Day 29 - 33 Magnetic Island

I tweaked my back on a small boat in Mission Beach and tweaked it even worse here on Magnetic Island. I'm now on an all activities ban and sticking to walking and the exercises my good physio gave me. Sitting to write this is a little challenging at the moment, so I will try to keep it brief.

After arriving in Townsville and parking the van in storage, we spent a rest night night in a hotel (relief). We drove aboard a car ferry the next day for Magnetic Island. I was not sad to see Townsville fading away behind us... not our favorite place.

This time Josh captained the 280 tonne car ferry. Really impressed how open large boat operators are to kids hoping into the big chair with the controls.

On arrival at Maggie (as everyone calls it), we were welcomed by my old school mate Jaimey.  He is ex navy, very vocal, and had loads of stories to keep the kids either shocked, laughing or asking more questions. Jaimey also has a fishing boat and took Em and the kids out. They went snorkeling and the boys got to drive the boat.

Unfortunately as I was out of commission and the the Go pro was flat, we don't have many action shots from the boat trip. The kids saw plenty of fish and enjoyed playing 1st mate.

 Can you pick anything strange in the shot of the pool above... take a look at the background - we asked ourselves just what is going on here? Seems Instagram is sending some people a little over the top in the search for the perfect selfie.

We saw tonnes of wildlife even from the balcony at Jaimey's. This sunbird had found a spot for a nest only centimeters away from us. Sunbirds are very lovable - Think of a tiny tiny sparrow with style. This little lady keep us watching as it silently and industriously flew about fetching food for its young and maintaining its nest. Their courage and air agility amazed us.

We watched so many birds performing all manner of sea bird behavior from the balcony. I particularly loved watching the sea eagles expertly gliding, surveying the waters in highly variable winds. Then taking the odd high speed dive into the sea making it all look easy.

The island is two thirds national park. You get a sense that the wild life here rule and the people are merely guests. I wont forget the sea breeze either. Might be a basic thing... its just wind right. But highly moist wind off the sea was almost the exact same temperature as you. I understand what people mean when they say you can swim in the humidity. Lucky for us the real heat is yet to arrive but you get a sense the place would be hell in summer. Not unusual for people to have 6 or 7 showers a day. Jaimey described the weather as either hot or very hot - you don't get much else. In summer everything including the mains water piped across from Townsville warms on its journey across. Imagine turning on your shower and there's only warm or hot water. People actually go a little mad in summer.

While on the island we were lucky to have Jaimey show us the sights. We snorkeled, we swam in more infinity pools than we've ever seen. We found fun restaurants, we sat on the balcony and watched the marine life go by. We went to the Sunday market where the boys picked up necklaces of shells and shark teeth made by the guy who found them, not some factory. It's a wildly beautiful island full of nature and we feel very lucky to have had our time there. We look forward to returning one day.