Magnetic Island

Friday 11 December

Magnetic island is a granite rock island, with only 3000 permanent residents. Much of the island is inaccessible other than by foot.

The twenty minute ferry crossing from Townsville to Magnetic island gives good views both back to the port and docks and forwards to the island.

On arriving we hired a purple mini moke and Jeff turned in to a boy racer. "the vehicle is old so drive it like it is old" said the sales guy - this meant loose gear stick, weak stearing and virtually none existent break pads - but as it was difficult to get it to go more than 60kmph it didnt really matter.

First stop Horseshoe bay, walk along the beach and over the rocks to Balding bay, a very strenuous walk which seemed more up than down in the 33 degrees of heat. But worth it as a beautiful beach awaited us. Back over the rocks and then on to Radical bay. First sight a beach of flowers. The beach was not as pretty but offered more shade. Back to Horseshoe, several lbs lighter we threw ourselves into the sea which seemed to be warmer than yesterday. After lunch we drove to Picnic Bay, walked out on the pier and Jeff did some more swimming while Janet sunbathed.

Then another walk, The Forts going up to an old army lookout post, very high up with fantastic 360 degree views and a lovely breeze.

Koalas live here - or do they? We were informed that taking this walk at the cooler time of day would increase our chances of spotting a koala. Jeff searched the canopy with the binoculars and spotted a grey mass in a tree in the distance. The binoculars were not strong enough to confirm our sighting but we were convinced we had finally seen a koala and not a carrier bag caught in the branches.

A quick spin around in the mote and then it was back on the ferry and back to camp.

Following his visit to Magnetic island Jeff is now writing a trilogy - the first will be called "what attracted me to Magnetic island" the second "opposites attract on Magnetic island" and the third "poles apart" - the age old story of boy looks for girld, boy finds girl, boy loses girl.