Time for you to learn some more Aussie tongue dear people!

bushed – 1. Lost or bewildered 2. very tired

semi – short for just about any word with the prefix semi-, but it is most likely to mean a semi-final competition (‘a footy semi’), a semi-trailer (‘he drives a semi’) or a semi-detached house

around the traps – Here and there; out and about: ‘We’re not exactly mates any more, but I sometimes see him around the traps’.

Location: Townsville, Queensland
Weather: Clear blue skies and sunshine, 30°c

Today’s the day I’ve been looking forward to ever since I knew sea kayaking was on the agenda two weeks ago. The idea of getting out on the water, doing some seriously hard paddling and exploring the coastline surrounding another of these amazing Great Barrier Reef islands gets my blood pumping and the heart racing!

An early start to the day in order to meet a journalist writing for a New Zealand travel magazine at the Jupiter Hotel, a quick half an hour interview and back to the Grand Mercure in time to meet Therese from Townsville Enterprise. Therese has been fantastic over the last couple of days, running here there and everywhere to ensure that I’m in the right place at the right time and she’s now turned into our driver to whisk us north to Dungeness, our starting point for the kayak adventure!

The winds gained in strength throughout the day so unfortunately the decisions been made to meet the group of kayakers we’ll been joining a little further up the coast than originally planned. Apparently the northerly winds too strong for us….shame I wanted a bit of a workout too!

Andy from ‘Calypso Spirit’ meets us at the jetty, armed with his 42 foot sports fishing boat fuelled and ready to whisk us up the coast towards Hinchinbrook Island to meet the team from ‘Coral Sea Kayaking’ who are already two days into their expedition. My experience is only going to be a taster of what’s actually on offer, normally the trip runs for seven days and travels up the eastern side of Hinchinbrook taking in the spectacular views that this very unique island has to offer.

Rugged Hinchinbrook

On the way we stopped off at Zoe Bay, a sandy little cove with a freshwater creek running into it – almost the perfect place to dive in the water and wash off the heat of the day…apart from the fact that there’s saltwater crocodiles in this part of the world. Tropical North Queensland promises a little extra excitement but this is one you don’t want to be messing with.

Hinchinbrook has a number of bush-walking trails across it and with limited numbers of people allowed on the island at any one time you can trek along them without seeing another soul all day. Our short hike took us up the rocks to Zoe Falls, a trickling stream running across granite rock dropping 65 metres into a freshwater pool below. At this time of year there’s hardly any water coming down but in the wet season this thing must seriously rage! Time was racing away and after a quick swim we headed back down the track to the boat.

After an hour cruising up the coast we drop anchor 300 metres offshore and spot six kayaks halfway up the Black Sands beach…this is what we’ve been looking for. As we’ve come up the coast of the island the scenery has been totally awesome and very, very different from any other I’ve visited so far – think Lord of the Rings, green forests leading up sheer sided mountains, rocky granite outcrops and then throw in a few sandy beaches along the way just to break it all up, it really is one of the most picturesque places I’ve been to so far!

Arriving on the sandy beach Dave, Craig and Michelle from Coral Sea Kayaking came down to meet us at the water’s edge, formalities out of the way it was time to work….no luxury five-star accommodation here, better than that we we’re in tents tonight and I can’t tell you how happy that makes me! After spending all of last year living in my tent as I travelled round Africa the feeling of waking up with the view through a tent’s window can’t be beaten. It was back to basics.

Beach camp

We’d missed out on the rest of the day’s paddling due to the northerly head wind and instead spent the afternoon on the beach meeting the other members of the expedition. I felt like a bit of a part-timer really, joining halfway through and also having to leave a day early. Trying to fit so much into this section of the Best Job adventure means only a taster of life on the ocean wave…for now.

Morning kayak park

As the evening drew in the smell from the busy kitchen started to percolate through the gum trees signalling dinner was ready and what a spread it was too…Moroccan lamb, cous cous and tabouli. Superb! Bush recipes, bush stories and bush flies gave me a taste of just how fantastic it is to be out in the wilds of Australia and, minus the bites, became the perfect end to another perfect day in paradise.

Spending the night under canvas means one thing, waking up with the sunrise and the very start of a new day. A dash down the cool sand to the edge of the ocean, a sharp intake of breath and a dive into the glassy, clear water – now that’s the way to wake up!

The kayaks are four metre ocean-going two-man expedition boats complete with storage lockers and a wide base providing masses of stability for even the least balanced paddler, I’ve used similar types in the UK but as they were only half the width wobbled all over the place leaving me fearful I’d stay dry. These are balanced and great fun.

We continued the paddle north making surprisingly good progress averaging nearly 6km/h and two hours later the call came from Dave that we’d arrived at our lunchtime stopover…or at least I thought it was just a stop for lunch but no, that was it for the day…how disappointing I thought we’d at least power on through the afternoon until our shoulders were burning.

After another great night’s entertainment and sleep it was back to the journey and paddling towards our final destination for this adventure, Cape Richards on the north western tip of Hinchinbrook. As we rounded the end of the bay I wished we could go on forever, slowly making our way along pristine coastline discovering new places to hop off and explore, but this chapter was done…..for now.

Kayaking has ignited the desire to do more in the future, much more. Once this crazy Best Job adventure is over my next project will involve more paddling (lots of it) and the Great Barrier Reef once more. Watch this space for developments.

If you enjoy the great outdoors, sleeping night’s under the stars and getting back to basics then you have to try this out. It rates up there with learning to sail as my best experience so far as the Island Caretaker!

Distance covered: 23kms by kayak. Awesome.
End of day location: Cape Richards, Hinchinbrook Island.