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The heading on the Satnav read Townsville. The original plan was to stay in some cheap place and do a day trip to Magnetic Island before returning to the mainland and hiding in our tent overnight. The plan changed after Fi chatted to one of the residents at Hideaway caravan park and we were now to take Meg and Mog over on the ferry and stay 2 nights there. This was a better option as it was only an extra $35 for us to do this and because we had the 4WD we could do all of the island, which meant we could explore the better beaches and coves which the hire cars couldn't get to.
Arriving in Townsville around lunch time we weren't expecting much, yet found it to be a really pretty town. The beachfront had a wonderful free waterpark and the old style Queensland architecture of the buildings throughout the town was a treat compared to some of the other places we'd seen. Loading up on supplies at Coles we hit 'The Strand" and the boys spent an hour or so at the waterpark whilst we waited for our ferry, which only took 35 minutes when we hopped aboard about 3pm. Arriving at Magnetic Island we were confronted with what looked like Rotto on steroids. There was infrastructure there, a number of fancy hotels and quite a large number of permanent residents, even a school as well as cars and roads that were well signed and in good condition. We headed to our campsite, "Bungalow Bay" where we only wanted to stop, pitch the tent, and then get straight out to West Point to go fishing. Because of the lifejacket test on the ferry and the long check-in we were running out of time and light to see the sunset and get the tide right for the fishing so we rushed the set-up. I carefully removed the coupling pin, which is used to connect the ute to the camper trailer and carefully removed the R-clips from the pin and then carefully placed them on the back of the tray of the car. We put the tent up in record time, got the rods in the car, and sped off towards West Point…..mistake….After some navigation issues and the 10km of off-road track we arrived at West Point to see the sun dip behind an enormous black cloud on the horizon which completely ruined the sunset. We jumped out of the car anyway and it was at this point I suddenly realised that my very carefully placed coupling pin and R-clips that had been carefully left on the tray were now lying on the road somewhere between furtherest point from civilization on the island and our campsite, about 12 kms away……duh…. This wasn't a good situation. We got the fishing rods out anyway and gave it a go. I was sure we'd get some fish this time, as no-one spoke for the full 40 minutes we suffered out there. The boys were too afraid to mutter a word and Fi and I just looked at each other, noting that with our critically low blood sugar levels it would be a mistake to say anything at all…The trip home took 4 times longer as we slowly made our way back to the campsite, stopping every 50 metres to jump out and be disappointed that what we thought was our pin and R clips was nothing more than a leaf or twig on the road. They were gone….. Lesson number 21 - put the very very important coupling pin in the same place everytime, as soon as you remove it..... This was not the best situation to be in as the Island had no mechanic or camping store or caravan repair shop to get a replacement and we couldn't tow the trailer without it. We were stuck…. On the bright side, it wasn't such a bad place to be holed up for a few days. The island was beautiful in all respects and the place we were staying turned out to be a YHA so was full of 21 year female backpackers from Sweden or Germany walking around in ridiculously short shorts and flimsy tank tops. Fi suspected I'd lost the pin on purpose, and to be fair, I should have showed more concern at our predicament…. The next day, before the shops opened in Townsville, we decided to do a walk to the WWII forts that were constructed on the highest peak during 1942-3. This was fascinating as the island was in fact a fully functioning military post with up to 500 Australian and US army personnel living there manning the two huge 155mm guns that were moved up a man made track to protect Townsville and the bay surrounds. We walked the 4km track up to the peak to see the ruins of the fort and army barracks and to plot which beach we were going to swim in as the view from the communication tower at the top was breathtaking. The guns, which had an accuracy of nearly 19km were only fired once in anger; at a US ship that didn't identify itself properly. They missed on purpose at which point the seppos suddenly remembered the correct code…. It was interesting to note that Townsville was the Northern base for Australia's military during the Pacific campaign in WWII and it still remains as a key training point with around 5000 Australian and US army personnel training or living in and around the area. When we got back we headed down to