beaches much to the great amusement of all of us. We got to the sand spit and paddling around it, the winds dropped off and an easy beach landing at about 1 for a 1.30 lunch. There were 4 boats moored off the beach. Three large cats and a Chinese junk - Notorious Espain. Looked very much Black Pearl'ish. Infact the boat was used in the shooting of the Pirates of the Caribbean when it was shot in Queensland.

After lunch we explored beaches finding more oysters and a crocodile nest.

We ended the day with Singapore prawn macaroni and a fine wine.