No luck with getting Shepherd Moons off her mooring.  The slipway had an urgent project, and has a piece of equipment to repair, so my friend decided to go back to Melbourne and commitments there. 

Not before we managed to get some cleaning done though.  And we got the motor working again and cleaned about half a metre of growth off the prop.

Now it is back to waiting for the right combination of tides and equipment.  Pity careening is now illegal in most areas..  I've been tempted to head over to an island and take my chances with laying her on her side at low tide.

The up side was that Sheppy is relatively clean and a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be aboard is removed.

I hope now she can be slipped in June or July.

Finally, after more than a year and a half Shepherd Moons might leave her mooring again.  A friend is arriving next week to help me clean and antifoul her, before hopefully, taking her for a week or so around the Whitsundays again.  It is hard being so close to the islands that it feels I could touch them, but being unable to actually get there again.

Preparing Sheppy will be like the first time aboard.  So long without maintenance means there is a backlog of things that need to be done.  Parts that can fail, things that can break.

Already we know that not being able to start the motor has caused problems.  The good old super reliable Yamaha 4-stroke now has salt build up and will probably overheat and seize the first time we try to use it.  The running rigging will probably have to be replaced before we even think of sailing.  That house batteries are rather sad and the start battery might need a boost.  Oddly, the battery that suffers the most abuse and is about three years old is the fridge battery and that seemed fine last month.

It will be an adventure getting her seaworthy again, but it will be a great feeling to be heading out of Shute Harbour again and across to Cid Harbour and beyond.

Another month in a new year and I am still unable to return to my beautiful islands.  With any luck though that will change soon.  A friend has decided to come up and help me gt Shepherd Moons ready to sail and take her (and me) out for a trip.  Close to two years has taken a toll on my little yach and on me, but once she is cleaned and a few things fixed, even with my health and disability issues I should be able to get her to sea again.

In the mean time I have been amusing myself turning some of my photographs into prints and tee shirts and other odd things like coffee mugs  Something to remind me there is a life outside all this medical stuff

It is the third week of March.  I hope to be sailing again around the end of April.  .

It is still cyclone season here and Queensland has had a lot of interesting weather lately.  I am still suffering health problems that keep me away from Shepherd Moons and away from my beautiful islands.

I am however using the time to plan for a life away from dependence on support.  I have always worked hard and to spend so many years as a dependent of Government assistance and help from friends pains me.  So I am trying to put together something that will eventually allow me to be independent again within the confines of my multiple disabilities.

In the mean time, this blog has been a lost cause while I have been helping others.  I apologise to my few readers.

A brief update though.  My girlfriend's family business is expanding and the isla is showing progress.  The sea wall has been constructed and the first new buildings erected.  Most of my energies have been diverted to helping with suggestions and research for this project while I am unable to live at home (in Shepherd Moons) in the Whitsundays.

I traveled to Isla Verde in November 2012 and spent time on the property.  WOW!  It is just like any Whitsunday islands except there are people living there.

More about Isla Verde in the next post.  it won't be far off and it will have some pics.

7th November, 2012.

Just a quick message to anyone that is reading my Whitsundays blog, especially TSPers. At the moment I am still in the Philippines. enjoying wonderful hospitality and interesting experiences.

I'll get back to Whitsunday Wandering when i get back to Australia.

I have to apologise to anyone trying to follow this blog.  I have had a lot happening this month with health and injury issues and I am also trying to get a brief holiday.  I ptobably won;t post now until the first week of December, but when I am back, I will have some pics of a few more things people don't get to see much in the Whitsundays.

There will be more information on walks on a few islands and things to do, bulked out by some more pics of things people might miss.  A little history and a few pictures of historical locations, as well as some little known places.

For anyone who has visited Cid Harbour, did you know there is a large fresh water swamp on the island?  Have you seen Ross Islet in September?  Had a picnic on Lady Islet?  Seen the rock with the rectangular hole that looks like it was cut using tools?

