Townsville, Magnetic Island, AU

We visited Townsville in 2017 when we walked in the city and visited aquarium. So for today I wanted to visit Magnetic Island. Unfortunately, 9:00AM arrival of the the ship was too late to join a private tour in the island.

Few months prior to our cruise I contacted a small company in the island and asked them if they will be willing to customise their tour. They agree to pick us up from cruise terminal, drive us to the ferry, have slightly shorter tour of the island, back to the ferry and drive us back to terminal. To make the tour affordable I needed 14 people. I advertised this tour on Cruise Critic and within 2 hours the group was formed.

Captain James Cook who, in 1770, while navigating the Australian coast, called the island Magnetical Island, as a magnetic pull interfering with his vessel's compass appeared to emanate from the island. People have since explored the general area of Magnetic Island with various instruments to discover what might have caused the effect that Cook reported, but nothing has been discovered. Our guide said probably Jane’s Cook had too much rum.

The tour was great. The guide was a native to Magnetic Island. He was telling us stories, explaining everything about plans and animals. We saw rock wallabies, had wonderful lunch on the beach and then visited our guide’s house where he has koala’s hospital. Him and his wife take care of injured koalas, nursing them to health and if possible releasing koalas to the wild.
At the present time they have 3 adult and 6 baby koalas.

That was a real treat to be so close to these animals.

Now it was time to go back to catch 3:00PM ferry. We all got in the van, start driving and within one minute the guide stopped and informed us we have a flat tire.
His wife was ready to drive 4 people at the time to the ferry, but then two small vans came and we all arrive on time.

It was a fantastic day on Magnetic Island.Read more