Magnetic island
Magnetic Island,
Queensland,
Australia
Monday, June 9, 2008
Saturday and we're back on the good old bus. This time heading to Magnetic Island, an island just off Townsville. Arriving just after lunch we have the sunny afternoon lounging in Hammocks. We take a stroll to the little supermarket and they have marmite on the shelf! I am SO excited - the first I've seen in Oz and in a small supermarket on an island. A must buy! A bit of cards and ribbing Ben - a past time Sean and I struggle to discontinue. I could write a comedy magazine on travelling with Ben. Examples:
'Why do you have just one sandal strapped to your rucksack when you've lost the other?' I ask. 'Memories' he responds. He's 18. One sandal down nearly becomes 2 as it drops from his bag Crossing a road he dropped his fruit 3 times until I end up carrying most of it. He always carries around 5 or 6 bags, handles taped up for strength and increased longevity - and then wonders why he drops or mislays half of them! He has sunglasses with a sellotape arm - when asking what happened to them, 'oh they only had one arm when I bought them, I got a $1 discount for it!' The lenses then proceeded to fall out - no problem he bought some superglue! Resourceful I guess even if new glasses would have been cheaper! On the bus to Magnetic Island he realises he has left his jumper, hat and jacket at the YHA somewhere between leaving his room and getting on the bus - a few phonecalls and they are found and sent on! The list goes on!! Never a dull moment on the Oz Experience.
Sunday we decide to get the bus towards Horseshoe bay and do the Forts walk. The suns out and it's a pleasant walk avoiding any death adders. The remnants of the fort and artillery points are left over from the watch for Japanese invasion. We reach the highest point and are admiring the views across in all directions when some other visitors ask if we had seen the koala at the gun placement, just below. No. We go back to have a look, and sure enough, less than a metre from where we had been standing, dead on eye level is a koala asleep in the tree. How could we have missed that? It's adorable. Made more exciting to have seen the koala in the wild. So that's a kangaroo, Dingoes, a possum in the tree outside our hut last night and now a koala - who needs zoos?!
Today it's a bank holiday for the Queen's birthday - not that we have one in the UK! It's also the final bus trip. Back on the ferry to the mainland to catch the bus via Mission Beach and a crocodile park to Cairns, terminating Oz Experience. On our drive we pass between some forestry with many cassowary warning signs. The driver tells us how dangerous they are and have been known to attack humans but they are so rare we would be lucky to spot one. Just as he said it to our right, as if on cue, a cassowary is scratching around like an oversized chicken before it disappears back into the forest. We are lucky. What's that now? A kangaroo, Dingoes, a possum, a koala and now a Cassowary in the wild. A bit further down the road we see some not so lucky walkers unsuccessfully looking!
