There are four main places on Magnetic: Nelly Bay, where the ferry lands, which has some cafes and a grocery store, Arcadia, which has a bar and the hostel I stayed at, Picnic Bay, which had a few houses and restaurants, and Horseshoe Bay, which is the main drag with the bars. They're laid out Picnic, Nelly, Arcadia, Horseshoe, in a little half-circle around the island. The rest is pretty much nature preserve.
Anyway, I tried to take the hike to from Nelly to Arcadia, which the brochure said would be 2.5 hours, but I accidentally stumbled across the short path to Geofrey bay, which took me 20 minutes. I found a specialty grocery store there and bought a papaya and a dragonfruit for more than I should have because I wanted some exotic fruit for my day on the beach. Then I walked back to Nelly and found the real hike.
The fake hike:
And the real one:
A little marsupial of some sort... possibly a kangaroo?
The hike took a while... also my papaya did not take kindly to being stuffed into my backpack all day. I checked into the hostel, which was quite nice. There were some British students (or just tourists) in my room. At least, I think they were British and I think they were all together. I didn't talk to any of them, and that was fine with me.
Next day I went to Picnic Bay for the 8 km walk to West Point, which is the closest to the mainland you can get. It's not really a hike, just a long unpaved road. It ends at a little beach with a few houses, but it goes through a nature reserve and some salt marshes, so I wanted to check it out.
There was an abandon building with this totally unsuspicious message scrawled on it:
But it was a little too dry for the waterfall to be running... I guess this is what they meant.
Salt Marsh:
I thought this was just a creek until I noticed the mantaray. It's an inlet.
Yes, it's salt water. I tasted it.
There were also some really interesting black and white striped fish in there, but I don't have pictures of them.
The eucalpyt forest part of the walk was also nice...
I saw a real, moving, awake echina! Sadly, it was not keen to have its picture taken, so you don't get to see its snout.
When I got to West Point, the tide was out, so there was a huge mud flat filled with various interesting invertebrates, so I played around there.
I also ate my now very-bruised papaya for lunch and relaxed for a while. I started walking back around 2:30, when a nice older-ish couple drove up and offered me a ride, which was nice because by that point I was a little unhappy about walking 3 hours to get back. They dropped me off at the grocery store, and I picked up some microwavable soup for dinner, which I made when I got back to the hostel.
Spent the evening in the hostel internet lounge (not on the internet, just in their comfy chairs), writing. (I'm working on a novel, but I don't like to say that aloud because saying that you're working on a novel when you're a blogger is about the most pretentious action imaginable.)
I realized some point on Saturday that I prefer to do things like this on my own. Once I get over being scared at being alone, I really like it much more than clinging to someone that I kinda know, or even than going with a good friend. But I also keep thinking "Oh, I'm so going to tell everyone about this! I'd better get a picture!"
I know that I'm from the most self-centered generation yet, what with our facebook pages and status updates and broadcasting our stupid thoughts on twitter all the time and getting blogs so we can tell EVERYONE ALL ABOUT how awesome our lives are. I wonder if Generation Me needs a poster child...
Anyway, Monday I woke up way too early, checked out, and took a bus down to where I went on my first trip, except this time I spent the morning doing the hike to "the Forts." The Forts are a trail up a small mountain to where the Australian WWII military base was, since you can see approaching ships from it and all. There are a few signs up with the history. Most of the buildings are complete ruins.
The busdriver and everyone else seemed to think I would see some koalas, since it was 7:30, but I didn't notice any... I did surprise a snake about the size of my leg. I was climbing around the ruins... I didn't see it approach, but given the reaction it gave, I think it must have almost run over me before it noticed and flipped out and ran the other way... which is a nice reverse of my usual interaction with snakes. (Pretty sure it was this one.)
There were also a lot of magpies:
The Forts were really cool, in a really eerie sort of way. I took a lot of pictures.
This one is a bit creepy... the building itself was the only one that was completely pitch-dark inside, and the smoke was not there when I took the picture. O.o
There were some bats hiding in it, though, so it can't be too haunted.
Mostly it was just foundations hidden by big rocks, though.
And, since it was supposed to be a lookout point, the views were fantastic.
After the hike I went down to the beach I went to last time and had a swim... Then took the ferry back downtown, got a sandwich in a coffee shop, and took the bus home.
I had the dragon fruit when I got back. they're very striking, but not particularly strong-flavored. I see why cooking sites recommend using them in salads.
This was the last week of classes. I was supposed to finish my final lab report on the Boulia trip, but I didn't. I'll have to do it during exams. It's 2 am here right now. My bus for Uluru leaves at 7 am... but the buses don't run on Sunday, so I had to beg a ride from someone else who's going, so I need to be at the Uni at 6:10... so I need to start walking at 5:30. I'm contemplating just not going to sleep.
More views and forts in the Magnetic Island album. Seriously, will someone PLEASE tell me how the photobucket is working for them? ANYONE?
