Day 61 - Magnetic Island

Today marked an Oz landmark. No rain. Not a jot. We even slept well, it was cool in the sweat box and it didn't rain. Whoop whoop.

So what better way to spend a sunny day than a visit to Magnetic Island? (So called because when Captain Cook sailed past he reckoned the ship's compass when a bit funny - no explanation for this has been found). It's a pleasant 25 minute boat ride from Townsville and from our arrival point at Nelly Bay we caught a bus to go on a walking route called The Forts, named after the WWII army base which was there serving as a look out. The walk was about 4km and moderately easy. We were told there was a potential for koala sightings on the route which meant balancing looking down at the uneven terrain to avoid falling over with looking up into the trees. (I did manage to slip over later in the walk but luckily no ankle injury). Eventually we spotted a couple taking pictures up in to a tree and sure enough there was a koala in a tree right by the path. It was amazing to see one in the wild and in truth I would have been a bit gutted if we hadn't after all the promises on the trail and in the island propaganda leaflets. We took a ton of pictures and a video of it (I'm not advanced enough yet in my animal knowledge to determine koala gender) rubbing its face with eucalyptus. Very cute but not difficult to forget they can claw your face off if they fancy. We tore ourselves away before that happened to look at slabs of concrete with signs next to them of what would have been there when it was a fort e.g. The Ladies Latrine where they dreamt of lipstick and dancing with American army men...It was then time to climb a bit higher for the gun points and signalling and look out towers. The guns mysteriously disappeared quickly after the war to no one knows where and the ammo huts now are home to bats. And plenty of bat droppings. The views however from the top were astounding over the rest of the island and back over to Townsville. Very blue sky and sea with so much green from the forests. Worth the walk up in the heat but the hunger kicked in and we made our way back down and said hello again to the koala plus spotted another (well again spotted some other spotters) a little further off the path. All very exciting, though I still get excited about seeing a robin in the garden at home.

We continued our walk across the island to Horseshoe Bay and had some delicious open sandwiches and smoothies at the Early Bird cafe before lazing on the beach for a while - well beach adjacent under a tree, we still haven't mastered this heat malarkey. We caught the bus to Geoffrey Bay. We had the bay almost completely to ourselves and had a paddle before the stinger fear kicked in a little and we headed back to the marina to get the boat back to Townsville.

Townsville has a great waterfront road called The Strand. There were lots of keen Australians running or cycling down it or doing a yoga class. The less active were having BBQs on the communal gas BBQs. You just couldn't have that in the UK, they'd be vandalised or left filthy. Maybe not a complete argument for moving to Oz but it'd go on the Pro list. We walked along about half way before the food call hit us again and we went for a Brazilian Churrasco (all you can eat meat, well we had walked 15K today). The meat was amazing, and they did us some special grilled cheese so we were two happy bunnies by the time our red meat clogged arteries made it back to the camper van park. We also got to witness a drunken family relay race going on which was entertaining. A long drive tomorrow so we've treated ourselves to a motel tomorrow night - whoop!Read more