Over the next year I hope to take visitors to this site on a descriptive and pictorial tour of places like Gulnare Inlet and Hill Inlet.  Hiking behind Whitehaven Beach.

Nara Inlet - an introduction

Looking out of Nara Inlet

Rugged Nara Inlet on the south side of Hook Island is one of the best known spots in the Whitsundays.  It was not named after the local Ngaro aboriginal tribe that once populated the area, despite the similar sounding name, but after a yacht named Nara, owned by a visitor to the island around 1912.  (Source - Ray Blackwood).

By 1981 when I began visiting the area regularly, the cliffs in Nara Inlet had become covered with the names of yachts that had stayed there.  Many names belonged to famous racing yachts and others were well known in cruising circles.  Tour guides used to say a lot were painted by competitors in the early Sydney to Hobart races, but there's a certain lack of logic in the locations of Nara Inlet, Sydney Harbour and the fact that the race proceeds in the opposite direction.  There is no doubt though, looking around, that quite a few of the race competitors in particular years are represented.

The main waterfall at Nara

Apart from sailing graffiti, there is another form of rock art that Nara is famous for.  In a number of locations around Nara Inlet and in fact, around the Whitsunday Islands, are rock shelters that were used by the indigenous people for shelter when they hunted, gathered and fished on these islands.  I suspect that most of the known caves at Nara Inlet were discovered by racing rock artists in the 60's and 70's.  In the late 1980's the QNPWS fenced off one shelter that contains ochre paintings on the walls and over time made, then modified a walkway.  The latest modification to the walkway cuts off the track to the lookout, and to the top of the falls.  It also cuts off access to another few caves or shelters.

Dry season pools remaining at the top of the falls

It is still possible to get from the walkway to the falls track if you know what you are doing, and if you take care.  About a hundred metres past the shelter is a rock that has been used as a lookout many years.  It gives great views across Nara and out to the Whitsunday Passage.  From there the track winds into open (for the moment) forest, then down to the top of the main waterfall. Actually, to the second level of the falls.  It is a beautiful walk, but easy to get lost if you don't take notice of where you are going.  At this point you are well off any sanctioned trails.  The top of the waterfall is a nice place to sit and have lunch.  On a hot day there might even be fresh water left in the pools after the last rains.

There are some interesting rock formations along this track, and many, many years ago a few of us would spend the night in a clearing just off the track.  These days such activities are illegal.

The shelter, the board walk and the lookout and falls track are all accessed via a little beach on the right about 500 metres before the head of the inlet.  there is a sign, and there are steps leading up.  there's room here to park a few dinghies, but watch the rocks as the tide falls if you have a tinny or glass dinghy.  And watch the oysters if you have a blowup doll.

Below the staircase to the shelter

At certain times of the year you may be serenaded in the evening, or woken harshly in the morning by a strange mournful sound.  There are goats on the islands, particularly around Nara.  The goats were supposedly introduced to the islands along the coast to provide sustenance for survivors in the event of shipwreck on this treacherous coast.  If you've ever tried walking around on this rough terrain, or chasing a goat anywhere, you would realise how funny that is.  Nevertheless, goats abound here.  Inside the 'Goat Cave', near the head of Nara, there's a room that holds more than a dozen goats.  The entrance to this cave is small, and when the billy decides you are in his territory, he tends to leave at high speed, knocking down anything in his way.  The nannies and kids follow after.

View on the way to the falls

Anchorage is good all the way into Nara.  There is a reef around the edge, and a lot of reef inside Refuge Bay.  There are less decent beaches than in Macona Inlet, and the beaches in Nara Inlet actually disappear completely at high tide.  At low tide though there are a few that can provide a relaxing diversion at low tide.

Swimming, exploring in the dinghy, fishing and walking ashore are fun around Nara, and in later posts I'll look at a few spots and things to do.