Camping on South Molle Island

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Camping for a few days on an island in the Whitsunday passage. Getting there by kayak and languishing in the moment whilst I am there. Does South Molle Island fit that idyllic notion ?
As I was near Shute Harbour, which is the premier entry point to the Whitsunday islands, I thought I might as well spend a few days on an island or two. The Whitsunday passage is dotted with some 74 islands, There is a mixture of commercial and national park accommodation options from the likes of Hamilton Island to where I am heading; South Molle Island. 

I chose South Molle Island because it was one of the closest islands that appealed to me from the mainland.  It wasn't too far, so I could paddle to it.   

Shute harbour is your typical  Queensland, heavily fortified anti-vanner town. The council members, or their mates probably own all the accommodation. They have made sure the signage for camping fines is clear and there are active all night officers. An ample deterrent for my free camping.   

I don't mind paying, but $60 for an unpowered block of dirt and a shower is a bit steep in my books. So, I made sure I camped away from the town in a discrete area to avoid such punitive action and got up early to leave.  

There was a reasonably secure public car park to leave my vehicle for a few days, with a few other vehicles, so I didn't have any fear leaving it there.

I got up early and after an hour and a half of paddling, covering around 8km,  I arrived at my destination. Initially, I intended to camp at Sandy Bay, but found it too exposed and the beach hard to land on.   The beach was basically a composition of dead coral fragments, and there were sharp submerged rocks.

There was no provisioned water on the island, so you need to bring your own. I had enough last for 4 days,  which of course made my kayak a bit heavy when it comes to landing, and I certainly did not wish to drag it on the shore..
I decided to move on to Paddle bay, which was a more pleasant location. It was still tricky to land, but luckily there were a couple of visitors from a moored yacht that helped me out. 
I didn't realise it until I was committed to landing, that I would have been better off paddling round Mid Molle island to the other side. The shore on the other side had much finer coral fragments which almost resembled sand.
This campsite was a great choice as it was on a point with a north-south orientation, meaning I scored the ideal setting for a sunset and sunrise.
There were quite a few well maintained walking tracks on the island.  
In a day, I easily covered most of them. The views from the peaks were worth the effort giving you great overhead sights of the islands and sea all round. The other islands looked deceptively close.
It wasn't too hot, so I could enjoy the whole day in comfort. There was not much in the way of wildlife, but plenty of scrambling noises probably from birds. The butterflies made up for my wildlife spotting failure.
Oh, and there was no shortage of flowers.
There are many green tree ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) around. Though, not as bad as some ants I have come across, tt is prudent to avoid leaving food exposed. Curious, knowing that you can eat them, I ate a couple. They had a sharp sour taste.
On the island is an abandoned resort . From what I understand, it was closed in 2016 by its Chinese owners and  damaged severely in 2017. It seems to be the story of a few island resorts in Queensland.
All that is good about is a fancy expensive jetty.
Did I enjoy my stay here ? Yes and no.  No, It was a bit close to the mainland so that meant easy access for jet skiers and other leisure craft. 
The worst was a commercial party boat that moored in the bay and partied for most of the night. "Here in the Whitsundays, you can enjoy a social fun atmosphere on the land and at sea, with plenty of boats catering to a young, livelier crowd - in addition to one of the best backpacker nightlife scenes on Australia's East coast on the mainland!"
Great for the guests, hell for someone trying to get some shut-eye after a decent day of exercise. If I was to come here again, I would research their routes and do my utmost to avoid them. 
Yes, the sunrise, sunset and walks were very pleasant.
I struggled with the national park application, not for the first time. Not sure whether it is just me.  National parks unfortunately require all camp bookings to be online. When you try to book, most seemingly are booked out. I get to the park, most are partially occupied at best. 
The story goes that they bought this software from a US concern. We often don't have camp site locations on our campgrounds whereas most of theirs do. This island is a case in point. The landing page shows "no reservable units match search criteria". I therefore thought that the camping area was fully booked out.
Going day by day on the calendar, I was thinking all the islands were booked out until the end of the year !  After emailing the parks (no one answered the phone), they said the  filter produces no results, simply because there are no allocated sites.  If you drill down with "check availability", you can book a site.  Even then, the line in the table "Number of sites available" is a bit confusing.  Welcome to the modern world !
It was getting windier. The weather forecast changed, as it often does in the seaside area,  As I am kayaking, I had no desire to fight 25 + knot head winds, so I bailed out after a couple of days.  It was getting noticeable on the island too and  I had to move my tent tent site to a more protected area , due to the wind forces pulling out the pegs.

I left a day earlier than planned first thing in the morning, going round the eastern side. The wind was strong, but manageable, but the currents made for a bouncy ride in places where they converged around the smaller islands as the tide was receding.

Despite the gripes about party boats, jet skis and defunct resorts, overall I did have a good time.
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Location: South Molle Island, Queensland, Australia

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