Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Magnetic Island Hike/Snorkel and warp to Airlie Beach

This was a big day. Magnetic Island is home to many permanent interesting places.  We could have brought our van and stayed on the island but we were tight for time.  We planned a nice hike followed by one or two snorkels.  We brought only our mask/snorkel. A 25 minute ferry to Magnetic Island was simple enough.  The GPS put us off track and we missed an earlier ferry.  No worries, the next was in 30 minutes.  Time to charge stuff and chill.  The ferry was fast.  We missed the public bus and took a taxi to the first hike, the Fort.  It is famous for Koala's  The taxi driver told us to look low as these animals rest low so they don't fall out of the tree's.  I kinda feel sorry for them.  Due to lack of food they evolved to eat only Eucalyptus.  It offers very little nutrition and therefore they sleep 18-20 hours a day.  I think they must feel like shit all the time.  We saw some but I did not hang around as too many people were bugging them/taking pictures making noise.  The Fort hike location is home to a WWII base with a big ass gun.  This thing shot 18.5 KM's.  The only non practice shot was to a US ship who failed to tell them they were coming.  Duh.  After the Fort we were pinned down waiting for a bus for 40 minutes.  The snorkel location was 2.5 KM away. Not far but the roads were not safe to walk.  Rather waste time waiting we hiked another trail that led us to the same place.  It was crazy hot and sunny.  We quickly found a place to grab some gear and went snorkeling.  The vis was poor, but it was nice to swim.  A walk back to the ferry was nice.  A quick ferry ride and we were flying to Airlie Beach.  Driving here in the dark is scary.  The last hour of driving was scary.  The Jucy is a bouncy castle at 100 KM/h  Jerks up my butt make the drive scary.  We make it safe Yay

Tickets in hand



Arrived at Magnetic Island


At Nelly Bay




That's a big water tank


Koala's trying to sleep






It was hot humid and steep



Great spot to shoot stuff


With a big ass gun



One more for Michelle


Geoffrey Bay for a snorkel 





The hike back from the snorkel
It was crazy hot




Nice view's though


We walked across Gabul Way I see


After an hour of driving, I saw quite a few fires.  I though they were unintentional
After several more it became obvious they were planned
Sugar Case is huge here.  So huge the lands are cris crossed with little trains to move the stuff
Farmers in this part of town somehow to a controlled burn to prepare their crops. 
It's weird to see.  Serious flames, then poof, it's out






That's all folks

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