Like a Rollingstone, Days 53 & 54 – Losing ourselves on Magnetic Island

Day 53 Friday, 1/7/2016, Rollingstone, Hot

We spend the day lazing and reading. Happy Hour becomes happy hours and stretches for three hours as we farewell B & C. The waves pound the shore.

Day 54 Saturday, 2/7/2016, Rollingstone, Beautiful

We catch the ferry out of Townsville over to Magnetic Island. Ferries run every hour and the trip only takes 20 minutes. We’re on the aft deck beside two young ambo’s and a nurse. Laden with a gurney and equipment they are on their way to pick up a patient. It’s a beautiful morning and the city looks superb from the water.

Leaving Townsville and Castle Hill behind we’ve got plenty of medical gear

We disembark in Nelly Bay and decide to have lunch before touring. From there things go pear shaped. The Thai restaurant we’re longing for is closed and we’re seriously over fish & chips. In the heat we trudge back to the wharf and the welcoming Peppers Resort. Lunch goes swimmingly, the wine is nice and bugger it, we give up on any ideas of sight- seeing, there’s nothing wrong with the view of the marina anyway.

As we wait for the ferry we meet the local wildlife, one rock wallaby on the harbour breakwater, and of course we do notice the towering granite hills and hoop pines. There are 2000 people living permanently on the island and the houses that we can see are rather attractive.

All we manage to see of Magnetic Island is a rock wallaby, nice lunch though.

Back on the mainland we dash home to meet The Prado’s for drinks in the park bar down by the lake. Being Saturday night there is a guitarist and tables are scarce. A rather loud and slightly sozzled couple from Adelaide urge in on our table. Now grey nomads are normally a friendly lot, but this was pushing things a bit far. He tells us that he knows music and has sung to 800 people. Oh really! She dances The Egyptian and flashes a bit of leg like one shouldn’t at this age. We breathe a sigh of relief and make a dash for it when another table becomes available.

2021 Note: Fate is a curious thing. As we left Magnetic Island we laughed about not really seeing anything and that we’d probably never go there again. Four months later we were coming down the coast on a cruise ship from China when a passenger took ill. The ship dropped anchor late at night to allow a police launch to take the patient to hospital. As we leaned over the railing to watch the goings on we both suddenly realised that we were in the lee of Magnetic Island!