About ten kilometres off the coast of Cape Spencer at the southern tip of the Yorke Peninsula there are several spaced islands. The largest of these, at 96 hectares, is Althorpe Island. To the northeast, five or six kilometres away, are two other islands, Haystack and Seal Islands. Seal Island is actually not one, but two islands with a narrow passage between granite slabs.
On a sunny calm day we launched the kayaks from Cable Hut Bay for a circuit of all these islands. Cable Hut Bay is the nearest accessible launch site and lies just to the east of Cape Spencer. The distance out to Althorpe Island is about 12 kilometres and the tidal current through Investigator Strait is charted as running at up to 1.5 knots. Accordingly, we started by aiming off Althorpe Island, but later, after noticing only minimal drift, we dispensed with that.
Paddling out, Althorpe Island got slowly closer. We did pass through a section of tidal rapids but with no wind, there was no real hazard. Drawing into the very small beach on the northeastern side of the island we noticed a couple of Australian Sea Lions resting on-shore.
Of course, if you come upon a small island in a big sea in a kayak you must paddle around it, so we headed east around the southern side of the island. On the southern side, the currents are strong and with clapotis and rebound it was a very bumpy few kilometres until we got around to the more sheltered northwestern side of the island. There are a few small scattered rocky islets and some deep clefts and valleys carved into the island by the incessant pulse of the sea. We explored all these before returning to the northeastern beach.
Next stop was Seal Island, five kilometres to the northwest. We paddled across to the passage and past a couple of low lying granite islets home to many sea birds but no seals.
Only a couple of kilometres to the northwest is Haystack Island which, unlike Seal Island, is limestone. The island does bear some resemblance to a Haystack. Paddling around Haystack was really interesting as the island has a couple of limestone ledges in tiers up its height. The lowest tier belongs to Sea Lions, which were resting on rocks, swimming beside the island or even resting deep in caves. The upper tier is home to various sea birds, almost every space along the upper tier being occupied as we paddled past. On the northern end of the island we found a very large cave home to more sea birds and seals. This cave went right through the island.
Back to Cable Hut Bay and a much needed leg stretch after another stunning South Australia paddle.
No comments:
Post a Comment