Location: Hamilton Island and onto Mackay
Weather: Back to the superb sunshine and blue skies I’ve become used to! 30°c

I get a chance to drive down the coastline again for the next little mission I head off on. It’s such a good way to understand the vast distances that are involved when moving anywhere across Australia and great motivation for my project to drive all around Australia sometime in the next year or so!

I drop off the hire car at the airport in Mackay and meet David from the local tourist information centre. He’s to be my guide over the next day and we make for the airport a few blocks away pulling into the hanger of Horizon who will fly us out to Keswick Island in just a few minutes.

It’s a tiny little plane so I have to adjust my luggage accordingly and reduce my diva-like four bags down to a single 10kg overnight daypack – I continue to amaze myself on how much stuff I now carry everywhere I go!

The taxi up the runway followed by a routine take-off soon has us flying over the city of Mackay. The neatly laid out streets and marina looking like a scene out of The Sims below. Peter our pilot points out the new barge moored up against a pontoon which will soon start a service out to the island once more building goes on to increase the population – more about this to follow!

There’s 50kms of ocean between us and the island and through the hazy horizon appears our destination after 10 minutes in the air. St Bee’s island is the immediate neighbour of Keswick and together they form an impressive sight towering above the fringing reef, both appearing uninhabited until the last minute when the small grey runway comes into view giving a first clue to its human population.

As we bank sharply over St Bee’s we make our final approach onto the runway and touch down. Brian and Lyn, who run the only guesthouse here, are there to meet me in their pimped-up golf buggies which leave my one on Hamo feeling remotely boring by comparison!

It’s a very well organised island with good tarmac roads, around 25 large well maintained and finished private homes and even wheelie bins which Roger, one of the residents, empties weekly. This must have been what Hamilton Island was like 30 years ago! The vibe on the island is unique to those I’ve visited so far, everyone loves their island and are very proud of their property, the locals and the remote lifestyle they all lead – no one would change anything, well almost anything…

We pull into the driveway of the Keswick Island Guesthouse, one of the only properties offering overnight accommodation here. Access is either by charter aircraft such as that we’ve just arrived by or private boat or plane. This keeps visitor numbers down to a minimum and the experience therefore feels truly unique and special.

I check into my room, complete with massive super-comfy kingsize bed, and marvel at the view from the balcony which is right out side my huge sliding doors, St Bee’s next to Keswick is virtually uninhabited apart from one hardy soul (read as Caretaker) who’s maintained the island for the past 15 years. The gum tree forests intermittently broken by open grassland – the work of the ferrel goat population which reached epidemic proportions until the local gun club and rangers brought the population under control. The goats were initially introduced to the island as a means of food for any unfortunate sailors from days gone by who were unfortunate enough to find themselves shipwrecked here!

As the island is fairly small there’s only a few roads and with Brian and his mate we head out in the island Landcruiser to explore the extremities of it along dusty tracks to the far shore and up grassy overgrown slopes to one of the summits. It’s great to be out in the bush again!

There are plans to build more houses in the very near future here on the island with plots already being cleared for the builders to come in and start work, up to 700 new houses could be built over the next ten years dramatically changing the landscape and solitude which goes to make the island such a special and unique residential place. It’s the first such island I’ve been to and even though it seems all of the residents are happy at the forthcoming plans I struggle to see how having so many more residents there will do anything apart from detract from the special feeling it has as I drive the tracks and walk the shores of this little gem. Oh well the price of development hey.

Back at the ranch, or the guesthouse, Lyn has been working all afternoon to prepare us (that’s guests Steve & Debbie, myself and David) a veritable feast for dinner. We all sit outside in the balmy evening air chatting away about everything and nothing with the smells of the barbeque percolating around us teasing my stomach and adding to my increasingly hungry feeling…and then it’s all served up to us!

I’m known for loving my food and good home cooking and this spread satisfies all departments; Quail served on bed of Quinoa with vegetables….divine! For dessert another homemade special – strawberry with sour cream tart.

A full moon cast a bright light across the channel between Keswick and St Bees island and in its light I sat listening to Steve play the guitar whilst I blogged away until my eyelids felt heavy and I retired to bed soon after.

Sunrise over the ocean was pretty special, with a little blog still to finish I sat tapping my keys until there was a sign of life from inside the house and breakfast was served.

What a shame it had to be the last morning; I loved spending time here actually relaxing and with very little going on all around it’s easy to do. The atmosphere is nothing short of brilliant and having met a group of the locals they all seem to have one thing in common – a love of Keswick.

Our flight back to Mackay departs from the tiny runway at 9 a.m. and takes twenty minutes to return us back to the city’s civilisation and a slightly faster pace of life. What a great couple of days!

If I ever get a chance to go back here I sincerely hope there’s very little different from what I experienced over the last few days. The threat of development on a scale which would transform the island into something a lot more developed and commercial may be seen as essential for its longevity but ultimately may loose the extremely unique character of the place.

Don’t ruin it please!

End of day location: Mackay
Distance covered: 110kms