Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Magnetic Island is an island off the coast of Townsville, a couple for hours south of Cairns. We stayed in Townsville the night before so we could get up early and make the most of the first day there. I'll write a bit about Townsville in this blog as we were only there for one night either side of staying on Magnetic Island and didn't really do much. It has a reputation of being a bit of a dump, but I didn't think that at all, and the area around our hostel was actually really nice. It had just been Justin andf myself for the last couple of days, but when we arrived in Townsville we met back up with Chris, who came to pick us up in his van (aka the love bus!) The hostel wasn't the best but it was ok, and we went to the cinema that night to see Iron Man. We also went the other night we were there to see 21 - there wasn't much else to do in Townsville!
Unfortunately my back was still really hurting after pulling it in Airlie Beach and the bus ride had been a bit of a nightmare. I woke up on the morning we were leaving for Magnetic Island with it feeling better, only to hurt it again doing up my backpack. This time it was much, much worse than before and I could hardly move. I was very tempted to just stay in bed but we had a ferry to catch. After a very uncomfortable bus ride to the ferry port, we boarded and I sat there loading up on painkillers while we made the 20 minute crossing. I was so annoyed because the boat stopped so everyone could see a turtle which was swimming by, but I couldn't actually get out of my seat to see it. Magnetic Island was gorgeous though, and the weather was great when we arrived. We took the bus to our hostel from the ferry and managed to have a bit of a look around on the way. I was actually surprised by how inhabited it was, but it was still lovely. Our hostel wasn't that near many other places but it was nice because there was a huge deck area that led down on to our own private beach. The rooms were nice and there was a massive bar and nice outdoor areas. We just chilled out the rest of that day because I still wasn't feeling well, but I did manage to fit in a bit of sunbathing. We walked to the nearest shops for some lunch and the boys cooked some dinner that night. We spent the rest of the evening at the bar because there wasn't actually anything else to do, but it was nice. The only downside was that our room was the nearest to the music and it was very loud!
The next morning we got up fairly early and had breakfast at the hostel, which did great fry-ups and that would prove to be a big temptation over the next couple of days! Justin then went to pick up the car we had hired for the day, which was called a moke. I say it was a car but the mokes are tiny and don't have any roof or doors. They are great fun and I had one of my best days here. Our moke was the best on the whole island though as it was bright turquoise! We hired the moke for the whole day and it was great because we got to see the entire island in our own way. First of all we went to Picnic Bay and walked along the beach and the jetty which was nice as it was such a hot day, and from the water you could see the whole of Townsville in the distance. After that we went right to the opposite end of the island to Horseshoe Bay where we had a walk along the shops and went to the beach. It was there that most of the watersports and activites are done, but we just watched. We ended up going back there for lunch but first we drove up to Radical Bay. This was the first strech that I drove, as I wasn't sure I would be able to with my back hurting so much, but I was fine and it was loads of fun. Justin did have to put the handbrake on for me though because I couldn't bend down that far. When we arrived there we parked the moke, and went up the walking track which led to the forts that had been built on the island during WW2. The forts turned out to be a bit boring in the end, but the actual walk was nice and gave good views of the island and the reefs in the sea. We also saw koala really low down in a tree, which is the first koala I have seen close up like that in the wild. Once we had had lunch we drove a bit further down the island to Alma Bay and had a look around there. We drove on a bit further up the track to a site where wild wallabies live in amongst the rocks. They were much smaller than I expected, but there were loads of them even though they don't normally come out until dusk, and we fed them for a while. We drove back towards Gordon Bay, and then just had a few more turns driving the moke around before we had to take it back. It had been a great day! That night we did what we did for the next three nights, which was eat dinner then sit in the bar while the sun set and had some drinks and played cards. That's about it!
In with the deal we got on the hostel we had an hours free kayak hire, so we did that in the morning of the following day. There was quite a lot to see around the area of the hostel and the beach was stunning. The water was really rough in some places far out, but then in others it was very shallow and we could see all the reef below us. Justin and I even got stuck at one point. The hostel was between Picnic Bay and Nelly Bay so it was quite quiet too, which was good. Once we had finished kayaking, and had washed all the salt and sand off, we caught the island bus and went up to Bungalow Bay, which was another hostel. This one wasn't on the beach like our, but in the middle of the trees, and ran a wildlife talk. It was really good and informative but very laid back too. It was loads of fun because we got to hold all the animals. We held a snake, a huge parrot (which Justin fed a seed to with his mouth!) lizards and a small crocodile. We got to take our own pictures and could take as many as we wanted. The only animal we didn't hold was the koala and that's because you had to pay, and we had already held one at Australia Zoo. My favourite was the crocodile, and I even had a picture kissing it. The only person it didn't like was Chris, and it freaked out when he picked it up, which then made Chris freak out! We saw some massive spiders too, although I think they were fairly harmless, and ate some random plant which tasted horrible. The tour lasted about and hour and a half and I really enjoyed it.
On our last full day there the boys went snorkelling for most of the day while I lay on the beach. I really wanted to go too as we had gotten it included for free, but my back was really hurting so I thought I had better give it a rest. The sun was out in force though so I didn't mind that much. They saw some stingray though, which made me a bit jealous, but then again I'm sure they were jelaous of how brown I was getting! I just relaxed and read my book for pretty much the whole day, and again the following morning. We didn't need to catch the bus until early afternoon so we had most of the morning there. We got on the ferry back to Townsville at about 3 that afternoon, and I was a bit sad to go to be honest. I loved Magnetic Island, and there was much more to do there than I had expected. It is probably one of my favourite places in Australia and hopefully I can go back one day!
- comments