Hey!

Before heading over to Magnetic Island, we spent a couple of days in Townsville, located on the northern coast of Queensland mid way between Airlie Beach and Cairns. Townsville is quite a small city so it was really easy for us to find our way around. Its built around a red-rock mountain called Castle Hill and the Ross Creek which makes its location and lay-out quite spectacular. The city is very pretty with lots of original buildings still in working order and some beautiful architecture to view. We spent most of our time sunbathing down at the Strand, located right on the beachfront with lovely parks, lots of cafes and restaurants etc. You still can’t go in the sea around here because of the stingers but there were netted areas within the sea and a rockpool that were stinger-free.

We made our way over to Magnetic Island on the ferry. Even though you can see the Island from the coast and it looks pretty close, the journey still took around 40 minutes! The island consists of a number of bays, most with townships next to them. Our accommodation was located in Nelly Bay. We had decided to spend the week not doing too much, just sunbathing by the pool and taking short walks along the beach, which is exactly what we did. Towards the end of the week we rented a moke, which is a kinda like a beach buggy for the road. We wanted to make the most of the sunshine so we decided to get one without a roof, however the only one they had was a lovely baby pink colour with a painting of Cinderella on the bonnet! Phil wasn’t too impressed. We used the moke to visit other parts of the island, including Horseshoe Bay, Alma Bay and Picnic Bay. We also drove to the start of a really interesting walk (more like a hike in Rhi’s opinion) which took us up to see the forts (kind of like concrete bunkers to hold ammunition) and the remains of massive 360 degree gun tracks, used during WWII to protect Townsville. It was on the way back from this walk that we saw a little koala in a tree, it was quite an exciting sight as it was the first koala we have seen in the wild! We were really lucky all week weather wise, as we had lovely sunshine with clear blue skies everyday. We also want to say a massive thank you to Nannie Bevan for swapping one of her timeshare weeks for the amazing apartment we had on Magnetic Island. Bonza!