6 September Magnetic Island

6 September

Magnetic Island

Visiting Magnetic Island is one of the things that was on Darryl’s must do list.  In the four plus years that he lived in Townsville as a teenager, he never went over to Magnetic Island, so it was something that he really wanted to do this trip.

We awoke to an overcast and breezy day, consequently, the trip across to Magnetic Island was quite rough. Fortunately it is only a 20 minute ferry ride so we didn’t get too sea-sick.

Magnetic Island is a lovely quiet island of which a large proportion is national park. We hired a little car to get around the island and did a few walks (quite steep in parts). One walk was to The Forts which were ruins from WWII which were on the top of one of the highest points on the island. How they managed to carry the guns and ammunition up this steep slope is incredible. The information signs along the way indicated that a round of ammunition was 45kg which were carried up by hand and they had a large building there to store all that ammunition. We struggled walking up just carrying a small backpack and our water bottle. The views from the Fort were breath-taking. 180’ across the ocean towards Townsville.

View from The Fort walk

WWII ruins at The Fort on Magnetic Island

We were surprised how quiet the island was. Some of the bays were like ghost towns. Hardly anyone to be seen. There were some special events on the week-end (including beer can raft races) which meant that it was crowded then, so we were able to enjoy the peace and quiet today!

Geoffrey Bay walk

Rock wallabies at Geoffrey Bay

We will have a quiet day tomorrow and then head south towards Airlie Beach the following day.