26.09.2018

26.09.2018 4days in townsville

                        Magnetic Island

I got up early at 7am but made sure to take my time, getting ready, packing my things, making some lunch for once I'm there.

Then I made my way to the townsville  ferry. Though I hadnt looked at the departure, I was perfectly on time and could immediatly get on the ferry.

After around 30mins we arrived at magnetic island. I downloaded a map of the island before and also heard some recommandations about certain viewing points. I had a look at the different buses, shuttles, taxis, bike hires they all seemed very usefull but had one flaw incommon. They costed money. And I already paid for the ferry which wasnt the cheapest either. So I decided to walk.

And walk I did, sweating and panting I followed the koala path all the way to "the forts". I actually saw a few wild koalas just hanging out in their trees, not doing much. Just like at lone pine. 

The forts was an old military post where soldiers were on the lookout for enemy's. You could see where the old canons were standing, the ammunition and the command post. There was an amazing view up there. In an attempt to see even more I climbed over a few rocks to the edge. And indeed the view was even better here. Though when I wanted to go back I noticed that it was easy to get here put kinda difficult to go back. After trying to climb it I gave up and decided to just leap back instead. The gap wasnt to big but the fact that it was kind of going a few meters straight down was a little unsettling. I gained some speed and jumped back, though when I landed my water bottle fell out of my backpack and the lid broke off. I managed to catch the bottle but for the rest of the day it would constantly splash me with water coming out of the now unsealed top.

I went back and headed to horseshoe bay. From the fort I saw a few jet skies at that bay and I knew that you were able to hire them. After another tiring walk I left the forts behind me and arrived at the bay. With that I had walked from one side of the island, the ferry's, to the other side the horseshoe bay. My legs hurt. Though my head hurt even more when I saw that for 30min jetskiing you had to pay 100$.

After walking back and forth for quite a while I decided to do it anyway, just this once. However in the mean time they got completly booked out. I spent some time at the bay, swimming and reading. Then I decided to slowly but surely head back, it was already 4:30pm.

At the bus stop I walked back and forth for a bit aswell. In the end I decided to not get a ticket and just walk back. I had already crossed the island once I can do it again. My legs started to disagree after the first few 100meters. However this way I stumbeld over the wallaby path that dennis had told me about. And there were actually wallaby's there eating some food that was probably placed there by some workers. This is one of the few times were these nature paths were you "might" see an animal were a complete success. Also now I had seen these animals in the wild and interacted with them at lone pine.

It started getting dark when I reached the ferry again. Though I was pretty hungry, I did have some sandwiches but for walking around all day that wasnt really enough. So before I went to the ferry I walked to the scallywags pirate cafe. There they had a variety of meals and burgers. Going through I discovered a burger twice as expensive as the others and needed three times as many lines to describe the amount of awesomeness that this burger had. Since I hadn't spent any money on this island so far I decided that this would be the one. The EXTREM-O BURGER.

After waiting for around 10-15minutes for the monstrosity to be created the plate got placed infront of me. And the plate was just barely enough. I immediatly regretted that I ordered some fries aswell. This thing was massive, I could barely hold it with both my hands. It had double beef, bacon, onions, lettuce, carrots, bbq sauce, salad dressing and you know these wooden sticks they sometimes put in the burger  to hold it together? IT NEEDED 2 OF THEM! This was all I ever wanted but also a challenge that I wasnt sure if I was ready to face it. The works burger that I had in brisbane seemed like a baby compared to this commander of burgers.

I grabbed it and took a big, firm bite out of EXTREM-O, it tasted amazing, this was actuall meat and bacon, just like cutting into a well made steak I could see the dark red muscle flesh and the red liquid started to drip on the plate. The EXTREM-O was wounded but far away from defeat. Another bite and the EXTREM-O's guts sprayed all over my face, a piece of carot hit my eye, lettuce sticking on my cheek, a small girl who was just walking past looked into my face and saw the lust for blood in my eyes and immediatly started running towards her parents. It took a long time, the battle kept shifting from side to side, but finally I was able to take one last bite and wit that, my chin dripping with bbq sauce and salad dressing. I had won, sweet delicious victory. 

Before my stomach could fully seal itself I started throwing down the fries. I wouldnt feel hunger ever again. This burger was a worthy oppenent, maybe even a bit to worthy. I stood up from my seat, a little to fast it seemed as my vision went black and I had to sit back down again. Slowly but surely I made my way back to the ferry I hope they have enough space because currently I felt like I count as 3 people.

The ferry arrived and a lot of passengers equipped with luggage and backpacks left it returning to magnetic island. Kind of interesting that while we spent a day here they had a their day at the mainland. 

I crawled my way back home not sure if my stomach would ever trust me enough again to accept the food I give him. 

After a shower I will pretty much go directly to bed. Not only because I am very tired but also because tomorrow is going to be my first day of diving. Hope it goes through this time.