Day thirty-seven was much anticipated. It was a thirty minute boat trip out to Keppel Island, where we get some free time to do what we want, as well as time to snorkel and a trip on the glass bottomed boat. It was our first foray into snorkeling on the reef. We also had to be up reasonably early and we were well aware that the winds were pretty choppy so we were wondering how the day would go (or have we been ripped off with the tourist-trap!).

The trip started off very smoothly, and you can see from the above pics, that it was pretty spectacular sailing, looking back over Yeppoon and out to the Islands. Once we left the protection of the bay the winds really picked up. Hats were blown off comedy-style (mine was rescued by a bunch of backpackers squatting on the top deck behind us), and even at the top of the boat on the third tier, people were getting a spraying, so at this point we were looking forward to a windstrewn day for everyone.

Fortunately for everyone, there are something like sixteen islands associated with this region, and that allows the tour operator to find plenty of protected bays, and that’s exactly what was about to happen.

We were dropped on a small beach in a more secluded location and we hopped onto the glass bottomed boat. This was not bad, and it might have been a first glass bottomed boat for all of us. Although vision was average, the insight and education aspect was good, especially as none of had had much time to try and read up on any of the ecology of the area.

After a bit of a beach walk, we returned to the cat for lunch, which to the tours credit was pretty good. The benefit of being on a larger boat, was that it had larger-boat comforts, so a sit-down feed out of the wind was most welcome. And mum could also try and deal with her motion sickness. We took a couple of photo’s and then it time to be dropped onto Keppel Island itself. We were given an hour or so to mooch around, so we had a cuppa. Mazzy obviously went for a swim, and we also had time for a another beach walk. It was pretty spectacular viewing.

After hopping back on the cat, it was time for the main event – a bit of snorkeling. Once again, the tour operator was able to find a secluded spot out of the wind.

We didn’t take any photo’s of the snorkeling experience unfortunately, maybe because we all got carried away with the excitement of it all. But it was a truly amazing experience and everyone loved it. Mazzy was as fearless as ever, discarding with the flotation stuff and literally swimming off on her own at every opportunity. Occasionally she would resurface to tell us how amazing it was and then she’d be off again – miss independent swimming to all parts of the snorkeling zone. Mum and Jimi took more of a studious approach, observing the action as it came into sight and me, well I was trying to keep up with Mazzy which was no easy task.

All in all, everyone was fully immersed in the magic of the reef. We were also out of the wind and the allocated hour absolutely flew past. It was a memorable experience for all of us, and from the experience that the reef gave us, the trip was worth it for that alone. Keppel Island snorkeling was a big hit with everyone.

There were only two things left to do now. Get dragged behind the boat in the boom netting and head back to the bay. Jimi to his credit, was the only person willing to do the boom netting. So despite being a bit cold from the hours snorkeling (we did have dodgy fitting wetties provided but they leaked a lot) Jimi hung on for quite a while, being dragged by the boat. What a top kid, and what a great day out.

As if by magic, the winds dropped off for the short trip home, and we approached sunset having had yet another fantastic day out. Yeppon and Keppel had also been great for us and our run of maximum enjoyment on our roadtrip was continuing.

After a chippy tea (campsite had a food-truck), we finished off the night with a bit of stargazing. The back section of the campsite was for tents and so had even less light pollution. The sky was amazing and the milky way was very well defined, even to the naked eye. So another good thing about the “wrong” campsite was the stargazing.

Yeppoon and the Keppels you had been amazing, but tomorrow are back on the road.