YOUR STORY: Keppel winner thrilled with prize

Yeppoon resident Sadhu Jaffray won a trip to Great Keppel Island with his family recently, and wanted to share his adventures with readers of the Capricorn Coast Mirror.

I WAS thrilled to have my name drawn from the hat at the Community Development Centre Street Party in John St late last year.

I will admit that it was actually my wife who wrote my name on the ticket as she did not want to have to get on stage if she won the prize, however despite her claims to the contrary, I am adamant that it was definitely me who won the trip to Keppel.

With free return tickets on the Freedom Flyer and three nights free accommodation at Geoff Mercer's Great Keppel Island Holiday Village, we were pretty excited to head over a few weeks ago.

When I called Geoff to book accommodation, in true Mercer style, he quickly arranged an upgrade from a permanent tent, and buffed us with the penthouse suite - the Dolphin Cottage.

His excuse was the fact that we have two young children and it would be a little more comfortable for us to be in the house for the weekend. I couldn't argue with the man, so happy days!

Upon our arrival we were greeted by his trusty side kick Lockie, who loaded our bags on to the four-wheel drive and pointed us up the track to meet him at the village.

Great Keppel Island Holiday Village proved to be the perfect escape for a long weekend with the kids.

It would be an understatement to say they went wild playing in the sand, jumping off the cottage deck, rolling down sand dunes, exploring rock pools, catching fish, paddle boarding, swimming, snorkelling, sand castle building, beach combing and possum wrangling for three days straight.

No wonder they slept so well!

The signs say "please don't feed the possums", however I get the distinct feeling someone had been giving them a few titbits over the years, as their friendly and inquisitive nature was almost a little too much for the kids.

I think they are on to the newbies as well, as it took only 15 minutes to find the nuts in the backpack we left on the deck the first afternoon.

GKI Holiday Village is a non-pretentious yet comfortable destination that invites one to wind down and relax into island life.

Nestled between palm and gum trees, we were less than a minute from the beach. The down-to-earth and friendly environment coupled with the basic, yet comfortable and cosy, accommodation let us forget about the worries of the world for a few days.

It was certainly a reality check taking the half hour boat trip back to civilisation!

Although I have visited GKI many times over the past 30 years it's easy to forget just how beautiful the place is.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Yeppoon Community Development Centre, Freedom Fast Cats and Geoff Mercer from GKI Holiday Village.

I would also like to let locals know that Great Keppel Island is very much still "open for business".

I would also like to encourage everyone to jump on the boat ASAP and take a half hour ride to another world.