Magnetic Island

The very sound of the name Magnetic Island was irresistible. No way we were going to drive past it without visiting.Its name was given by Cpt Cook whose compass endlessly gyrated while sailing past this island.

We boarded the FantaSea ferry barge with a huge grader next to our campervan.

The island is small scale. There is only one winding, steep, thickly forested hill road, 10km long. It joins a handful of villages with their bays, beaches, cafes, boutiques. Traffic is sparse, mostly mini-Mokes and topless cars. We even saw a hyper mini tent on trailer contraption:

It has a distinct feel of the Seychelles with granite boulders, beautiful beaches and slow paced island life.

We camped at YHA Bungalow Bay Koala Lodge, a lovely campsite with lounging wallabies, screeching bats, patrolling scrub fowl, bush curlews calling, and chickens scratching.

A daily afternoon feeding session attracted hundreds of rainbow lorikeets which landed and dug sharp toes into the crowd. The slightest sight of suspect overhead raptor activity spooked them into a panicked screeching retreat.

There was only one other camper beside us, with a giant tent and no vehicle. Doug, a 50 year old trueblood international backpacker from Melbourne, spent 5 1/2 yrs on the road. As a trained homeopathic doctor, he stayed a year in Peru treating the Matses Indians for malaria.

In return, the Matses initiated him in night vision hunting, by burning a small area of his chest and applying frog excrescences on the resulting blister. Soon he was vomiting, then fell asleep. Upon waking up in the dark, he realised that his vision was as a good as in the day time.

Another of his experiences was to cross the Darien Gap in Central America with a Kuna guide.

Next day, we walked to a magic thicket full of hundreds of blue tiger butterflies and ferocious mozzies. Butterflies come here to hibernate before mating and dispersing. It was an astonishing show of nature.

Then followed a tough walk from Horseshoe Bay over the hill to Balding Bay. Robert thought that bald was appropriate but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a nudist beach. He congratulated himself on bringing his binoculars. After all, tits are birds too!