Magnetic Island

Thurs 18 June.. Our tank dive has been postponed until tomorrow and so we are going for a day on Magnetic Island, a 20min ferry crossing from Townsville. There are several crossings a day so we go for the 9 30. It’s a big island approx 20Kx9K , but 2 thirds of it are inaccessible. A three hour bus tour will show you everything there is to see. We opt for the all day hop on hop off bus ticket and jump on the first available bus. Fifteen minutes later we are at the furthest point of the island that you can get to by road. This is Horseshoe bay and is very pretty but the villages only café coffee machine is being serviced and so we can’t get our usual morning fix! A stroll along the beach and we have seen it all. There is a designated swimming area but we decide it’s not warm enough. The bus eventually returns and we hop on and go to Arcadia, which has 2 Bays, Alma and Geoffrey! Who knows why!! They too are very pretty but the weather is not what we are used to-------it’s cloudy! We have lunch here before having another wander around before catching the bus back to Nelly Bay and the ferry back to Townsville. All in all a bit of a disappointment. The island boasts a large Koala population, but we didn’t even see a eucalyptus tree, let alone a koala. The tropical birdlife was non existent, but maybe we just caught the island on a bad day.
Meanwhile the R A A F are still at it, 10 30 they finished last night.