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Saz and Dave's travels
Today we got up fairly early as we wanted to get the ferry over from Townsville to Magnetic Island/ however what we didn't realise was that the ferry only leaves every 2 hrs and as it was a 30 minute walk from the hostel to the ferry tminal, we missed the 10 o'clock ferry. we almost missed the 12 o'clock one as well because we were on the internet and left at quater to so had to run most of the way!
We had been told by various people that magnetic Island is a beautiful place. this is probably true in summer when it's hot and sunny and you can sit on the beach but when we got there it was cloudy, windy and a bit nippy for the shorts and vests we were wearing.
When we got off the ferry, we decided to jump on the bus that runs around the island and go to picnic bay for our picnic lunch. The guidebook describes picnic bay as slightly quiter than some of the other sites on the island but with plenty of shops and cafes to explore. However most of these ameneties were closed for the winter when we got there.
We ate lunch behind some bushes as the wind was gale-force on the beach and not so pleasant! After lunch we were a bit stumped for what to do. All the shops were closed and it was too cold for a swim in the sea. We had tried to find the start of the path for a coastal walk but it was no where to be seen. Not wanting to be defeated we decided to ring up our guru for things to do in Australia - Rebecca! Becca is currently living in Melbourne after travelling around Australia doing exactly the same route we are now doing up the east coast etc. This is incredibly useful as she is a fountain of lots of useful advise when we get ourselves in situations like this.
Rebecca found it incredibly amusing that we were on Magnetic Island with nothing to do and that it was cold as when she was here it was boiling hot and sunny. She suggested that we get back on the bus and go and do the fort walk - a bush walk that takes you past various remnants and points of interest from the 2nd world war such as foundations from the amunition stores and communications centres, pill boxes and a look out tower. This is exactly what we did! The walk, which took a couple of hours was really good with a bit of a climb that got us excellent views of the island. We were luky enough to see a Koala asleep in a tree and we even bumped into Mark from the Frasier Island trip as we were making our way back down.
After the walk we paid yet more money to get the bus to Horseshoe bay where we though we might get a coffee. however all the cafes seemed a bit expensive so we lay on the grass for a while reading our books before getting the next bus back to the ferry. We waited around for ages for the ferry and got freezing but warmed up once inside with some coffee. When we got back to our hostel we made pasta yet again and ate it with some red wine before heading to bed as we are up very early tomorrow to get the bus to Mt Isa.
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