#31: Lost On Magnetic Island - Queensland, Australia - Chasing ...

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Lost on Magnetic Island

Early Sunday evening, 10 November and I was back in Cairns. I was fully aware that I had a reservation out Sydney on 28 November, and I wasn't intending to miss that flight. I had less than three weeks to travel down the Queensland's east coast and a bunch of things I wanted to do. Things were going to be tight.

Fortunately, I had a good contact from some fellow travellers whilst I was in Cape Tribulation. I headed straight to the Peter Pan Travel shop and we ironed out a good package deal which included just about everything on my "to do" list. It was just left for me to arrange a Greyhound/MacCaffery's bus pass from Cairns to Sydney and reserve a seat on the 1am bus out of town.

With hours to kill, I headed for a night on the town in Cairns. There were a number of options and I spent an hour watching a delayed telecast of some of the rugby games from the UK. However, I eventually headed for the Woolshed to meet up with my latest new chums, Declan and Thommo from Cape Tribulation.

The Woolshed is phenomenally popular and inside it was heaving with backpackers in for a theme night. The lads had secured a table in the middle of the action and we spent the night participating in party games and other wild stuff. Isn't it always the case? We were dancing on the tables in between catching some of the English soccer on the TV's. I had a bus to catch when things where getting quite promiscuous - they say if you can't get lucky here then you may as well stop trying.

I was in a very merry mood when I made it to the bus station. Fortunately the bus was not too full and I found two seats to lay across, which is the only way to travel on a bus through the night. The next thing I was aware of was the dim, dawn light as the bus rode through the outskirts of my next destination, Townsville, which is the access point to Magnetic Island. I had slept the entire 4½-hour bus journey.

Townsville is a large city and port with none of the surrounding rainforest characteristic of this part of tropical Queensland. On the outskirts of town, the surrounding dusty interior changes suddenly into the outer suburbs, almost like outback meets coral reef. It was early morning when I arrived into Townsville, long before the town had woken up. At the bus station, I found a friendly taxi driver who gave me a ride to one of the ferry terminals. I arrived at the ferry terminal with about half a dozen local commuters in time to board first ferry of the day as it was preparing for a short crossing.

Magnetic Island, QLD





Magnetic Island, known locally as "Maggie," and lies a stone's throw from Townsville. The ferry was of the fast and modern catamaran type, which took just twenty minutes to cross the flat, aqua blue bay. It was Captain Cook who in 1770 whilst sailing north aboard Endeavour who first mapped the coast and island. He named it Magnetic Island believing the rocks affected his ship's compass. The island was later found not to be magnetic. The ferry pulled into the jetty at Picnic Bay and I could tell that very little rain falls in this area. The coastline had white, sandy beaches fringed with giant, granite boulders. More than half the island is a national park so the mountainous interior was uninhabited and covered with scrub and hoop pines.

It was still 7am in the morning when I walked off the jetty straight into the shopping mall built along the waterfront; most of the shops were still closed. It seems that rather than being a retirement village Magnetic Island is more like a suburb of Townsville with many of the island's 2500 residents hurrying down to the ferry, off to work or school. It is also a backpackers haven, with hostels located at the settlements around all four bays on the right hand side of the island. I chose the Coconuts of the Beach courtesy bus for no particular reason except this hostel promotes itself as a bit of a party place. After a short ride around a headland, we were into Nelly Bay where the hostel is located right on the beach.

Mini Moke





Although a bus service runs, it seemed that the preferred mode of transport around the island is the mini moke. I hired one of these beach buggy type vehicles because it looked like fun and gave me the freedom to explore the island. With that done, all that was left to do was to sit back and relax for a couple of days and enjoy the natural paradise. My dorm hut had a great position with a front veranda overlooking the bay. The sunset that evening was spectacular, turning the sea cobalt blue whilst the distant hills of the mainland were still illuminated.

That evening I took a ride on a bus that was organised to pick up travellers from their various accommodations and visit the Koala Park Oasis. It is located on the northernmost part of the island, Horseshoe Bay. After a long drive into the bush off the main road we arrived, after dark, at a sanctuary for sick and injured animals. Most of Australia's wildlife are marsupials, that means they are active at night. We were welcomed by a wily old proprietor, and his wife, with a mean sense of humour and obviously cared about the animals in his care.

We wandered through cages containing squawking cockatoos and lorikeets that had been injured or abandoned by human families. Unfortunately, these birds can never be returned to the wild because of they have become accustomed to and depend on humans, but they seemed happy enough, and cheeky too. I was sharpish in removing my fingers away from their cages for fear of acquiring a nasty bite.

Wombat





We were allowed into enclosures to feed red kangaroos, emus and wallabies. Again, we were shown how placid the kangaroo can be but will defend itself by giving a hefty kick with those powerful, enlarged rear feet. Over a small wall was kept a wombat, which looks like an overgrown large rat, but in an adorable sort of way. The keeper explained that his placid demeanour can be deceptive and wombats can be "as mad as cut snakes" when provoked.

Becoming the tree





Then it was to see and hold some koalas. During the day each koala (or in one case a couple) is kept in its own separate cage with a larger totally enclosed cage. At night they are allowed into the larger cage with us tourists. They were still quite sleepy after dozing off the effect of the oils and alcohol that are contained in the leaves of the eucalyptus leaves they continually munch on. To hold a koala you need to stand very still, i.e. you "become the tree" to which the koala then clings to. The koalas are as cute close up as you would expect, quite harmless although fights have been known to occur between two males. It was great to see, and hold the animals close up, not something that you get to normally experience. Well worth the trip.

On Tuesday, 11 November I decided to try another dive on this tropical island, it is after all still quite close to the Great Barrier Reef. I chose a small dive shop in Acacia Bay but they didn't seem too enthusiastic about the conditions for fun diving. There were, however, three other fun divers so they agreed to take us out from the nearby Alma Beach. We were kitted out with, amongst other things, a stinger suit. These light all-in-one neoprene suits protect you from the dreaded box jellyfish. I first encountered these deadly stingers, also known as sea wasps, in NT. They have venomous tentacles up to three meters in length, the pain when stung is excruciating and can be fatal. November is one of the worst times in which swimmers are stung, causing weals on the body which can be somewhat treated with vinegar, which can be found in boxes along beaches. Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island even has a Stinger Net that is a U-shaped floating net extending out from the beach. I was glad to pay the extra $10 for my stinger suit.

What I wasn't glad about was the fact that I went diving in the first place. The conditions were awful, the water full of sediment and visibility barely two meters. We swam from the beach and did not see much except a few submerged boulders. At times the group got split up and I knew Jon Jon, our DM, had returned with a nervous diver to the beach. I eventually returned with the rest of the group very frustrated and put out about the conditions. I was beginning to think that all the hype about diving on the Great Barrier Reef was getting a bit over rated. Despite mild assurances of improving conditions and the promise of a wreck dive in the afternoon, I decided not to do a second dive thinking it would be good money thrown after bad.

Magnetic Island, QLD





However, with my mini moke I was about to thoroughly explore the rest of the island. The western side of the island is a National Park and as such, uninhabited. There are dusty tracks and I was assured that if I ventured on these with the moke I would be spotted and fined. I could well believe this of the small community that lives on the island. So I restrained myself to driving up and down the island's sealed roads and boulder strewn hills.

On Wednesday, conscious of the days ticking away, it was time to move on. I returned my hired vehicle and made my way to the jetty at Picnic Bay to catch the return ferry at the more sensible time of 10am.

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