Passage Peak

My day started early for no good reason but I was able to watch the sun beginning to rise, so it was worth it

We are so lucky as we have a perfect viewing point from our room to see it rise up over the ocean (well almost the ocean) and surrounding islands.

With no planned tours today we decided to tackle Passage Peak, the highest point on the island. We were not sure what we were in for as we had conflicting advice about how hard it is and how long it will take to get to the top.  We set out optimistically and within about ten minutes of climbing up a steep hill, we started to have some doubts about our ability to complete this walk. Despite our doubts we forged on for about another five minutes but by this stage Terry was ready to throw in the towel telling me he wasn't sure if he even wanted to do this. After a few more minutes of moaning he agreed to come a bit further with me. Luckily, the track evened out a bit and it became a far more pleasant walk.

A few weeks before we left home I downloaded the Hamilton Island app and we have found it really handy. They have maps, information and audio about the different walks that you can download. Unfortunately we couldn't get the audio to work despite having tested it back at the hotel. It didn't matter though because we could read the information on the tablet at each designated audio point. We found it really interesting as it pointed out things we probably wouldn't have noticed, like the picture below. These are Green Ant nests. Even if we had noticed them, we wouldn't have known what the were.

At this point we were about halfway and feeling pretty good. A bit further in we got out first glimpse of the views we could expect when we got to the top. We came across a small break in the trees where we could look back on what I think was Driftwood Bay. The view was pretty good and made us more determined to get to the top.

Next we came to an intersection of paths called Saddle Junction. At this audio point it told us we could take a alternative path at Turkey Nest Junction. This sounded like a great idea because even though it was a bit longer we would avoid some of the really steep sections. Mind you, there were still some long steep hills, but not the steep as the shorter path. 

Just when we thought we were almost there and over the worst of it we realised we were sadly mistaken. It was at this point that Terry officially thought I was trying to kill him.

The final leg is about 180 quite steep steps to climb. But, we did it and I'm so glad we did. Everyone we passed coming back down assured us it was worth it and they were right! Even Terry, with his intense dislike of heights, was impressed and I have never seen him so relaxed at any height above a single story house. The views are incredible and worth every bit of pain we felt on the way up and will probably feel for the next few days. We even got the bonus of seeing two more whales far down in the water. Can't believe we've seen at least three now. The young girl at the tour desk was very jealous when we told her. She's been six months and not seen one! Lucky for us we've arrived during whale seaon.

We came back down via the shorter route and it made us grateful we chose the longer track as it was very steep with lots more steps. When we got back to Saddle Junction we decided to go down an alternative way back down the hill. This turned out to be another difficult track to navigate and I'm pleased we didn't choose that track to come up. Pretty sure I wouldn't have got Terry past Saddle Junction, if I got him that far. This one bought us out at Hideaway Bay and as the tide was out, we were able to walk around the shoreline back to Catseye Beach. Lots of lovely sights to see.

We made it back to the hotel about 1 o'clock and by about three we we both already feeling our legs starting to seize. Hate to think what they'll be like tomorrow.