As at beginning of September 2022, we’re based at Hope Island Marina until the end of this year. During this time we plan to explore the waterways around the Gold Coast and Moreton Bay. But because they are very busy, especially on weekends, we’ll go out during the week when there’s less boat traffic to contend with!
This week we decided to go to Tipplers, at South Stradbroke Island, for three nights. It’s about 11NM away and took around 2 hours as much of the route was speed limited to 6 knots. If you’re thinking Tipplers has a resort well it used to, but it was a run-down 3-star facility. Here’s a link to the Tippler’s Resort Proposal.
South Stradbroke Island, or Minjerribah (island in the sun) is only 21km by 2.5km, and at last census had a permanent population of 41 people. The ocean side is said to be one of the best surf spots in the Gold Coast region.
Tipplers now contains one of three campsites on the island, with facilities for tents and a number of self-contained cabins. There’s a licenced café and at times you can enjoy live music. Access is via boat, and if you don’t have your own, you can catch a ferry or hire a water taxi.
We arrived at Tipplers early afternoon on Tuesday 6 September and found a good anchorage.
Shortly after dropping anchor, we saw a few dolphins passing and while I wasn’t quick enough to catch them when they were very close to our boat, I did manage some footage.
Some time later, a houseboat dropped anchor close to us. In fact, we had our anchor drag alarm on with a radius of 30m and the houseboat was well within our range. This meant that if we swung during the night we could be too close, or if they hadn’t set their anchor properly they might drag and hit us. So we decided we’d move to the northern end of the anchorage, outside what looks like the old resort.
Since we missed taking the shorter route across to the beach, we went looking for it for our walk back. After about an hour of bush-bashing, I gave up and decided we would return to the other track. If it existed, I think it’s now overgrown! However, we did see a lot of wallabies and wallaby poo, got a few scratches, and walked a lot of steps!!
When we returned to our boat, we were visited by a couple of ducks and the cats were very interested in them.
On Thursday, I went for another kayak and we continued with some of our projects. It was a very relaxing day.
Friday it was time to return to the marina. There were only a few boats left at Tipplers, probably the mid-week cruisers had returned to avoid the weekend traffic.
On our return, we saw this superyacht obscuring a house and I pose a question to you…When your water views are obscured by your yacht, do you need a bigger house or a smaller boat?
8 Responses
great blog as always Pam! I reckon if you can afford that yacht you can afford a bigger house 🙂
Lots of interesting photos, Pam.
I would say they need a bigger house 😄
Maybe the locals drew a short track in just to catch out the tourists ?! Great photos, love the active wear modelling shot Pam, you look great!
Always enjoy the catch up. Lots of love. Malcsx
Great post folks 👍
What a couple of beachcombers you are. I loved the photo of the 2 cats watching the duck.
Best wishes, and hoping to see you before too long.
May
Still having fun & adventures. Good on you.
Looks lovely.