Great Keppel Island
Driving the Great Barrier Reef from Gold Coast to Cairns
When it comes to beaches there’s nothing like a pristine expanse of white sand. Even though I grew up just down the street from the best beach in BC, it was rare that the water was warm enough for me to swim in and there was never any snorkeling. On the other side of the world, when Yuki and I head to the beach, we seek out snorkeling beaches.
Great Keppel island is a popular attraction in Queensland and for road-trippers driving north probably because it is quite accessible since there is also a hostel on the island.
We booked tickets over on the ferry the night before. It only took about half an hour and then we landed on a pristine expanse of white sand. Just like the tropics, the water was a beautiful emerald green and when we stepped into the shallow surf we were pleased to discover that the water was indeed quite warm.
Great Keppel island has several beaches and we headed to Shelving beach which was recommended for good snorkeling. When we arrived in the morning the tide was in and there was barely any beach.
We immediately jumped in the water and swam out to the buoys marking the reefs. To our dismay we couldn’t see any reef below us so we swam along the shore near the rocks. There were a lot of mussels and a few fish but no coral so we headed back to shore and had an early lunch of leftover pizza and chips. A nap in the shade latter and the tide had gone down some 3–4 meters. The tide continued to recede nearly to the top of the reef and by the time we left parts of the reef were above water.
This time the snorkeling was better and we could see the reef. There weren’t a lot of fish but we saw a bunch of manta rays which were really cool. We also found a giant clam which was unexpected.
Later we found that there were more interesting things just walking around the shallows rather than swimming over the reef. We found another 5 manta rays, a weird fish with legs that I thought was a crab under a dead fish, and what we think were cray fish in holes.
Reading on line it seems that people usually see sea turtles at Keppel island. Unfortunately we didn't, maybe because of the season but it was still a fun day on the beach and in the water.
Driving north, we stopped at a few places which were dugong sanctuaries. I really wanted to see one of these sea cows but we weren’t able to spot any. The beach, however, had a lot of turquoise stone which matched the colour of the water. Its not every day that you walk along the beach and find these kinds of stone.
