Camping with Boat, Yepoon.

[Braddles]

Hi there;

I am heading up to Yepoon to catch up with a mate and would love to go camping within 100km or so of yepoon. I will be taking my 4WD and 5.4m Tabs plate side console boat, and our camping gear.

Ideally we would love to camp somewhere with the following features:

1. Can have the boat next to us (either in the water, safely, or on trailer at the camp with good boat ramp nearby).
2. Be by the water
3. Prefer somewhere you can have a camp fire.

I am worried that the bay islands (eg Conical Island, Miall Island etc) which are accessible only by private boat - we may have issues with keeping the boat safe at the shore with big tides or messy muddy feet etc.

What about around stanage? Capricornia Cays?

Anyone know somewhere nice, sandy, sheltered bay, either on main land or bay island??

I'll be picking your brains about fishing spots too soon :-)

Thanks in advance,

Brad.

[Braddles]

anyone?? less than a month til we go now :-)

[CT]

1770, Eurimbula and Pancake would fit the bill. Protected creeks in all cases.

Camping on Humpy in Keppel Bay wont see you dealing with muddy feet. All sand bottom.

Cheers
Craig

[JB sniper]

Port Clintons a great spot. 80 odd klms north by boat

[kaypee]

Hi there;

I am heading up to Yepoon to catch up with a mate and would love to go camping within 100km or so of yepoon. I will be taking my 4WD and 5.4m Tabs plate side console boat, and our camping gear.

Ideally we would love to camp somewhere with the following features:

1. Can have the boat next to us (either in the water, safely, or on trailer at the camp with good boat ramp nearby).
2. Be by the water
3. Prefer somewhere you can have a camp fire.

I am worried that the bay islands (eg Conical Island, Miall Island etc) which are accessible only by private boat - we may have issues with keeping the boat safe at the shore with big tides or messy muddy feet

Anywhere of the islands you're allowed to camp at will be fine as far as tides and muddy feet go. All sandy bottom and limited run so will be fine and they are perfect. No camp fires though which is dissapointing, I'm sure a responsible camper could control a small fire over their stay..........

[CATchin'Em]

Spot on kaypee, we have no mud islands, so go nuts. We quite often stay on conical/pleasant island this also requires permit(this island has 2 names don't ask me why ). It is a really easy island to stay at.

[seashawgal]

I too want to do exactly that.. camp with my boat. I know you can stay on Great Keppel with your boat, & dogs are even allowed, that's an important thing for me. I've heard of pancake creek a lot and have always wanted to go there. How do you actually get there? Are dogs allowed there? Regarding 1770 which camping area can you stay in where you can have your boat in the water beside you? Thanks.

[Braddles]

THanks so much for your kind feedback guys - much appreciated!!!

I was worried leaving the boat anchored by the beach may cause trouble with massive tides / run etc... sounds very reasonable to do so..

Looking forward to it...

Now any tips for fishing spots? :-)

[kaypee]

No probs Brad..
when exactly are you coming and for how long?? If you end up camping somewhere we might stop in for a beer or 3...

[Volvo]

If you do head off to Yepoon theres a couple of Island just south of Great kepple (Humpy ) for one and many moons ago i used to throw all the Familly as well as camping gear in the rig and camp on these Islands for days..Dont quite know if you need a permit nowadays but suss it out and weather permitting dont let this one slip by..
beutifull little Sandy Island , just need to take ample supplies and shade..

[Braddles]

Back home now;

Sorry Kaypee - just got your post.

I have to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone who contributed... both with tips for camping and those the PM'ed me with marks for fishing.

We had an absolute BRILLIANT time.. Camped at North Keppel

We met some lovely people, who shared some good fishing spots with us, and we were rewarded with some nice fish!!

The mozzies however - are like helicopters... and even the flies bite :-) We had aerogaurd, and they landed on it and I swear drink it. Bushmans 80% DEET is the only one that kept the mozzies / biting flies off. Also, temporarily bury your rubbish until you leave to take it with you - we had a MASSIVE goanna / lizard thing and scrub turkeys tip our bin out / over, tear open strong garbage bags and make a mess!

People who were camped not far from us though had a generator stolen in the middle of the night (it was a long w'end and very busy, camp was booked out)... what made it worse was we were all up until 2am, and their generator was in their enclosed gazebo. We were up and active from 5am - so some brazen low life, who was on the island with us all, had come into their camp and lifted it... so that put a bit of a dampener on things - I felt so sorry for them - so let them use ours to charge their batteries..

I didnt have a chain / locking device for our solar panels or generator - I'd be keen to know what people use? Is it worth it though - as the only locking point on the solar panels is a flimsy handle I could tear off with my hands... and the generator - I guess could be locked from the handle and around a tree... pretty sad you have to do that though huh - and to think someone was creeping around our camps while we slept...

Anyway - when I work out how to post pics up from my phone - I will show some of the fish we caught..

Thanks again everyone - cant wait to go again!!

Brad :-)