QLD - Magnetic Island (Townsville)

We caught the early (8:30) ferry over to Maggie, and had a great day over here.

To be honest, not a great deal to do over here expect lie on the beach. We spent quite a bit of time just waiting for buses (it's a long walk between beaches) and headed for the fort walk before the real heat of the day. This was quite an interesting walk as we never really appricated that Austraila did much in the wars, but this island was one of the defences against attacks from Japan. There were old barracks, ammunition storage units and radio control units which were made from fake rock - a great disguise from the air. Not much remains of these now, and a couple of the intact units house tiny bentwing bats. The summit of the island has the old artilary lookouts to spot incoming planes, and there's some great views from up here.

On our way back, we tried to spot the resident Koalas, but Evelyn thinks they got scared away by Marc's great fashion sense - as it was so hot, Marc had rolled up his boardies so high that it looked like he was wearing hot pants! We then waited for the bus and already there was one guy who attempted to walk between beaches, but found it a bit tough going in the heat ;)

We headed to Horseshoe Bay which is the epicentre of the island (it had a bar, cafe, and restuarant with air con). However, the beach was pretty crappy so we headed to the locals beach, Alma Bay. This beach has no stinger nets, but the locals use this beach all year round and have no worries. This beach was much nicer, and we went for a swim and snorkel, seeing a few fish and sea slugs.