The slogan for this small island off the mainland from Townsville is "320 days of sunshine". Well, we've landed in the 32 days ....grey skies, wind and rain ! Not quite our idea of tropical paradise.....although it really has all the ingredients for it. From our cottage we look out onto a palm-fringed beach with balmy water. The only thing missing is the sun !

Magnetic Island is a 40 minute ferry-ride from Townsville. It is mainly National Park. ...both on land and also around the island, and has about 2500 permanent residents. It can be seen that this island has been severely affected by the economic downturn, with many developments and holiday units standing empty and for sale. The Australians are able to holiday much cheaper in Bali, than in their own country, so tourism to this area has declined radically.

There are many walking tracks, and seeing that our snorkeling adventures (there is a snorkeling trail on one side of the island) have again been postponed by the weather, we went exploring. The island is hilly with many weathered rocky outcrops and huge boulders strewn around like rock rivers. This landscape combined with the many interesting birds makes for interesting walking. Black cockatoos and red,blue & green parakeets chatter and whistle incessantly with many birds of prey gliding silently above the ridges. Most of the secluded and picturesque bays can only be reached on foot or by boat, so we went to look at some of them on our walk. Even in the less than perfect weather they were idyllic...horseshoeshaped, rolling waves, huge boulders on the fringes, sandy beaches lined with grass areas shaded by palms and bayan trees ! My list of top ten beaches is growing ! Such a pity that we have experienced most of them in absolutely non-beach weather. We ended up walking from one end of the island to the other (Clint in slip slops !), rewarded ourselves with an iced coffee while we waited for the bus back to our cottage. The fish&chips shop had closed at 15h00 - 5 minutes before we arrived - not sure what is happening with our luck at the moment.
Raining again today...and predicted rain and grey skies for the next 4 days (oh my - this is supposed to be the dry season !)....so off walking the track to the other side of the island...at least we are getting walking fit ! Maybe we'll see a Koala and a Rock Wallaby today.