Camping by the Tangalooma shipwrecks

The last few years have been challenging in quite a few ways. Even so, one of the biggest blessings for us is still being able to travel (although it has limited our travel to Australia and, during extended periods of time, even just to our home state). And honestly? It has been some of the best travel times of our lives. Being unable to leave the country for well over a year and a half gave us the drive to put those trips and bucket list experiences in our home country, right at the top of our list suddenly. You know those experiences and trips that you always want to do but have that thought in the back of your head, "I have my entire life to travel home, I can do that later"?. Those are the kinds of experiences and trips that have soared to the top of our list largely out of a sense of not just not being able to go anywhere else but also of feeling even more appreciative and thankful than usual (which is saying a lot) of the fact that we live in a place that has, for the most part, handled the pandemic quite well. And there is something super special about getting to explore the place that you call home, too. So, like so many others around the globe, we have made the most out of the last few years by going on trips that are closer to Home.

 

'"There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it," said my mother. "Put yourself in the way of beauty."'

Cheryl Strayed, Wild

Camping on an island paradise near Home

This year, I was fresh out of ideas for Josh's birthday. And then I was thinking of a way that we could have an epic experience and get to spend some quality time together for a few days. We adore our home, of course! Even so, little getaways and fun trips are always wonderful. I eventually landed on surprising him by taking him on a camping trip for the weekend to Moreton Island (specifically the Tangalooma shipwrecks). Our car is AWD but considering we were just going for one night, and the camp ground was a few kilometres from where the Tangalooma ferry would drop us off by the hotel, I (naively, as it turns out) thought that we would just save a bit of money and go over just as passengers without a car. I wanted to keep it a surprise, however with all of the moving pieces (asking Josh which weekend worked, knowing we would have to invest in a few bits and pieces of camping gear we did not already have, etc) being all over the place, I ended up caving and telling him. He was super excited, as I knew he would be, and we then chose to invite our best mate and his girlfriend along for the day. We wanted to hang out and then also get to have some quality time just us as well. It was the perfect balance.

We actually realised after I had already booked the tickets for us all that because Josh and I were going to be staying overnight and not at the hotel at Tangalooma that we obviously had to book two separate tickets rather than a single day trip ticket. Not a big deal. However, another thing to consider is that if you plan to stay on the island outside of hotel grounds, then you cannot use any of the cafes etc on hotel property. This meant that we could not get a lunch voucher for the hotel cafes but more importantly, that our mates and us would not be able to eat together. This significantly cut our time with them short because it did not make sense for them to trek back to the hotel to eat and then come back for an hour or so before they had to head back at the hotel ferry point. So, we really only got to spend the morning and super early afternoon with them. This was kind of my fault for not triple checking it all and we still all had a great day, so no harm done! Just something to think about. And overall, when you are in a place as beautiful as Moreton Island, it is pretty hard to stay frustrated by anything...

It is always important to pack well when you are going on a camping trip. This is especially true when you are literally going rogue and have no access to clean drinking water, food, etc (though full disclosure, there is a public toilet by the camp ground, so we did have that at least!). So, with this in mind, the following is a list of everything that we carried with us. We always try to be as minimalistic as possible and this was truer than ever this trip, knowing that we had to physically carry everything that we took with us -

• A small two-person tent and one sleeping bag
• Two inflatable floor mats and two inflatable pillows
• A small camp stove (for heating up water to drink and for dinner) - note: we forgot a lighter but thankfully a fellow camper kindly gave us one of their spares
• Our snorkel gear
• Two towels
• Reef safe sunscreen (always a big must for us!)
• Bug spray
• A change of clothes and a hat each (packed into our Tortuga backpack)
• A book each
• A cooler (ours is Wandering Folk and we love it) with food, drinks, and water
• Our GoPros
• Our DJI Mini 2 drone 

Another important note: always check before taking your drone on a trip. In this case, we could not use the drone on hotel property (which was totally fine, especially considering we were not going to be at the hotel anyway), so we just used ours out by the wrecks (which is all we wanted to use it for anyway). In the day or two prior to leaving, we had all of our gear ready and packed the car before heading to our best mate's place for the night to make the drive easier in the early AM the following day. We all woke up as the sun was coming up for the day and drove to the ferry point on Brisbane River. After doing a COVID declaration and checking in and picking up our ferry tickets, we dropped our bags off to be loaded into the boat by the crew. We eventually got on the boat and settled in for the seventy-minute boat ride over to the island. The time passed relatively quickly and we were soon there. After grabbing our bags and marvelling at the water and the birds by the pier, we started to make our way down the beach to where we would set up for the day. It was the most beautiful, blue sky day!

We trekked about halfway down towards the wrecks and set up for the day (we didn't want our friends having to walk 5km return to get back to the Tangalooma ferry at the end of the day). Setting up by some overhanging trees on a thin stretch of the beach where the cars were not allowed to drive, we spent a few hours chilling out, talking, our friend gave a solid go at fishing (but not catching anything), and hanging out. A few clouds swept over us however even so, it was a clear day for the most part! Eventually, lunch creeped up and our mates started to gather their things together to head back. Lucky for us (more on that later), they poured their water into our (by now mostly empty) water bottle (thanks guys!) seeing as we were going to be there overnight and the entire next day. After saying goodbye and thanking them for coming out with us for the day, we loaded up all of our gear and made the rest of the trip to the camp ground to set up for the night. We have this little dodgy $30 tent we bought years ago for festival overnights, so it was relatively straight forward, thank goodness! And then we decided to spend some time on the beach by the water.

