Middle Percy Island

 Our morning walk up the dry creek bed, lined with giant melaleucas and strangler figs, was very still and quiet, only a goat and a few roos hopping by.  The waterfall was also dry with just a few puddles for some tadpoles.  Back at the beach we kayaked around to Dolphin Bay, where a lone red-capped plover foraged with a pair of pied oystercatchers.

As the morning wind turned easterly we joined the flotilla of yachts that began to motor around to the shelter of West Bay.  Around the “Percy Hilton” fireplace some blokes from the Percy Yacht Club were preparing the famous Goat Stew for the incoming crowd.  A donation of veggies would score you a big serve of stew for dinner.

Ernst preparing Goat Stew for 35 yachties

The crowd enjoying Goat Stew

A very sociable week in West Bay, with several yacht families and a tribe of kids exploring and playing treasure hunts on the beach, along with some creative carving of signs to be installed in the gallery.  A game or two of Finska in the shade of the coconut palms and tales of travels over a few sundowners completes our busy days.

Rusty iron "rocks"

Just when you thought you had found the most beautiful beach, you find Rescue Bay.  The barefoot walk over a few sand dunes winds through forest of red gums, kurrajongs, tea tree and casuarinas then opens out to white sand with the most interesting rocks: at first they look like old rusty pieces of iron, but on close inspection they are sandstone eroded by wind and water to become those unusual shapes.