Maggie Island

On the first few days off the boat we decided to go to a small Island off the coast of Townsville to relax. Magnetic Island is known for its slow pace of life, numerous beaches and large National Park. It really reminded me of of living in Hawaii (Giovannina writing; Woody fantasizing).
We stayed at the backpackers hostel and got a room to ourselves. The fist day we spent mostly at the pool (yes it was a hostel with a pool!!! why are there not more of these?) and napping in the great hammocks they had hanging in the shade. It was hot, really hot - if you moved you were sweating - so laying around the pool was heaven.


We also went for a short hike into Horshoe Bay, the nearby town, and then over the ridge to Balding Bay that evening after it had cooled down a bit. We forgot to bring our headlamps so we didn't stay long.


At the hostel we saw our first flock of Lorikeets - someone was feeding them and so they filled the trees and were so loud! One of them landed on my head - they were pretty accustom to people.
Mama and Baby looking down at our dinner.

We also saw our first rock wallabies and tons of possums that would eat food out of your hand if you fed them. Of course we didn't feed them and abided by the signs but we got a few pictures as they waited for us to leave something behind.


On our second day we had a bit more energy and dcsided to head to the beach and then to do a hike that was in an area known for it's Koalas. We spent the day, snorkeling, reading our books and playing cards at Arthur Bay beach and then around 4:00pm - when it was starting to cool down - we headed up to the Forts Hike to see Koalas. We didn't find any Koala's but the sights were spectacular.

On our last morning there it was raining so we used the excuse to sleep in nice and late and pack up just in time to catch the bus to the ferry. We had a long day ahead of us - getting back to Townsville, picking up our rental car, picking up luggage that we had left with Alistair at AIMS, going shopping and getting on the road to find our first campsite for the trip south.