Magnetic Island and Townsville
Today was another day where Tim and I had different activities planned for the day. Tim spent the day visiting more of his extended family in Townsville while I was in tourist mode.
I was lucky enough that Eliza was rostered off this weekend, and so we met up for the second time of this trip and went over to Magnetic Island for the day. As one of the stickers on the island proclaimed, it's attractive! Insert many ferrous puns here (as Tim's family did).
I was lucky enough that Eliza was rostered off this weekend, and so we met up for the second time of this trip and went over to Magnetic Island for the day. As one of the stickers on the island proclaimed, it's attractive! Insert many ferrous puns here (as Tim's family did).
The day nearly got off to a slower start than desired. We thought we'd leave with plenty of time to spare for the 11:30 ferry, but we managed to get every red light on our way to the ferry terminal. We managed to get on to the ferry by the narrowest of margins (they had just started removing passenger ramps), but we made it. Just as well as it was about 1.5hrs before the next ferry!
After a moderately rough crossing, we were back on dry land and caught a bus to Horseshoe Bay, on the other side of the island. There is a fortnightly market held at Horseshoe Bay which happened to be on while we were there, so we browsed for a while, before finding a local cafe for lunch.
After lunch we did a short walk into Radical Bay. The surrounding terrain was quite hilly - perfect for reminding me that I haven't been doing as much exercise as usual lately, and also that wearing shorts instead of jeans probably would have been wise. The light breeze when we arrived at the beach was certainly appreciated.
We returned from Radical Bay around 3:20ish and decided that an ice-cream was in order while waiting for the bus to the forts walk. The store adjacent to the bus stop had a delicious array of ice-creams and gelatis to choose from. We both chose to have cones, and then spent the next few minutes fighting against melting. Perhaps that's why the small tubs were a popular option.
The forts walk was an interesting one, full of spectacular views around the island. As you would expect, the forts were positioned on the island in such a way to maximise visibility and provide the best tactical position on the island during World War II. On the walk, we met a British tourist (from Cornwall) who was over here on holiday after attending a friend's wedding. It sounded like he'd managed to do a lot of travelling while he was over here - he's probably seen more of our country than I have!
There were plenty of opportunities for us to get some good photos with awesome views. A few are shown below:
We got back to the car park / bus stop a bit too late to catch the 5:30 bus back to Nelly Bay, so we caught the 6:15 bus instead. It was largely a moot point, as either way we would be catching the 6:40 ferry and there wasn't really time to explore anywhere else.
When we got back to Townsville, we went to cbar on The Strand for dinner, and then headed back home for dessert.
All told, it was a relaxing, most enjoyable day. It was good to be able to have the time to look around somewhere new and different at a more relaxed pace, and to catch up with people at the same time.
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