We headed off to the FantaSea Cruises terminal , arriving at 8:20 am , with time to spare , the cruise leaves at 9:05 . We found some brochures and sat down to have a bit of a read while we waited . Before long they asked for our ticket and we were boarding before they loaded the cars , motorbikes and trucks . It was only a half hour trip to go the 8 kms to Maggie ( this is what the locals call her ). We cruised out past Jupiters Casino , and the industrial port , where there were 6 cargo ships loading / unloading shipping containers and other things . The industrial side of the port is large , yesterday we watched a ship getting turned around inside the harbour by 2 tug boats .
There was a small swell running on the way over , but it didn't bother us at all , we were to busy looking around . Maggie was getting closer , so a few photos were in order .
We arrived and disembarked after the vehicles had been taken off , then wandered up to the terminal and found some information about the Hop On Hop Off Bus Tours - then rang them to book the tour . 15 mins later we were on the bus with two other couples and Col the driver / tour guide . He took us all over the island to all the good bits and some of the more obscure things as well - an Osprey nest in the top of a tower , the new resource centre , around to Cockle Bay where people built houses , and walked away from them due to the Midges attacking everyone ( for those who don't know , Midges are very small insects / man eating creatures , that gnaw away at you until you can't handle it any more ) .
Continuing on we headed for the top side of the island to Horseshoe Bay , where we went to an old school building and some dry rainforest . Waiting there for us was something quite amazing - 1000's upon 1000's of butterflies !!! We thought we had seen a lot at Cape Hillsborough , but that was nothing in comparison to this . Photos don't do them any justice at all , but videos do - unfortunately you're only getting a photo .
Whenever anyone got close to them , they took flight - it was like someone had thrown confetti in the air - an incredible sight .
There was an impromptu drive around a subdivision to show us some clever houses and some not so clever . One uses natural ventilation and clever design with no air conditioners required , across the road was the opposite - they had 6 air conditioners and no clever design .
Off to Horseshoe Bay beach for some lunch - crumbed barramundi & chips - absolutely divine !!! - the view was pretty good to -
The tour took us round to Bremmer Point to see some Allied Wallabies - a small rock wallaby , that likes to be fed some green grass .
After that Col fed some fish for a while before taking the other two couples back to the terminal so they could catch the 1:30pm boat back to Townsville . Seemed to be a waste of time & money to come over , do the tour , and then head back , without having walked more than a few hundred metres on Maggie . Anyway , thats their problem not ours , we got taken round to the clam aquarium , and had Col give us the run down on it - we spent about 30 mins there , and saw a lot of coral & fish and a clam from out in the bay - it weighed about 120 kgs - it was in the tank for a two week period , before it gets rotated around with some of the others in the bay .
Col then dropped us at Alma Bay , where we wandered down to the small beach and sat for a while . I did some rock hopping off to the side of the beach and took some more photos .
Magnetic Island is basically composed of granite - and lots of it . Some beaches have decomposed granite washed up on them and is generally mixed with most of the sand . There are some gun emplacements from the war . Speaking of which , the Battle of Coral Sea was only 260 klms away from here , where the Americans defeated the Japanese ( apparently the Japanese had already printed Japanese Australian Dollars , ready for when they took over ).
After a while we decided to walk back to the terminal - a couple of kilometres away . Leaving Alma Bay , we headed around to Arcadia and walked down the beach . It would have been nice to have done it bare foot , but there was plenty of coral and shell remnants crunching under our feet at each step - the tide was well out at this stage . Continuing on , we left the beach and went onto the raised boardwalk that follows the road - apparently it cost the governments $5million to build - better than law suits from walkers getting run over on the edge of the narrow road .
People build houses in the most interesting places , this is just one .
We made it back to the terminal and sat down overlooking the marina for a while , then walked around the boardwalk at the edge of the marina and breakwall , before sitting and waiting for our boat.
The sun was setting as we crossed back to Townsville , we arrived just as the light was fading - What a GREAT day we have had !!!
Thats your lot for today , See Ya . Map Link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kLLF-ejO0A3Q&usp=sharing
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