Blog 17; Magnetic Island

Yesterday we went to Magnetic Island – and today we went back! The two trips could not have been more different.

Day one – we were up and set off to the ferry terminal, but somehow we found ourselves at an electrical store that was having a huge ‘end of year sale’ (yep, the Oz financial year ends at the end of June) and a Go Pro, magically ended up in my hands and I was at the check-out – how did that happen!?

Anyway, we got to the ferry terminal and duly bought our tickets (£20 pp return) and took the 25-minute catamaran ride across to the island. We did not have any specific plans, we thought we would see where the breeze took us once we were there.

We headed to the supermarket to buy lunch and wandered round to the closest walkable beach which was still in Nelly Bay and is where the turtle icon is on the map and it was gorgeous! There were only two other people on the whole beach, and they were much farther down the beach than us, so it felt like it was all ours. There was nothing else at the beach - no little bars/vendors, no life guards.

I made full use of the shade from the palm trees,

and we had our picnic lunch and continued the audio book that we have both been listening to – we do love a good whodunnit! It was bliss.

The beach was gorgeous, no debris, hardly any shells and really easy to walk on.

The only downside was that it about a 15-minute walk from the ferry terminal, and it was HOT, so pretty hard going. If I was to go again, I would pick up one of those little scooters that you can zip about on 😊 Emily walks at the pace of a forced march so I have to trot to keep up! (She has much longer legs than me)

We had a lovely relaxing day and made it back to the ferry in good time so that we got back to the mainland in time to go for an early dinner at Cactus Jacks which is a Mexican restaurant on the one main street that is restaurant lined.

Day 2....We went back to Magnetic Island today, but had more of a plan what to do. We took the service bus up to Horseshoe bay which is at the top of the island and was the complete opposite to yesterday. There were bars and restaurants, as well as watersports and more importantly, a life guard on duty -it is stressed all over the place that you should only swim where a lifeguard is on duty – not for poor swimmers, more for crocs etc. and we are in croc territory!

It was so different to yesterday – the beach had a high concentration of shells, twigs/branches, stones and was quite difficult to walk on. There was also quite a steep drop off into the water – only by about a foot, but it was unexpected, then it levels out and was shallow for quite a long way out. It was also a popular putting in point for little motorboats, and I could imagine in summer it would be very busy – I say summer, it was actually 28 degrees today and it is winter!

Once again there are the ubiquitous barbeque stations all along the beach, and all free to use, and lots of people were using them.

After a few hours, with a break for lunch, we caught the bus back to the ferry terminal and back across to our hotel. We had planned to eat first but we were covered with the sand and we could not get it off. The sand is really fine, and because of that, it

a) Gets EVERYWHERE

b) You cannot just brush it off – it is too fine and just sticks there

So we came back to the hotel and it was a quick shower and change to make it out for dinner. Emily is working tonight so we had to be back at the ranch in time for her to get logged on, but that gives me time to play with my new toy so I know how to use it for our dives on the Barrier Reef.

Tomorrow we relocate to our last place in Cairns – we only have 4 more nights left after this one, but we still have plenty to do in shat short time….. bring it on!