Aussirose Travel and Photography: Yeppoon, Kinka Beach & Great Keppel Island

~~oOo~~

YEPPOON

~~oOo~~

Yeppoon is located on the coast about 40 minutes east of Rocky (Rockhampton).

It reminded us of Hervey Bay with its highrise resorts hugging the coastline.

We had lunch at Spinnakers Club Restaurant opposite this beach. Food was just ok. Nothing much to write about there.

Rocky is just another big country town, but we did see a big thing coming into town. The big bull. And whilst we are talking about big things, just south of Yeppoon, we saw the big Hermet Crabs. Well they are not really big, but they are on the Australian Big Things map, so we stopped for a quick pic.

There was something that we really enjoyed in Yeppoon. The Information Centre with a fabulous Shell Museum put on by the locals for just a gold coin donation. I bought a pink shell bangle for $10 and the Information Centre had some gorgeous stuff so I couldn't resist but buy a colourful beach bag and wine bag. See in photo below. I'd love to make a shell hanging like the one we saw in the shell museum. See below.

~~oOo~~

KINKA BEACH

~~oOo~~

We stayed at the Island View Caravan Park at Kinka Beach which is just a 10 minute drive south of Yeppoon. The beach itself is not much. The water was quite choppy and when the tide is out, it is really OUT and the beach looks like mud flats. We could see Great Keppel Island from the beach.

I chose Island View Caravan Park at Kinka Beach as they were cheaper than the other Caravan Parks in town and accept animals. We paid $48 a night here and usually I don't like paying that much, but I felt it was worth every dollar as this was more like a resort than a Caravan Park. Check out the photos below.

~~oOo~~

KEPPEL BAY MARINA

~~oOo~~

The reason why we came out to Yeppoon was to go back over to Great Keppel Island for the day and revisit the place that we spent our Honeymoon nearly 46 years ago. Well it hasn't changed much, except now has the addition of a run down resort that is not used anymore.

More about that later.

So whilst the sun was out, we took the opportunity to check out the marina where we will catch the ferry over to Keppel the next day.

~~oOo~~

GREAT KEPPEL ISLAND

~~oOo~~

Yes, still as gorgeous as ever.

😎

So as I was saying, Great Keppel is still this vastly untouched Island that has low key beach cabins and camping areas. There was a nice resort here, but it got severely damaged by a cyclone and the owners went bankrupt. So it was left to decay and now has unsightly overgrown grounds, broken windows and an ugly blue mesh fence surrounding it.

When we were here last, we had the Honeymoon caravan. There were caravans, camping areas and a basic resort where we partied every night. Hubby and new friends got the possums drunk on bread soaked in cheap wine and we staggered along this very beach home to our van. I still remember dancing to Air Supply who were still an up and coming band at the time. That was real cool.

😀

We walked along a cement path in amongst the rainforest just behind the Island Hideaway on the point. This was where our carvan was except there was only sand paths back then.

We had a lovely day on the Island and the weather really put it on for us after showers in the morning and a choppy ride in the ferry over. Then just as we were leaving, the rain came in again.

We had something to eat at 2 of the restaurants here. Tropical Vibes is the better one. Our bacon, egg and salad baguette was delish. Cook accidently put salad on, but hey, we weren't complaining.

Then for lunch, we went to Island Hideway on the point. Hubby had prawn wraps and said they were just ok. I had the worst possible BBQ chicken wings and chips. Chicken wings were dry and they just coated them in cheap BBQ sauce. Chips tasted like cardboard and were boardering luke warm. My tequila sunrise just tasted like orange juice and cranberry syrup. I should have learn't something from that but, no, we both ordered cocktails later before the ferry came in and they must have dripped a smidgen of grog in them because they tasted like lolly water in a salt rimmed cocktail glass. I went on to have cheap red wine which wasn't much better. We should have gone back to Tropical Vibes for a Corona instead.

If you come to Great Keppel for the day, bring your own food and grog and have a beach picnic instead.

Still, it was a lovely day trip down memory lane.

🩷

~~oOo~~

FUN WITH ART LENSES

~~oOo~~

I haven't had the opportunity to play with my Lensbaby Lenses due to the constant rain, so I decided to bring them with me to play with in between swims. We chose a place on the beach with no one around and a bit of shade from these trees with thin pine like needles. I had my soft focus lens and tilt shift bokkah lens. I also took some photos at Tropical Vibes.