When it comes to wilderness, Long Island is pretty tame, but it does look a little different away from the resort. Navigationally it’s not exactly challenging – we are in one of several saddles, and you can take a trail to the north, or a trail to the south.  Both climb very gently, and contour round the hillside rather than heading for the ridge; both descend into similar saddles, with short forays to similar beaches.  The northern trail is half the distance, and was the one we opted for, as it had more side trails to check out.

Island life runs slowly, and involves a lot of time gazing at the water, seeing where the tide is at, which boats are arriving, and making decisions about lunch.  Hence our expedition party of two set off around 2-ish.  The trail was hard packed dirt with rocky sections, and it was wide and well maintained.  The first junction was reached quickly.  To the east was Pandanus Bay, and to the west was Fish Beach.  All the beaches on the eastern side are rocky, with very little or no sand. They feature craggy headlands, and wind-warped vegetation.  On the western side, you get mangroves and dark sand.  It’s quite unusual, as there is only 1-200 metres between east and west.

Pressing on, we detoured to Humpy Bay.  This trail curled up the hill for a short distance, ending at a pile of rocks, but there were too many trees to get more than a glimpse of the water below.  The final section led to Happy Bay, which is a now disused resort.  From what Ian could see, the beach looked similar to ours at Palm Bay.

After another gorgeous afternoon of sea-gazing, another spectacular sunset, and another excellent dinner, we had an early night.

Today’s destination was Sandy Bay, which lies at the end of the southern trail, about 3.5 km away.  Deciding it would be pretty much the same as yesterday’s walks (it was), I sent Ian off to explore solo while I held the fort and kept a watch on the rising and falling tide.

After Ian reported on his adventure, he suggested I make a short foray, as there was a point near the start of the trail where the trees were clearer and you could see another island and beach (you could). 

On the way back I met one of the local wallabies; he couldn’t decide whether I was sufficiently scary to deter him from his piece of fruit.  Other wildlife encounters have included butterflies; a lone sulphur crested cockatoo, who must be an outcast from the flock; and a curious curlew who wandered through the restaurant at dinner.

By late afternoon the tide was far enough in to launch kayaks; so we armed ourselves with a paddle each, and set off on a watery adventure.  OK, the waves are almost non existent, although there is a fast current and an offshore breeze to contend with.  Everyone starts off paddling energetically around one of the headlands; re-emerges shortly thereafter and tries to look like an ironman/woman as they paddle past the onlookers; then they drift back to shore nonchalantly, dipping in an occasional paddle and pretending they are not worn out from unaccustomed upper body exercise. Or maybe that was just us … It was fun, and we got to see Palm Bay from a different perspective.

More decisions … should we watch sunset from our verandah, the sundeck, or the sunset bar? (all three).  Should we have steak, fish, or chicken for dinner? (yet to be determined). Tomorrow, the boat will return to pick us up and take us away from our idyll.