At the moment the panoramas are only in JPEG format, and there a not many 360 degree views. However I plan to add 360 views in the Quicktime VR format, which allows people to pan and zoom around in a full circle.

Anyway, please have a look at the photo panoramas and tell me which ones you like best. For your information, I photographed most of them using my Canon A720 and the included photo stitching software.

Well, 2 weeks ago on Friday the 25th April my dad and I, along with some boat-owning friends of ours, went out to Humpy Island for a weekend trip. I apologise for taking 2 weeks to write about, but I have been busy and I did have to go through 300 or so photos of the trip, which meant that I kept putting it off.

Humpy Island is a National Park about 65 hectares in area, located just south of Great Keppel Island. More info is available from this link.

I’ve decided to call this a photo essay because of the large amount of photos that I’ve decided to include. Also, just note that I’m not documenting everything we did on Humpy Island, like snorkelling out on the reefs, with and without a boat. The reason being that I didn’t take many photos of that (for fear of damaging or wetting the camera). I did see a turtle underwater while I was snorkelling out in the boat, however. I tried to chase it as well, but they can move surprisingly fast.

Friday : Arrival Day

On to the story. We got up at about 5:00AM on Friday morning, leaving home an hour or so later. The meeting place was at Rosslyn Bay Harbour, which is the main boat harbour for the Capricorn Coast, so we drove there and started loading up the boat we were going out on.

Once that was all done, we left for Humpy Island at about 6:30AM! There were 2 large tinnies and 1 boat going (which had already left Thursday night). We went in one of the tinnies and the other tinny followed behind us.

A view back looking at the Rosslyn Bay Hill. The tinny in the picture was following us. I love the morning light, it makes everything look really pretty.

Appearances are deceptive on the ocean, and the distance to Humpy Island was no exception. I would have though that it was only 7 or 8 kilometres, but I bought my GPS along and the real distance was over 19km! It took us about 45 minutes to get to the Humpy Island, we got a bit wet but it was a perfect day so that didn’t matter too much.

On arrival we unpacked everything from the boats and chose a camping spot. A funny thing that happened was that everyone was down at the beach but someone had left biscuits on the table, and the crows were tearing into them.

The beach, soon after arrival. The boat we came over on is the closest in the water.

The people who had come to Humpy on Thursday night won’t around when we arrived, so we just set up camp in the main camping area just near the path to the beach.

Looking in the other direction from above. The camping area starts just where the trees are. We originally had our camping spot just a little way in.

Looking straight up to the main campground.

After we had set up our tents and stuff I decided to walk up the hill and take some photos.

Looking down onto the trees and camping area. We were camping in the far left of the main clump of trees, later on we moved a bit out of sight to the left.

A wildflower growing on top of the hill. It looks a bit like a dandelion in my opinion.

A type of long seedpod attached to a swirling base of long, thin, and serated pieces of grass or leaves. I think they are nicknamed black-boys (now politically incorrect) because they actually thrive on fire and can be seen all covered in blackness.

I think these are the same type of plant shown in the above photo, just with a full crop of matured flowers.

After a few hours or so the people who had come the previous night arrived back. Two of my friends and I decided to go on the whole island walk, which basically winds its way around the island “hill range.” I’ve just included just a few photos below because I’m going to put in more photos from when everyone did the walk.

This is looking from the far side of Humpy Island towards the camping area on the island, and Emu Park in the distance. The little hills you see on the left is where the above photos were taken.

The main cairn on Humpy Island. Cairns are basically just piles of rocks that are added to by people who have made it to the highest point on the mountain, or island.

After we had arrived back from the Humpy Island walk, the Thursday night people then went for a walk around the camping area. When they came back they said they’d found a much better camping spot (about 50m away) from which the boats could be easily seen. We walked over and had a look, and decided that it was better than our current spot. Moving was comparatively easy; All we had to for some tents was pick them up, carry them, then plonk them down again.

The new campsite that we moved too. It was much more open and there were no other people camping in that area. It was about 50m from the tap.

Well once everything had settled down we basically stayed settled down until the beautiful sunset.

The beautiful sunset. This would be looking towards the Capricorn Coast / Yeppoon area, but I can’t identify the coastline accurately enough to be sure of the exact locations.

After the sunset had finished, my friends and I decided to sneak around the camping area and flash lights at people once we got up close. That’s probably about all I should tell you .

Saturday : Full Activity Day

Relatively early on Saturday morning just about everyone in our group decided to do the island walk, which we (meaning from now on two friends and I) had done the day before.

These pretty wildflowers were located about halfway. The ant inside was a stroke of luck.

Some more wildflowers. I reckon this one looks a bit like a dandelion.

Another blackboy plant, this time all nice and green and without a stalk in the middle. This meant I could get a nice symmetrical overhead shot.

Once we all arrived back we mainly stayed around camp (with the exception of snorkelling out with the boat, see the top of this post) until late afternoon, when we walked up the hill closest to us to get some photos with the afternoon light.

Looking towards our camp (just underneath the first clump of trees along the shore).

A zoomed in view of the main sandbank where we fished and snorkelled from.

My two friends. I’m on the left. This is looking east from Humpy Island out into the great Pacific Ocean.

Sunday : Day of Leaving

Sunday morning was fairly lazy, we just had breakfast, went for another snorkel, and then started packing up. Packup up took about half an hour, once that was done we just threw everything in the boats and said goodbye to Humpy Island.

