After Ceder Falls I drove over to Townsville, the city where you access Magnetic Island from. The city is pretty un-touristy but there is a small mountain right in the middle of it which looks pretty spectacular, rising out from all the office buildings. The views from the summit are pretty cool too, especially of Magnetic Island.
We got onto the island at about 4pm. The hostel was quite good, but then its always a luxury for me to have a room and hot water, no matter the quality....I walked into my room to find that I was sharing with 7 girls, what a shame!
The next day we went to explore the island. Its only just too big to get around by foot and too expensive to rent a car, so we hitchhiked! Apparently its a common way of getting around the island and worked really well. Went to Horseshoe Bay, which was beautiful, and then walked to another bay through the forest. After that we were bored of forest walking so we climbed over all these boulders sticking out of the sea, round to Radical Bay. The climbing was great fun! We saw an eagle sitting on the highest rock, tending to its nest, like something out of a movie! We also saw a turtle swimming up for air, I'd never seen one in the wild before, another animal crossed off the list!
Unfortunately, the island didn't have much more to offer than that. We tried to snorkel the next day but it wasn't very good and there was always the chance, even though we had suits on, that we'd get stung by a box-jellyfish. Could have done the island in a day....but it was good fun anyway and I met lots of new people :) Next stop Cairns!
Horseshoe Bay, not the one on Magnetic Island, but in Bowen, between Airlie beach and Townsville
View of a mountain range from the shores of Horseshoe Bay, Bowen
Castle Hill in Townsville. Apparently its 8 meters short of being a mountain!
View from the top of Castle Hill
The sun setting behind some mountains, from the top of Castle Hill, Townsville
Magnetic Island from the top of Castle Hill
Upon walking through the bush, discussing whether there was many dangerous snakes/spiders I almost stood on this! After jumping x meters, I realised that it was dead....lucky
We climbed over all those boulders to get around to the next bay, took about an hour!
The eagle in its nest!
A small island made of big rocks off Radical Bay, Magnetic Island. How did the rocks end up there?!
A sinister looking parrot on Magnetic Island
I took this pic from the top of a big hill on the drive from Townsville to Cairns
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