For the October long weekend [edit – I just found this in my drafts in January! What happened that I wrote it but did not press publish? Who knows!], it all worked out with winds and tides and timing for us to take a boat over to Moreton Island. It is the longest trip we have done in our boat in terms of distance and having being raised with the Gold Coast Broadwater as my reference, it seemed like a big open distance (it is still within the bay, but compare the Broadwater to Moreton Bay on a map and you’ll see what I mean!). Although, now I’ve said that, we didn’t end up taking our boat, but we did take a similar sized one.

On this side of the bay, the water is beautiful and clear. The sand is its usual beautiful colour. We stayed at Kooringal on the south western side of the island. The other time I’ve stayed on Moreton Island it was camping on the northern side of the island, so this part of the island was new to me as well.

The sand here goes out quite gradually which means that at low tide a lot of boats are left high and dry. This also means that at high tide, it is great for swimming and playing in the water, without steep drop offs that happen at our usual spot at Jumpinpin.

There was a bit of current when the tides were changing, but as the water went out knee deep for a bit, it was still safe for the kids to play in.

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We also went for a drive over to the eastern side of the island, and up to the World War II bunkers (Rous Battery) for a bit of a walk to see some of the buildings. We also stopped a few times for a play on the beach, to dig for pippis, and to admire the view.

The weather was amazing to us on the way home with the wind dropping exactly as forecast and giving us a fairly smooth ride home. The only downside to the trip was all the sand flies we encountered. One of our kids is a sand fly and mosquito attracter, and despite using lots of spray, she was still covered in bites. Next time we will be more prepared!