Yesterday was a day for washing, catching up, and reading on the deck, until 5pm when Ian declared “I’m going for a walk up Mt Rooper”.  This is the hill we can see, with the Telstra towers on it.  He took a steep but sealed road, with a short dirt section at the end.  From the top he could see all the islands, but had to peer through the foliage.  It would be a prime place for a lookout platform.

He made his descent in the dark, encountering an owl perched on a fence beside the road.  Meanwhile, I was enjoying another colourful sunset over the Mt Rooper ridgeline.

Our plan for today was to go for a drive; there aren’t a lot of roads around here that we haven’t already taken.  We opted for Cape Gloucester, about an hour’s drive north.  There are more islands to see from there, but it is much quieter than Airlie.  The two main destinations up there are Hideaway Bay and Dingo Beach; there are a couple of other resorts further on but that required unsealed roads.

Dingo Beach is a long expanse of sand, with the mangrove flats exposed at low tide.  It was certainly quiet, with a small number of houses, and a pub.  Hideaway Bay’s beach is much rockier, and more mangrove-y; more interesting to explore.  We were surprised at the number of houses, many perched high on the hillside, with lovely views over the Cape and offshore islands. 

We took a very short walk to the top of “O My God Hill”, for a view of Gloucester Island (we are still puzzling over the name, which gives this hill far more credence than it deserves, being neither particularly long, steep or rugged, though it does drop sharply from its crest).  Then we descended to the beach, our aim being to set foot on Blackcurrant Island.  This was another misnomer, as it is firmly joined to the mainland via a short rocky causeway, which is probably not even submerged at anything but the highest tide.  We contoured a short way around the increasingly rocky western side, and duly claimed possession.

For the first time on the trip, black clouds gathered, and rain spattered briefly across the car windscreen. Time to head home.