23rd Sept
Quiet day today with only snorkelling just before low tide planned. The channel between Brampton and Carlisle has a central reef. I donned my stinger suit (a sight to behold!), Steve put on his wetsuit and off we went in the tender. The tide was so low we needed to go around Pelican Island to get to the channel. Steve’s snorkelling gear was a new purchase but took no time at all to get used to it. There was a lot of reedy sea grass growing, apparently smothering some of the coral bommies. We found a few not so badly affected and enjoyed seeing a few fish, some pretty corals, lots of sea slugs and quite a few sea urchins. A pleasant snorkel, but nothing to write home about.
24th Sept
Today we ‘do’ the walks.
Despite the circuit track apparently being closed indefinitely due to lack of maintenance we continued on. There were a couple of places where we had to scramble under or over fallen trees, but on the whole it was a well-constructed track that hadn’t suffered much from the neglect. We checked out Oyster and Dinghy Bays on the southern side for future reference, being anchorages in a northerly and climbed to Brampton Peak. All up a walk of around 14km.
We both voted it to be one of the best we’ve ever done. It had everything – thick rainforest, glades of lime-green strappy calves tongue, maidenhair ferns in the gullies, grass trees covering the slopes and beautiful big old hoop pines which are favoured by the screeching sulphur-crested cockatoos, standing sentinel over the southern bays.
Dinghy Bay, Brampton Island. Taken during our bushwalk on the Circuit Track.
But the real highlight of the walk was the butterflies – thousands of blue tiger butterflies all around us as we walked. We could have been walking through a butterfly enclosure there were so many of them.
Blue tiger butterflies. There were clouds of these pretty butterflies surrounding us on our walk.
The climb to the peak was tough – a few hundred meters up over 2 km with lots of switchbacks. The views from the two lookouts were worth the effort – and we got enough internet cover to speak with our children.
The passage between Brampton and Carlisle at low tide. Taken from Brampton Peak. Note the disused airport runway.
At sundowners Ken and Ingrid from the ‘trailer tri’ On the Wing came over and shared stories about anchorages and boats.
To see more photos from this beautiful island and our walk CLICK HERE.