Florence bay where I dropped everyone off and headed back to the top of the hill so I could get reception enough to make some calls and try and source our missing coupling pin and R clips. After about an 1/2 hour of trying, Bailey and Fiona were suddenly knocking on the car window and I was wondering how they got there considering it was a long and winding hill down to the beach. When I got out of the car it was clear they had been given a lift and Bailey was in pieces. He'd been stung by a blue bottle jelly fish right around his neck and was completely freaking out. The bloke who gave us a lift was at the same beach and also staying at our camp so we were super thankful as we didn't bring any vinegar with us down to the beach (It's used to neutralize the sting). It would have been at least 30 minutes before I was done with my search and by that time Bailey could have been in a bit of trouble. .....Lesson number 22 - Don't leave your family at a remote and secluded beach swarming with poisonous jelly fish, sharks and stingrays by themselves with no vinegar..... We rummaged through the food box in the back of the ute and poured red wine vinegar all over his neck and Fi's hand, as she had removed the sting from around his neck, and sped off to the Surf Lifesaving station along the coast to the next bay. The friendly, young, and very fit surf lifesaver, administered first aid by giving us a couple of ice packs and smiled and flirted with Fi, who smiled and flirted back, before we returned to the beach. The stinging was now subsiding and Bailey was feeling better. The only issues now was that our car smelt a lot like a greek salad from all the red wine vinegar that had spilt into the carpet. To Baileys credit, as soon as we got back to the beach he put on his snorkelling gear again and got straight back out there. We were very proud of him.
After all the commotion I finally managed to source the part for the ute that we needed and took a ferry to Townsville, a couple of cabs there and back and returned to Magnetic Island around 5pm. Our urgency to go fishing the previous evening had cost us another $150 so all in all, when we catch that first fish, it's going to worth about $800….. Given we were going to leave in the morning I suggested we extend our stay an extra day as it wasn't really much of a trip thus far. We had made friends with the couple who had helped us at the beach earlier, Jeni and John who were from Tasmania but originally from the US, and they had a boy about Harry's age which our boys were playing with in the pool and the beach pretty well…..I insisted it had nothing to do with the new influx of Swedish and German female backpackers who had just arrived that evening….
We broke our booze free trip by sharing a bottle of wine we bought Jeni and John for helping us out and fell asleep to the doleful sounds of the koalas grunting and snorting in the trees near us. For those that are not familiar with them, they sound like a pig with a cold trying to clear it's nose and are very VERY LOUD. When I was told this remarkable sound was a koala I was clearly not keen to meet it as the volume of the noise indicated the creature was the size of a large silverback gorilla.
The next day was lovely. Fi went for a run with Jeni and the boys chilled out in the morning then went for a swim in the pool whereby I got to potter around, have a coffee and watch the short shorted residents wander back and forth from the camp kitchen for an hour. We then went for a dip at Radical Bay, caught a few small waves following on to join our new friends to swim a snorkel trail on the low tide in Jefferies Bay. It was brilliant. The visibility was better than our past snorkelling trips and the boys did excellently. We were about 200-300m off the beach and saw loads of fish, a stingray, a reef shark, 6 giant clams!!!! and loads of coral. The trail finished up at an old shipwreck which had tonnes of fish swimming in and around it and was where I scratched my back and arm to give myself a nice coral cut. The afternoon was spent swimming at Alma Bay and John taught the boys how to climb boulders. This guy used to be a hard-core mountain climber and actually invented those swags that you attach to mountains which people sleep in, suspended thousands of feet above the ground. He had some interesting stories to tell at dinner that night. We tucked into Tacos and devoured a whole block of Old Gold dark chocolate before drifting off to sleep with the tent locked to keep out the Giant Killer Koalas….
- comments
Em xx Poor Bailey. Our boys were very alarmed by that story of the sting. I'm still reeling from tales of the shark hunter a number of entries ago...
gotch Hi guys. Tagged onto your adventures (via Diane) just recently. We have lots of ferocious things here like hopping mice and the passional swooping magpie, but you mustn't let that put you off visiting. You can camp in the yard if you want, and I can take you to Scotts Head for boogie board practice.