Heading Home

Our last visit to Moreton Island, and time to head home to catch the ferry. This is a view along Eagers beach. Stunning, isn't it? It's always sad to leave but nice to know that this beautiful island is only a short ride away. 

Honeymoon Bay

What could be nicer than spending time relaxing in this beautiful isolated bay? After the strenuous efforts of tobogganing down the sand dunes (see previous post), having a lunch stop and a paddle in Honeymoon Bay was perfect. 

Island Desert

Hop in your 4-wheel drive, hang on tight and take one of the sand tracks to the interior of the island. I should add here that if you don't have much padding on your bum, expect some bruises and a good shaking up! It doesn't look too bad from this pic, but believe me, there are some massive ruts in the track, and being sand, it shifts, so you'll get thrown all over the place. But it's well worth it to get to the desert.

Moreton Island is the third largest sand island in the world, and not surprisingly the centre is very desert-like. Massive sand dunes have formed which are the perfect playground for visitors to race down a 90m mountain at 60kms an hour on a sand toboggan (read a small piece of plywood), your face centimetres away from the blistering hot sand! Sounding like fun? Hell on earth, but GREAT fun, believe me. Once you have removed sand from every conceivable orifice, and you want to take the thrill ride all over again, you have to climb back to the top of the dunes. This is a workout for your legs that you will feel for at least a week later. Who knew that climbing a sand dune was such hard work! 
Come back tomorrow and we'll have a more relaxing time.

Shipwreck?

The main settlement of Moreton Island is Tangalooma, and just offshore are several wrecks. You would have seen them on yesterday's post. Despite looking ominous, they are in fact dive sites that have been created on purpose by scuttling a number of ships. not being a diver, I'm unlikely to experience life as seen by Nemo. (Snorkelling is my limit). 

Into The Bay

We are more than fortunate in having a wonderful natural resource right on our doorstep (or right on our shoreline)! Moreton Bay has a huge biodiversity, with dugongs and turtles calling it home, along with dolphins and numerous marine life. More than 40,000 migratory wading birds visit each September to April, and from June to September, whale watching is a booming business. This is Moreton Island about 75 mins ferry ride from Brisbane.