August 9 and 10
On Tuesday, we departed our place on Yorkey’s Knob and headed south for a four hour drive to the largest city in northern Queensland, Townsville. On our way out of town, we stopped for some fast food at Hungry Jack’s, which is what Burger King is called “down under.” The menu is a bit different (e.g., they have toaster sandwiches for breakfast), but overall it was quite similar. Once we arrived to Townsville, we took an hour long ferry ride over to Magnetic Island, which is a larger island nestled in the Great Barrier Reef. Our place was a large, older house that was just what we needed, minus internet access. We settled in and explored the island for a bit before we had a relaxing dinner. Wednesday started with an early breakfast (called “brekkie” in Australia) at a local eatery called Gilligan’s. It was decorated with memorabilia from the old television show Gilligan’s Island. We then rented some snorkel equipment and hit a few of the island’s beaches. The winds had stirred up the sand, so the visibility was not great, but we did see coral and a variety of fish. We ate lunch on the beach at Horseshoe Bay, which is a stopping point for a lot of boats that sail along the Queensland coast. After a couple of hours at a place called Geoffery Bay, we drove along a road on the north end of the bay to see wild rock wallabies (they are pretty tame because of tourists visiting every day). This was the highlight of our visit to Magnetic Island. The wallabies would come right out to see if you had food and some allowed us to touch them. The friendliest wallaby had a joey sticking out of her pouch, which was really cool to see so close up. Thomas and Megan got some great videos on their cellphones while we all took plenty of pictures. We went back to Horseshoe Bay for some tasty Australian beef for dinner (and to celebrate our 20th anniversary and John’s birthday). We packed up and went to bed early because we had to catch a 6am ferry back to Townsville so we could start our sailing adventure in Airlie Beach on Thursday.