On an Island in the Sun...

A days worth of travelling got me to Townsville on Saturday afternoon. I ferry ride got me to Magnetic island in 20 minutes. On arriving on Magnetic Island I met the two guys in my dorm: Gregg from France and Dan from Sommerset! the Magners hostal here wasn't great and the 'Base' hostal on the other side of the island sounded like much better. Many people had been dissapointed by Magnetic island, but i think this is because they were just looking for a party... But me and the dorm lads all had an interest in hiking and getting out into the world, which this island proved to be good for! That evening we got hold of a map and planned the route for our lads adventure!




I was up by about 7 and slept well - being exhausted from the previous days travelling. I went for a quick walk around the bay infront of us: 'Geoffrey Bay' :cD Saw some wild Wallabies and got back to the hostal for the days main hike.







Dan was a young chatty sort of lad who had been in the aircadets. he'd been planning to go for a hike for the past few days and had a good few eeks on the island. Gregg turned out to be a laugh, blowing away all my misconseptions of the French! haha. He'd been working in Oz for a good year.



First was Aurthur Bay, which we walked to in an hour, tjo we easily spent two hours here, trying to get around the coast by climbing over rocks.... Didn't work too well and we didn't get too far either so turned back and got on our original sandy path. We'd started climbing around the rocks in search of a ship wreck which was no where to be seen! By the time we got to Florence bay (Bay 2 of 5) it had gone lunch time, so we pushed on to 'Radical' bay and Past 'Balding Bay' to get to horse shoe bay!. Hungry thirsty and hot we stopped here for a break and got some stuff for dinner. By far Arthur bay was the best as it was ahrder to get to - through a stream and wasn't littered with sunbathers!



Next was the 'Fort walk'. This started off a little lame... a few concerete slabs left from forts built in world war 2, but as we progressed along the route some of the out crops, look outs and buildings were impressive.. roffs and all! The final intact fort, high up a hill we crashed out on the roof of as the sun set and the cast shadow engulfed the whole island. From here we could see almost all the island. Only the west point was secluded by 'Mount Cook'. On the way back down the track we saw our first wild Koala and baby in the tree. Getting back to the hostal wasa risky roadside walk in the dark... Dinner was cooked and beer drank!

Click below for photo album! ARRRRRR!




http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=236563&id=577885146&l=52c79cab4c