A bit of a spoiler to start this blog post. We have LOVED Magnetic Island. We met some pretty epic people on the ferry over and during our time here which made the experience even more amazing.

We stayed one night in Townsville before we headed over to Magnetic Island. We stayed at Civic Guesthouse which is quite possibly the best hostel we’ve stayed at so far. We were also pleasantly surprised to be upgraded from a 4 bed dorm to a private room upon arrival. WIN!! We decided we liked it so much that we would go back for another night after our time on Magnetic Island and she gave us the private room again for the same price as the 4 bed dorm. DOUBLE WIN!!

We didn’t do a lot in Townsville except go for a walk along the Esplanade to watch the sun set, catch up on washing and relaxing!!! The following morning we woke up relatively early and got the free shuttle bus from the hostel over to the ferry. $35 return including a bus pass isn’t that bad, especially since we’ve since learnt that the car ferry was $190 return! Oh dear!! The ferry only took 20 minutes and we made it to the island nice and early.

We were staying at the YHA Bungalow Bay, which is the only hostel in Australia with an on site koala sanctuary. We had booked a private room for the 3 nights we were here and we were very glad we did as the room was an entire building with air con and a personal fridge! Great! We couldn’t check in for a while so we headed down to Horseshoe Bay to do some relaxing on the beach and you’ll be surprised to hear it was BEAUTIFUL! We came back to the hostel and decided to complete the Forts Walk that afternoon.

The Forts Walk is probably the most popular walk on the island and gives you a chance to see wild koalas, whilst looking at ruins from the WWII naval base which was on the island. Even though it was 3pm, it was still very warm and the walk was quite steep in places. We saw 2 wild koalas very early on (a Mum and baby) and 3 more on our journey. From the top of the signal tower we had a 300 degree coastal panorama view, down to the beautiful bays of Magnetic Island and back to Townsville on the mainland. A really lovely walk full of beautiful scenery.

Later on that evening we met up with Jenny, who we met on the boat, and her friend Sophie. We failed quite miserably at the quiz the hostel was having, but enjoyed a few drinks and some great chat! We had made plans for the next day to hire a car with another British couple Sophie and George and made more plans to all meet up in our hire cars and explore the Island.

An early start the next day lead to the arrival of Sophie, George and the pink barbie car. On Magnetic Island they have these little convertible cars which can only be described as toy cars. We headed off to Arcadia to try and find a waterfall, but it’s pretty dry here at the moment and the creek was as dry as a bone. We then moved back to horseshoe bay and just relaxed! Bliss! We decided to hire some double kayaks and went out hoping to see some Green turtles surfacing, which we did! YAY! We kayaked around to a private beach, had a swim and then came back to the bay.

Lunch was needed at this point and we got some food from the local fish and chip shop before heading down to Picnic Bay. Another beautiful beach, with a pier, on the south side of the island. We jumped in off the pier, me once, Simon many times! He’s like a child, but having George with him, meant he could have some male bonding time.

We rushed back to the YHA for 4.30 so we could feed the parakeets. We showed up a little late to what i can only describe as CHAOS! There were hundreds of colourful parakeets flying around landing on peoples heads and arms. They’re not the most gentle of birds and treat you exactly like a tree. We got some great photos and had a good laugh during the feed though.

After this we headed up to Geoffrey Bay to see if we could spot some rock wallabies. They prefer to come out later in the day when its cooler and if you take some food (carrots or wallaby feed) they will come and eat it out of your hands. We spent quite a while here with the barbie car crew taking pictures, giving the wallabies a good scratch and just enjoying the scenery.

 

Back to the hotel for a quick clean up and change and off we went to xbase, another hostel on the island, for  drinks and another pub quiz. To say we were determined was an understatment. We had a great team! The pub quiz was a stepup from the night before with a presentation, music and microphone. We settled in with our jug of cider, ready to start. At one point our team (named ‘F**k the dingos’ – ask Jenny about that one) had to make a paper plane. The furthest distance thrown won 2 points. So Simon being the aircraft engineer took the challenge upon himself. When it came to throwing the paper plane, we all stood up on our benches to get a better view and WOW did that thing fly. It went clear across the room, much further than any of the others. Proud wife moment. The quiz continued and i’ll skip to the best bit. WE WON!!! Our team was super happy as we had won $80 behind the bar, but only had 10 minutes to spend it. A couple of bottles of wine were purchased and shared with another mainly English group. We were all on cloud nine! Such a great night.

The next day was also an early start. We were going horseriding!! We got to the stables for 8.30am, were assigned a horse, Simon – Clyde, Me – Jumbok, and set off on a gentle walk through the undergrowth. We both hadn’t ridden for about 2 years but it started to come back to us relatively quickly. We got trotting and eventually did some cantering. My horse being far more reluctant to get going than Simons. We made it to Horseshoe Bay, the saddles were taken off the horse and we got into our swimmers. We were going bareback!! Only walking of course, but down the sand and into the sea. It was truly magical. Such a highlight of our trip so far. We saw some wild koalas on our way back and some either kanagroos or wallabies in the distance.

The rest of the day was a chill out day. We enjoyed lunch at the beach, a coffee down on the beach and did some sorting and backing up of photos and videos. That evening we got talking to an Irish couple who had moved out to Australia 5 years ago. To say they scared us a bit about snakes and spiders was an understatement. So much so we went back and checked all our belongings after.

On our last morning on Magnetic Island we had a coffee with Sophie, missed 2 buses, but eventually made it to the ferry to go back to Townsville. We were so sad to be leaving Magnetic Island, for us it had been perfect. Great company. Great scenery. Great wildlife and lots of laughs.

We had an uneventful evening in Townsville. Well i did. Simon went to the cinema to see The Magnificent Seven. Not my thing and also i’ve been suffering from a sore and swollen toe for a few days so i stayed in and watched a movie in bed. We need some ‘me’ time i think otherwise we will end up going crazy.

Sorry for the delay in getting this blog up. It’s nearly 1400 words which sums up how truly magical we found Magnetic Island.