Magnetic Island

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Trip Start Dec 14, 2007 Previous
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  Townsville, Australia
Friday, February 15, 2008

Around midday in Mackay after the flood, it was announced that the road heading north was open so we did not hesitate to take the opportunity to exit Mackay and get to Townsville. The locals were right, the tides made a big difference to the water levels. Feedback over the news on the flood is that Mackay had more than a third of their annual rainfall in one night, more than 500 millilitres of rain fell from 3:00 and 9:00 in the morning. More than 1000 people were evacuated from their homes with floodwaters of more than 1m high running through their homes. Apparently crocodiles and snakes were spotted in the flood waters in town the next day (luckily not by us). No loss of life reported. Many pensioners live in Mackay and got stranded on the roof of their homes or cars - really sad - and to think of the damage and costs associated. May it all work out well for them.
 
We had to queue to exit Mackay as they were only letting limit vehicles trough at a time in fear of the road over James Creek collapsing

Aftermath of the storm

. We stuck it out, faced more rain and flash floods going North, but Ryan and the little Limo did brilliantly and we arrived in Townsville (about 400kms North from Mackay) around 17:30. We got on the 18:00 ferry to Magnetic Island (also known as Maggie Island), 8kms off Townsville's coast, and despite very rough seas and terribly flooded roads on the island we made it to our accommodation (Bungalow Bay - we were able to retain our original booking despite cancelling it earlier on in the day, guess the guests weren't really rife with all the rain and storms).
 
It later became apparent that we were actually very lucky as the 18:00 ferry was the last ferry making it in the rough seas, even tough they were supposed to operate until after midnight. We needed some luck... and we were blessed, of course.
 
I have to correct the weather explanation I gave under Mackay - Cyclone Nicholas is still on its way (hopefully we've left for NZ by then), the rain and storms were caused by a monsoon. It has also been reported today that the monsoon which was originally heading south when it hit Mackay, changed direction and is heading back North, hence the bad weather on the island and expected bad weather al the way up to Cairns.
 
In the meantime, we enjoy the rain we have missed so much while living in Dubai

Aftermath of the storm

. Our accommodation is awesome, in a koala sanctuary and the staff friendly which helped us de-stress after arriving safe and sound on the island. Maggie island unfortunately also had damage on the eve of our arrival - the beach is trashed in Horseshoe Bay (where we're staying) and we could see 3 boats washed to shore visibly damaged. Several homes must also have been flooded, although not as bad as in Mackay. It must be such a beautiful island on a clear day (they advertise "Magnetic Island - with an average of 320 sunny days"). We met a very interesting guy (he must be close to 75 years old) who's been living in a houseboat in Horseshoe Island for more than 23 years - lots of stories.
We also tried to go for a walk, but once I spotted our first snake, which Ryan stepped right over, our hike was called off by me as I'm convinced the rain washed all the snakes out of their wholes and we're too inexperienced or 'snake- unlettered' to make any others call.
 
We'll come again for a holiday... in better weather.
 
Sunday morning, 9am: As luck would have it, the day we leave the sun comes out!!!

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Beware killer stingers	Nudist bar	Cockatoo's	Horseshoe bay
Snake	Crabs on the move	Whistling Kite	Houseboat
Bird man	Looked like fish eagles	Horseshoe bay	Sitting out the rain
Bungalow Bar	Our shack on the left	IM waiting for the bus

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