The South Passage

 It’s officially come to the end of 2024. Happy December, happy New Year and welcome January 2025! 

My fifteenth blogpost and last one for the year, it’s difficult to describe how much I’ve truly enjoyed writing this year and banging out these blogposts. I’ve fallen in love with seeing my travel diary and notes come to life since originally documenting my travels in 2016 and even more so from 2018 when I left Australia indefinitely. It’s a great passion of mine and I’m so excited to continue my journey, share more travel stories and hopefully inspire others, I especially cannot wait to create more informative posts! 

If you’re following on from my last post “Best Life Adventures,” we had just set up camp at Amity Point in North Stradbroke Island. We made our way to Amity Point tavern for a well deserved feed and it was great getting to know everyone in the group more on dry land. When it got to seven thirty, we were all tired in the best way possible, ready for some sleep and the next day ahead. When I put my head down on my bed that night, my whole world was swaying and rocking, I still felt like I was on the ocean. 

Waking up the next morning, I could feel my muscles a bit stiff and sore from kayaking twenty- three kilometres the day before but after getting up, stretching and walking… I felt brand new. The camp site was incredibly gorgeous in the morning, the weather was nothing like we’d had the day before as the sky and water were beautiful and blue. Chilling about around camp, chatting, laughing with everyone, trying to dry our wet clothes as we ate a delicious breakfast, was the perfect morning. By the time we knew it, it was already time to pack up our tents, kayaks and get back out on the water. Today was the day we crossed the South Passage. This is a channel between North Stradbroke Island and Moreton Island, leading out into the Coral and Tasman Sea. Roughly 230 people have kayaked across this passage so it was both exhilarating and a little nerve wracking to think we were about to do this. Piece of cake! How hard would it be? 

Getting back out on the water was glorious and I had to remind myself about the technique that Craig and Ben taught us when we first started to get my body back into the rhythm again. Activate and twist from my core, loose hands and fingers around our paddles, make sure to breathe, have fun! We kayaked along the shore of North Stradbroke Island and the views were simply gorgeous. Eventually coming into the start of the South Passage, our kayaks rolled over the forming waves, it was so fun to feel myself rock with up and down. Trying to stay away from the breaking waves, we got to a point where we had to face them and this was something I’d never done before, paddling became a little bit more challenging as our objective was not to catch a wave and it required a lot of concentration to follow Craig who was leading the pack.

Deejay, starting to become sea sick from the constant movement of the choppy waves, found it hard to continue paddling and as he was sick, we capsized right in the middle of the passage. The group split up as Ben took the rest and Craig stayed back to help us get back into the kayak. The waves constantly hitting us, it was difficult, after helping Craig flip the kayak and getting back in, Deejay was now at the point of severe sea sickness and struggled to function amongst all the chaos, how he stayed with it and powered on, was unreal. Craig and I were pumping water out of the kayak so that we could seal ourselves back in, wrestling with the breaking waves and white wash continually smashing into the sides of our kayaks. I got into the back of the kayak to steer using the rudder and peddles and slowly we made our way through the passage. We ended up catching a wave and capsized again, it couldn’t be helped. The swell and tide was the most craziest conditions I’d ever kayaked in. After flipping the kayak back over, pumping water out and getting back in a second time and rescuing our floating dry bag, we finally escaped the breaking waves and made it to the nearest beach about thirty minutes later- finally on Moreton Island. We did it. We never felt so happy to hit land and rest for a few minutes whilst we checked the kayak and got ready to go again. 

We got back in our kayak, made it to Gutter Bar on Moreton Island and met up with the other group an hour and a half later with sea sickness tablets and ginger ale ready for us. What an adventure that had been, sixteen kilometres kayaked that day. The second half of our trip to our second campsite was so calm in comparison, not a wave in sight as we calmly paddled along the water watching out for sting rays, turtles and a whole heap of fish. It was low tide by the time we got to our second campsite. We ditched our kayaks for the time being on the shore and indulged in a well needed and tasty lunch before setting up our tents for the second night. After a few hours, we’d walked all the kayaks up to our camp, set up our cute and comfy communal area for our camp, set up the tents and even got a great demonstration by Atlas showing us how to use the amazing throne of a toilet for the night. 

My mum, Deejay and I went for walk out to the beach for a quick swim which was so much fun, we spotted a whole heap of sting rays and ran back to camp in the rain feeling refreshed after such a crazy day. After playing around and laughing with Atlas, he showed me his secret hide out spot up one of the sand dunes on our camp site. It was stunning! After about ten minutes of exploring and realising there were more sand dunes, the rest of the group made their way up to meet us, Atlas taking the lead, sprinting up the steep slope to the top. We all made it to the top and witnessed the most extraordinary sunset and my favourite view of 2024. We saw Brisbane from the top of the sand dune and Ben pointed over the ocean to where we started in Cleveland, North Stradbroke Island, Fiona and Deejays “trenches” - the South Passage to where we stood at that very moment. 

The following day, we packed up our entire camp site and kayaks for the last time and hit the water. Staying close to the shore the entire way, we spotted more sting rays, turtles, fish and shovel-nose guitar fish. The wind was in our favour as we got closer to Tangalooma, we were able to lift our paddles up and use them as sails, getting pushed along the crystal blue water for a good majority of the way. Thirteen kilometres that day, we saw the beach of Tangalooma and the ending in sight. It was a bittersweet feeling, I could have kept kayaking and exploring with this brilliant group of people, but I was also so excited for a shower. Fifty two kilometres over three days, we had done it! What an achievement. 

I can’t thank the team enough for all the banter, laughs, knowledge and support over the three days. How lucky to have been on one of the coolest expeditions ever surrounded by some truly genuine and determined people. A special mention to Craig for his impeccable skill in the South Passage. Not to mention… the food on this trip was absolutely amazing, even luxurious I’d like to say! For a camping expedition and wilderness experience, we were very looked after when it came to meals, snacks, tea and coffee. It really was our best life adventure. 

I hope you enjoyed this read and my last post for 2024! See you in 2025. Take care. Happy New Year. 

Talk soon, 

The Runaway Redhead