7. Magnetic Island

12 July 2023

Magnetic island is 8km off shore from Townsville. The island is not big at all, but famous for its big boulders and wild live.

The main reason why we chose to visit this island is to meet free koalas`s. In the 1920`s Magnetic island became a sanctuary for almost 20 koalas while the fur traders were shooting on the mainland. An estimated 8 million koalas were killed Australia- wide. The open seasons ended in 1927 but, koalas on the mainland still struggle with severe stress due to ongoing habitat loss, dog attacks, car accidents, etc, resulting in fatal diseases.

Here on the island the koalas have been blooming ever since their arrival, and today there are over 800 happy and healthy koalas scrachting their fur and yawning in peace.

We enjoy the sunset on the last ferry of the day.

In the very dark night we have a bit of difficulties to find our Hipcamp spot. But once found we enjoy our spaghetti and beer around the campfire.

Next morning we leave for a walk at 7am at the Forts. The walk goes up hill through the gum trees. We are searching and searching and searching without seeing.....

But then ... our patience is rewarded with this awesome very active koala who is scratching and yawning and we keep admiring for a long while.

We continue our track along the Forts, so many remainders of WWII, hard to imagine that even in this remote paradise, people were fighting in the war.

The views are just incredible !!

Back at the campsite we take our well deserved breakfast.

At the rocks we meet with the cute little Rocks Wallabies.

We spent the afternoon at Horseshoe Bay. Here the kids enjoy kayaking on the sea, and we have a chat with the local Surf Life Saver who is teaching us all about the dangers of marine stingers such at the box jelly fish.

So many people`s life ended with a sting of this tiny creatures. Most stingers grow on corals on the bottom of the sea and then at some point detach from the mother plant and live their short live floating through the sea. Once sea temperatures drop below 26 degrees, these creatures die after having lived only one summer season. No harm in swimming today, as it is `winter` and the sea is cold enough to be safe.

We leave this incredibly beautiful island with the late evening ferry and will continue our road in the dark. A late evening drive will bring us 2 hours further up North, to South Mission Beach.