Townsville & Magnetic Island

Next stop down the coast was Magnetic Island - this entailed staying in Townsville for a couple of nights, then taking the ferry over to the island.

Townsville was a bit of a shock to the system after the quiet places we'd seen so far down the coast. I don't suppose arriving the day of the Melbourne Cup really helped - everyone had been on the beer since lunchtime, so it was pretty messy by 9pm.

Magnetic Island has pretty much nothing to do on it - we covered it all by bus in a couple of hours, walked up to a second world war fort (in 30 degrees of midday heat) and missed seeing the koalas which were apparently right on the side of the path - must be blind.