#Geoffrey's Horseshoe Bat | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sjworldtour · 5 years ago

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21/11/19 Feeling the heat on Magnetic Island

On Tuesday morning we set off early and caught the 7am bus up to Townsville. Travelling another 5 hours north has put us in an even hotter, drier landscape, and we continue to be flabbergasted by the sheer scale and endlessness of Australia.

Arriving in Townsville, Sam went to forage for food (including our fave white choc and cranberry cookies) while joey babysat the bags. Despite joey tring her best to lose a ticket, we caught the ferry over to Magnetic Island. So called because when Cook first discovered it it appeared that compass needles would always point to the island, but that is in fact not true. We had a short but bimbly bus ride to our hostel, which spreads along Nelly Bay, chalet-like dorm rooms following a dry creek bed in a long arc. The rooms are fine and the pool is great but the kitchen is hopeless. We're starting to feel like we could design a really great hostel. Within minutes we splished into the pool to cool off, finally understanding why anyone would build a pool right next to the ocean - it's for when the ocean is full if things that want to kill you.

Early evening we walked along the 4wd track up towards West point, popping in to Cockle Bay which was beautiful and quiet although sadly we didn't see any crocodiles or koalas. Sam spotted a huge hunting bird though, possibly an eagle, and of course white cockatoos where everywhere being noisy.

We walked back to picnic bay and lay in the dusty sand for a few minutes, not quite getting up the energy to swim even though there's a stinger net. It's another pretty beach, with a picturesque painted white pier stretching out across the quiet water. Once the sun started dipping low over the mountains we hiked up a rocky trail to Hawkings point to watch the sunset. On the way we passed a kookaburra sat on someone's mailbox, so still that at first joey thought it was fake. It was a pleasant climb up the hill, obviously hot (everything is always hot) but with shady patches. The vegetation here is pretty scorched it almost looks autumnal, and there were loads of likely snake hiding places among the rocks and dusty yellow leaves. We luckily didn't see any, and emerged at the lookout to great views across Nelly Bay to the east and picnic bay, mainland Australia, and the rapidly setting sun to the west. There was a group of twenty-somethings loudly discussing their hostelling experiences (including judging our byron bay hostel for not being real (??)) And an entertaining family taking zillions of photos while squeaking at each other.

After the sun had gone we set off, turning down a side track we hoped would take us in the direction of home but ended up dwindling to almost nothing, and once Sam got a face full of spiders web we got a little bit freaked out. Luckily we made it down to a residential street without being eaten and made our way home safely from there. We chilled at the hostel in the evening and wandered down the beach to look at the stars before bed, Sam seeing a good shooting star.

Woke up early and caught a bus up to the Northern side of the island to get some walking in before it gets too insanely hot. Hiked up to an old WW2 fort with beautiful 300deg sea views and interesting signs about the fort's history. They talked about all the women gossiping after evening with attentive men, a man who stole and stockpiled grog, and the evening the Americans stole aussie women, Aussies stole American grog, and everything got nasty.

Wanting to head towards the bays to the north, we found a track down other side of the hill. It was signposted no people but we did it anyway naughty. Had to watch our steps carefully so as not to get a face full of spiders. The floor was ashy from fires (bush fires are rubbish for humans but weirdly essential for the ecosystem) and teeming with lizards, scrub fowl and the occasional wallaby. The trees were full of sticky sap ants nests and weird fat kapok fruits. Eventually we reached the main path and walked along a shady lane to Radical Bay. Very pretty beach fringed with frangipani trees but obvs can't swim because of death jellies so climbed on rocks. Very happy to have cold water in our bottles. From there we climbed up a giant hill, by now past 10am and the sun was punishing. Joey's face turned beetroot. Nearly died.

Eventually reached Horseshoe bay which had a shop selling cold water, some shade, and a stinger net hurray!! Got in the hot sea to try to cool down a bit then sat in shade to dry off. Brunch at artsy cafe with tasty milkshake. Wandered up the lane across a bridge promising crocodiles nearby (but didn't see any), then walked through a lush bananaey woodland swarming with butterflies. Spotted two enormous kookaburra, a rainbow lorikeet, hundreds of giant flying foxes (bats) sleeping in the gum trees, and a silk web spider.

We caught a bus back south towards Arcadia and Geoffrey bay, hired snorkels and stinger suits and had a wonderful hour and a half snorkelling on the reef. More corals and fish including two giant grumpy looking stripey fish, two sting rays, and six giant clams. There was a snorkel trail following bright yellow buoys, and the blue buoy at the end indicated a shipwreck, but the water was too deep and murky out there today so we couldn't find it. Sam gave joey a lesson in diving with snorkel stuff. A tiny bright yellow fish made friends with joey and followed her the whole way back from the main bit of the reef to the boat ramp at the side. We clambered out of our snorkel gear, careful not to burn our feet on the scorching concrete, then wandered around the bouldery headland which turns out to be the home of rock wallabies. It was far too hot for the wallabies to be out and about but we found a few sheltering in shady cracks, and one hopped enthusiastically over to sam by the car park, in the hope that he had something tasty on him.

We headed back to the hostel and chilled out for the afternoon, then joined in the hostel's trivia quiz, teaming up with two girls Phoebe and Hannah who, like us, were feeling all a bit too old and sober for the sillier of the games. Quiz was fun but infuriating as we never found out the answers to the questions, or how badly we did.

On Thursday morning we strolled back over the hill to Picnic Bay, keeping our eyes peeled for koalas, and went for a pleasant early morning dip in the stinger net. There was a kookaburra posing on the beach. We had breakfast in a slightly fancier café than we would have chosen ideally, but it was great food. Trudged back to the hostel in the rapidly rising heat, checked out and chilled out until our bus to the ferry terminal. The bus was crazily full of faffing backpackers, and takes a very circuitous route, so Sam was fretting watching his fitbit as the ferry departure time drew closer. Luckily it actually left at 13:35 not 13:30 (which was why Joey wasn't panicking) so all was fine. We caught the ferry, caught our Greyhound (with a very weird checking in procedure, the driver calling each person on by name which took forever) and drove away through Townsville. The large novelty spiders on lampposts and the sides of buildings seemed to be pretty much the highlight of Townsville, and we didn't feel like we were missing out by not staying there.

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