Ok, so we said there would be no more walking, and that really was the intention but we don't think that Lynn believes us!!

We arrived in Townsville on Wednesday afternoon, and after checking into some digs we took a look around the place. The Strand along the ocean front is really nice, although the memorial gardens are a little strange, as they start talking to you about the war as you walk passed!! There's also a really cool water park area with huge cannon's where you can fire water at each other, but there were too many kids for us to mess around. We did plan to soak Lynn and Leslie, and we would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those damn pesky kids!!

When we got into the town, we visited the aquarium so that Lynn and Leslie would get a chance to see some of the reef marine life that we were rapidly leaving behind. It was a little odd seeing the sharks in the smallest enclosure of all, but then who'd want to go into a huge tank to clean the glass when the sharks could be hiding anywhere!? The rest of the enclosures where really good as the glass windows were huge and we got to see Nemo and Dory and all the others, and there were also several interactive displays, but who wants to learn when you can look at pretty coloured fish???

That evening we went out to a steakhouse around the corner from us and had some great food, including Cajun kangaroo, while we sat outside under the stars. Leslie even managed a particularly mincing looking cocktail. Unfortunately we were also under the flight path of many, many huge fruit bats and it was only a matter of time before one of them decided that Leslies head and Lynn's arm looked as good a place as any to use as a toilet!! Needless to say we nearly died laughing as Leslie took himself off to the bathroom and Lynn took comfort in some tissues!

When we got back to the apartment, the only thing left to do was to get a big spider out of Lynn and Leslie's bedroom before Lynn's screaming woke up the entire neighbourhood. It went a little something like 'GET ME OUT OF HERE, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT' when really the only thing keeping her in was that the spider happened to be above the door!

The next day we set off for the boat to Magnetic Island and having walked past the ferry terminal the previous day, we knew it wouldn't take too long to get there. However, we clearly hadn't read the sign properly and when we got there we discovered that the terminal was no longer in use, so thirty sweaty minutes later we got to the correct terminal and were ready for our trip.

When we got across to the island we got ourselves a hop on / hop off bus ticket so that we could take our time and see as much of the area as possible.

Our first stop was at "The Forts", the sight of some old WWII ruins as the island had been used as a secret cannon base, and was also where we had been told was our best chance of seeing some koalas in the wild. Once we were off the bus we took a walking track that follows a ridge behind the bays and arrives at the ruins of the Forts complex. The track is classed as 'moderate' and only 4km's long, but as we discovered on Dunk island, walking 4km's mainly uphill in the midday sun with temperatures reaching 35+ degrees feels like a damn sight more!! There were some great views over the bays and out to the ocean, as well as looking back onto Townsville, and there was also a lovely breeze, but the trek back to the bus stop was not something to look forward to. By the time we got back, our one hour return walk had taken almost three hours, so the first stop in Horseshoe Bay was the pub!!

After possibly the most refreshing beer of all time, we took a much slower, more gentle walk along the beach before getting back onto the bus and heading to Picnic Bay on the other side of the island. Here, there were a lot more people actually living on the island, but apart from a walk along the pier there was not a lot else to do except wait for the bus to take us back to Arcadia, where we could have a seat and some dinner.

Feeling depleted from our nightmare walks of the last few days we ordered a couple of starters to share before our main courses. When will we learn about Australian portion control, or more accurately, the lack of???? Eating all the food that arrived was almost as strenuous as the climb that we had only recently completed, but we didn't let ourselves down and managed to finish almost everything.

The boat trip back to Townsville gave us a great view of the city at night, and by the time we had walked back to the apartment, we were all exhausted!!

We arrived in Airlie beach just after 2:00pm this afternoon and at last we can relax, as we are planning to take a cruise around the Whitsundays for a few days.