26.09.2018

26.09.2018 4 days 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 hadn't looked at the departure, I was perfectly on time and could immediately get on the ferry.

After around 30 minutes we arrived at Magnetic Island. I downloaded a map of the island before and also heard some recommendations about certain viewing points. I had a look at the different buses, shuttles, taxis, bike hires - they all seemed very useful but had one flaw in common. They costed money. And I already paid for the ferry which wasn't 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 enemies. You could see where the old cannons 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 but kinda difficult to go back. After trying to climb it, I gave up and decided to just leap back instead. The gap wasn't too 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 skis 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 ferries, to the other side - the Horseshoe Bay. My legs hurt. Though my head hurt even more when I saw that for 30 minutes of jet skiing, 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 meantime, they got completely 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 as well. 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 hundred meters. However, this way I stumbled over the wallaby path that Dennis had told me about. And there were actually wallabies there eating some food that was probably placed there by some workers. This is one of the few times where these nature paths where 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 wasn't 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 10-15 minutes for the monstrosity to be created, the plate got placed in front of me. And the plate was just barely enough. I immediately regretted that I ordered some fries as well. 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 wasn't sure if I was ready to face. 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 actual 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 carrot 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 immediately 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 with 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 wouldn't feel hunger ever again. This burger was a worthy opponent, maybe even a bit too worthy. I stood up from my seat, a little too 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 counted 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 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.