My last few photos of Humpy Island were taken from the back of the tinny as we motored away.

I took a few photos at Rosslyn Bay Harbour. This is the biggest hill at the harbour, there is another one just on the other side that has a walking track on it.

This is a bit of a funny photo, I think it was on top of a Fisheries building and it was a pole with 4 security cameras pointing in all different directions.

That just about wraps up my trip to Humpy Island. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Kemp Beach

This picnic spot is actually part of the Capricorn Coast National Park. It’s located right on the beach, and walking trails that go around the hill near it are very popular with joggers. There are many bush turkeys living around the area too, so it is not advisable to leave food unattended. There are lots of trees covering most of the picnic area, so it is nice and cool most of the time. There is a large parking area a little bit away from the picnic area.

Three gas BBQs, at least three tables and at least three taps are provided. Showers and toilets are also provided for use. I do not advise you to swim in the area directly down from the picnic area though, as the sand below the water is covered in rocks of all sizes and degrees of sharpness. Instead I recommend that you go up the beach until you get to the area which is nearer to the road. There isn’t any rocks below the surface there.

To get there, head south from Yeppoon, passing over the Ross Creek bridge. Continue along that road until you reach Kemp Beach!

Lammermor Beach #1

This is the first of two good picnic spots on Lammermor Beach, located closer to the southern end of the beach. Although it’s not a designated lunch spot, it’s still one of my favourite ones. It has fantastic spreading trees straight over the top of the table, which provide shade and (you guessed it) climbing opportunities. There’s also a small creek called Williamson Creek near the picnic area, which flows out into the ocean.

It only has one table, one tap and no BBQ, so it is not for multiple groups of people. It is near the road, but the main reason it is so nice is because the beach access is only a couple of steps away. You can park wherever you like.

To get there, head south from Yeppoon, passing over the Ross Creek bridge. Continue along that road until you reach the start of Lammermor Beach, then drive a little slower and be on the lookout for the first round-about. It will then be straight to your left.

Lammermor Beach #2

This is the second of two good picnic spots on Lammermor Beach, located closer to the northern end of the beach. Definitely more popular than the first Lammermor picnic area, as there are often many people in this spot. This area is popular for celebrations like birthdays. One difference to all the others that I have mentioned is that it is on the top of a small hill, with the beach below you.

The area features about three tables, a few taps and BBQs, a toilet block and a car-park. The picnic area is quite exposed, both to the sun and the road. However, the tables have shelters over them to keep out the sun. Be careful with bare feet around the beach access and picnic area, there are lots of prickles and sometimes broken glass. The beach has lots of big rocks all over it, and there are lots of rock-pools that have been created in them.

To get there, head south from Yeppoon, passing over the Ross Creek bridge. Continue along that road until you reach Lammermor Beach, and the picnic area is just on your left.

Farnborough Beach

Out of all the picnic spots on this list, Farnborough Beach is the closest to Yeppoon. The particular spot that I am writing about now is right next to the Beachside Caravan Park. There is parking, taps and tables, but BBQ’s were given a miss.

The tables are all roofed under one section, with slats of wood separating them from each other. It does mean that you don’t get much privacy, but it’s a popular, nice place just next to the beach. The beach access is about 50m away from the tables. The tables themselves are usually fairly clean, although they do feature graffiti on them.

To get there, drive (or walk) a little less than 1km from Yeppoon, and the picnic spot will be the one closest to the Beachside Caravan Park.

The Homestead at Rydges Resort

At last, on to my favourite spot! The Rydges Resort is always a pleasure to be at, and this place is no exception. Although no tables or BBQs are provided, plenty of rocks and logs are available for sitting on. The place is hardly used, so that means it’s always very clean with no rubbish. The toilet block even has soap and paper towels in it! The Homestead is actually just an old building that has been converted into a function area, so it’s always locked up and isn’t the focus of interest. The focus of interest is typically the wetlands, which are a glorious sight to behold after lots of rain. Rydges has kindly built a small tower so that visitors can get a good view.

Parking is provided, but not clearly marked out. I don’t think Rydges would mind if you parked anywhere you liked on the grounds. At least, that is what my family does The place that we usually use for eating at is a cluster of trees right of the main entrance. It’s about a 250m walk to the toilet block though, so it won’t suit everyone. There are logs much closer to the toilets, but we found them too hard to prepare food on. Until recently, it used to have a few warped and broken tables there, but now they have taken them away. I suspect that is because of the safety risk for the horses wandering round.

That brings me to telling you that they have set up stables and horse rides there, and about every twice a day, a lady comes with a group of people to go on horse rides to Rydges and back. To walk to Rydges, there is a bike and walking trail that starts from the opposite side of the road as the entrance to the Homestead, and takes you out near the Archery set-up that Rydges have. The horses use a different route that is much sandier and quite hard to walk along.

To get there, drive north of Yeppoon until you come to a round about. Turn right towards Rydges, and follow that road until you come to a T-intersection. Turn right, and soon you’ll see a turn-off on your left pointing to the Homestead. If the gate there is shut, keep driving up the Corio Bay road for a few hundred metres and there should be a small turn-off to the left. Follow that for a hundred metres or so until you come to a gate which shouldn’t have any locks on it. Drive through there and you’ve arrived at the Homestead!

Below is an an image from Google Maps that shows the road and satellite views. Don’t be put off by the dry scenery, this image was taken in the middle of a very bad drought!