While we were keen to head out to the wrecks, it had gotten quite choppy by that point and there was a lot of boat activity in the water, which we did not necessarily feel the need to fight against knowing that we would be there in the morning before all of the day trippers came in (and the entire next day, for that matter). After a while, we went for a swim for a while close-ish to the shore, drinks in hand, enjoying the late afternoon sun and the feeling of being in the ocean in such a phenomenal place. We started to notice that more and more cars were packing up and so we were enjoying seeing the beach begin to empty and knowing that we would be able to have it largely to ourselves for a while. As the sun began to sink in the horizon behind the wrecks, it was - and still is - one of my favourite moments. Sunsets are always special, but enjoying a sunset at a literal shipwreck on the beach is something else entirely. It was truly such a fantastic way to say goodbye to the sun for that first day. We eventually headed back to our tent to make dinner and hang out in the tent for the night. And because the camp ground is in such close proximity to the beach, we listened to the sounds of the ocean all night (one of my favourite ways to drift to sleep). And full disclosure, the bugs are intense at night if you have any lights, so it was an experience in and of itself, to say the least. Even so, with our minimalistic setup, we loved it!

Exploring the wrecks from the sky and under the sea

One of the absolute best things about Australia is that the beaches and surrounding islands are insanely beautiful. I am talking dense tree and flora cover, vast sandy beaches, and some of the most crystal clear, stunning water anywhere in the world. That first day (and especially when we went in the water) was so lovely. And when I say that pulling up the drone and seeing it all from the sky blew our minds, it could not be any truer of a statement. The wrecks are epic from the water (we have been here once before), but seeing it from the sky is a whole other experience, especially on such a spectacular day. The water was crystal clear, the wrecks were insane, and most of the footage we got was later in the day when there was less boat activity (biggest stroke of luck for us!), so we genuinely got to see it without disrupting people's days by flying a drone near them (which can be quite off-putting to some people and we are always conscious of not invading the privacy of others). And to top it all off, the angles that we could explore the wrecks at with the drone really took the whole thing to another level (onya, DJI!). It is never lost on us how fantastically valuable this drone has already proven to be and it is most definitely one of our best investments yet.

We woke up relatively early, however admittedly Josh did wake up well before I did. So, he got some morning footage of the wrecks and the beach pretty much empty apart from himself and a few other early risers while I slept in a little more. By the time that I eventually did get up and head off to join him, he was heading back. Having to pack up our camp site by 10AM, we did that to get it out of the way so that we could enjoy the rest of the day by the water. We put our stuff in the shade of a tree in front of the wrecks after making the short walk to the spot from our camp spot, put on sunscreen, sat and read for a while, and then got our snorkel gear together, wiping de-fog into our masks and pulling our fins on as we tried super had to look unbothered by the freezing cold water. We kicked off and it was almost immediately obvious that this was going to be a workout! Even so, we headed out and by the time we both made it to out the few hundred metres to the wrecks (Josh got a ride on the side of someone's dingy when we got separated on the way out, lucky bugger!), we were used to the water and even at the point that we were enjoying it so much!

This is one of the best places to snorkel that we have been so far (yes, even on a choppy day (as long as you are confident in the water, of course). Even on such a choppy day, it was such a great way to explore the wrecks under the surface for a few hours. And the sea life was unreal. As soon as you near the wrecks, all of the coral that has formed on the wrecks is home to so much sea life and it welcomes you. Rather than swimming away from you in fear, it literally envelopes around you, seemingly welcoming you into the fold and making you feel right at home. Fish of all shapes, sizes, and vibrant colours surrounded us and every time we dove down, they followed us, curious at the huge animals that were visiting their space. It always makes me literally giggle underwater to see them come so close that you could reach out and touch them (though we don't do this on purpose personally). Little starfish and other little ocean creatures peppered the wrecks and the surrounding sand banks and it was spectacular. It is quite wild to see wildlife finding and thriving in a home base that was put there by humans. It is quite a unique and special ecosystem that has been forged from the remnants of human activity. When we eventually got out of the water, tired out from fighting the current to get around the wrecks, we headed back slowly along the beach to read and enjoy the beach and the ocean before we got back on the ferry to head back to our own little paradise.

 Some tips to make the most of your trip to Moreton Island

• Book a ferry trip with Moreton Island Ferries rather than going over with Tangalooma hotel ferry - this will put you right by the wrecks camp site (which if, like us, you are camping at the wrecks, is a game changer and means you do not have to hike back and forth to the hotel grounds - something that can be quite frustrating in the hot sun when you cannot even have a drink at the bar)
• Booking with the above also means that you can easily take a car. While I did not think that we needed a car, it definitely would have made the long walks there and back to camp much smoother, as well as the transport of all of the gear we took (we are pretty light packers, but even so, not being guests of the hotel we could not access any of its cafes or anything, meaning we had to pack all of our own food and water and any camp gear we needed to heat up water to use)
• Take enough water - I cannot stress this enough. Even with two big bottles and two smaller bottles (and the refill from our mates), we ran out. Being so used to hydrating so often throughout the day - and especially spending so much time in the sun - by the time we walked back towards the hotel to head back home that second afternoon, I had heat stroke (and you cannot use the hotel cafes - we asked...though thankfully a kind ranger gave us a heads up that the taps just by the pier had fresh water we could use)

A few notes...

We will definitely be back at Moreton Island. This place is genuinely spectacular. However, we honestly will not be going back via any hotel transport to the island or the hotel. We are always happy to support hotels and the like in wonderful places, however the way that the owner of the hotel operates is quite off-putting. Plus, we loved that by booking our camp ground permits and the space, the money went to the Indigenous community that cares for the land. We would rather support that (to each their own! The hotel looked lovely, just not our vibe overall).

The natural beauty of Tangalooma wrecks is wild and it should absolutely be on everyone's bucket list! We will be back to the wrecks and to explore more of Moreton Island for sure.