We have just returned to Townsville from a 2 day trip to Maggie or Magnetic Island. Apparently it got its name because it interfered with Captain Cook's compass while he was navigating the area. We left the car in the ferry car park and negotiated the 20 minute ferry and local bus to Horseshoe Bay where we were staying in a bush village apartment.

The following paragraph comes with an embarrassment warning for the family! When we arrived to check in it was with wry amusement that the receptionist allocated us to ensuite cabin 2, otherwise called "The Love Shack"! Rog did his best to live up to the "vibe" by mistaking the front door for the bathroom door and strutted out stark naked thinking he was heading for the shower! At least that's his story and he's sticking to it. Fortunately I don't think all the young lady backpackers were around the pool at the time.

We were fortunate in our wildlife spotting on Maggie and saw 2 turtles swimming about 4 feet from the beach who hung around for ages. We also spotted kangaroos as we walked home after a lengthy hike up to an old second world war gun emplacement at the very top of the island. Unfortunately we didn't spot any wild koalas on the walk, although we could hear one male calling - sounds rather like a cross between a lion roaring and a pig grunting. I think he fancied his own Love Shack!

The next day we partook of a guava champagne bush breakfast in the attached Koala sanctuary where the food was excellent and plentiful - we decided it wasn't really extravagant because we wouldn't need any lunch! During the meal and in a following tour we were able to hold a whole array of birds and animals including Carpet Pythons, turtles, lizards, Echidnas (like hedgehogs) crocodiles and of course Koalas. The Koala was really cute and luckily didn't wee or pooh on me so remains my favourite Aussie animal. Apparently because there is so little sugar in eucalyptus leaves they have to sleep about 20 hours per day to conserve energy. We were also shown a wombat who was lazing in his air conditioned shelter - it was a bit difficult to make him out as he was lying on his back but he was much larger than I had expected and seemed to resemble a bull-dog/pig cross!

It was so hot today - about 33 degrees - that we were both sweating buckets. Consequently the photos all have shiny faces and sweat dripping off everywhere which does not make for a very attractive look. Apart from swimming in the stinger enclosure it was far too hot to do anything.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Mission Beach.