Aussirose Travel and Photography

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GREAT KEPPEL ISLAND

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Our third time to Great Keppel Island. We had our honeymoon here 47 years ago, staying in the honeymoon caravan 😎 We visited last year in 2025 on our way north towards the end of our Big Lap of Australia. This time, we decided to stay overnight in an upgrade to glamping in a tent. See the video at the end of this page on our accommodation here.

Great Keppel hasn't changed much over the years. It is still considered a budget destination with basic facilities. The drawcard is the gorgeous white sand beaches here.

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ISLAND LIFE

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Hubby and I love visiting Islands. Whilst Australia has a couple of nice islands, we have found some of the best are around Malaysia. Caye Caulker in Belize is another beautiful island and our first overseas holiday was to Moorea, Tahiti; although the islands in Tahiti are very up-market these days and beyond our means.

Island life here on Great Keppel is slow, maybe not as slow as Caye Caulker, but has the relaxed island feel. Amongst the georgeous flowers, the paths meander in between palms, firns and tropical greenery. Dotted in between are donga style cabins and our glamping tents. All of this is just seconds from stunning beaches.

We were however, a little disappointed with the restaruant and bar here. Food is very basic and overpriced. I guess that is why families bring eskies with their own food and drinks. Cocktails are expensive and there is a happy-hour catch. The cheap cocktails at happy-hour, I wouldn't touch. Errr! I was disappointed to learn that the cocktails that we wanted were not included in the happy-hour list.

I am not fond of being ripped off. 😞

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LENSBABY

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If you are wondering what Lensbaby is. It is a Company that makes art lenses specifically designed to add creative effects to photos that you capture on your DSLR or Mirrorless Camera. The last few photos were taken with my Canon 80D and Lensbaby Sweet 50mm lens that creates a blur around the sweet focus spot in the middle. With the added assistance of the tilt-shift housing of the Composer Pro II, this can be a unique photographer play thing. I love my Lensbaby Lenses.

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So the next photos were taken with Lensbaby Composer Pro II tilt-shift housing and Sweet 50mm optical lens. The misty effect was optimisted by a genuine misty morning, so the effect seemed to be boosted which created some dreamy photos that I like.

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SUNSET ON GREAT KEPPEL

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It's nice to capture the sunset and moon rise together, even if it it a small moon. 😊

Oh, and I also see a bright star too.... or was it a planet?

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KEPPEL BAY MARINA

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Keppel Marina is not just the place that you take the boat over to Great Keppel Island. There is a restaurant and a couple more if you keep going straight ahead at the round-a-bout.

We found a nice restaurant called Beaches. This is an up-market restaurant and priced accordingly, and the food was good. They also had a great selection of wines from boutique wineries that we recognised from different states in Australia. We enjoyed the Rose from a Winery in Margaret River called Vasse Felix, so much so, that we bought a bottle to take over and enjoy on the Island.

The other photos are taken around the Marina whilst we waited for our transport to the Island.

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KINKA BEACH - INGENIA CARAVAN PARK

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We stayed here in 2025 on our way up north to complete the lap of Australia. Aparently late 2025 it was taken over by Ingenia. We knew it as Island View Caravan Park.

The pool and surroundings are the same. Beautifully landscaped. However other parts of the Caravan Park need some attention. We were not as happy this time with our stay. In 2025 we had a great spot opposite the pool. This time, they put us up the back in probably the smallest site of the park and difficult to back into. But hubby did it in one go which is a testiment to his skill in caravan driving. The thing that made me upset is that I booked a large site, and clearly this is not a large site. When I mentioned it at check-out, the receptionist said it is a large site. Huh? Check for yourself in the photos below. She should have gone to Specsavers lol.

Another thing that got up my nostral was the water tap. To find it you had to negotiate tall grass next to the fence. That is an OHS issue. The receptionist could not refute that.

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