After sharing my walk around Kangaroo Point last week, I thought it was about time that I share a few more of my adventures. So on Sunday when I set off for a walk with a friend to King Island, I decided to capture some photos and share the walk with you here.
King Island
To many people, if they hear the name King Island, there is a good chance their mind will go to the island off the coast of Tasmania. However, there is another island called King Island which is much smaller in South East Queensland.
King Island is an island of about 0.7 acres in size which at low tide is accessible by foot. Over the past century, the size of the island has significantly decreased. The extent of this was made evident in a story published by the Redland City Bulletin in January 2013. The story shows some aerial photos dating back to 1958 showing the loss of vegetation and landmass of the island. You can read that story here King Island is shrinking | Redland City Bulletin.
King Island does attract quite a few people to come and take a walk from the mainland to the island. It is not a strenuous walk, but one that must be made at low tide, unless you want to swim some sections.
Getting to King Island
The walk to King Island is relatively easy, at around 1km each way, and takes around an hour to complete. There are a couple of things that you will want to keep in mind if you are planning a walk to King Island.
- Know the tides – At high tide, the sandbar to King Island is often partially or completely submerged. So you do want to check the tide times before visiting and know them before leaving the mainland. You can find tide times on the Willy Weather website for Wellington Point. The best time to head out is probably within three hours either side of the low tide time.
- Footwear – Although I did consider leaving this tip out, it is well worth considering. Make sure to have suitable footwear that you don’t mind getting wet. The walk is on sand that does get submerged at high tide, and there can be soft spots. Also if you are going out or back closer to the high tide, you can find a channel of water between Wellington Point Reserve and the sandbar.
- The Weather – The weather is something to keep in mind when you are walking out here as well. While a blue sky might not turn to rain within an hour, the wind can change significantly. Even on my walk on Sunday, a reasonably calm day turned into a strong breeze by the time we were walking back. Just keep an eye on the weather as there is little protection on King Island from storms or the like.
My Walk
The official time for low tide at Wellington Point on Sunday was 5.48 pm. I had visited Wellington Point Reserve around 2 pm and found that the sandbar was still completely submerged from the high tide. However, when I met with my friends at around 4 pm, the sandbar was completely uncovered. We just had to wade through a small channel of ankle deep water to access the sandbar.
There were plenty of people going for a walk to Kind Island Sunday afternoon. We took it relatively easy and took around 25 minutes to get out to the island.
When you reach Kind Island, there are essentially three ways you can cross or go around the island. The east and west side have beaches that are easily walkable. Mangroves protect the beach on the east side. However, the western shore is open to the elements. The third option is a path that runs roughly across the middle of the island.
We spent around 10 minutes on the island just having a little look around. Even though there is a sandbar which extends to the north, we did not venture out there. As mentioned above by the time we were heading back the wind had picked up a little bit. But not to an uncomfortable level, just made it difficult to talk to each other. Below is the view of the sandbar from Kind Island.
Wellington Point Jetty
Once we were back on the mainland, I decided to take a few photos around the jetty. The day was not the best for photography, with a blanket of clouds in the sky.
Of course, there is also the point that it does not look at that attractive at low tide either. The Wellington Point jetty is an area that I have wanted to visit for sunrise for some time. However, it is around 30 minutes from home, so winter time is much more practical for this. I did also venture underneath the jetty for an interesting perspective.
More Adventures
I hope that you have been enjoying the almost micro-adventures that I have been sharing. I will be looking to put together and share these sort of things as often as I can. There are so many places that do have something interesting to share and hopefully inspire you to explore a little more yourself.
