August 18 Townsville

We were up early this morning to catch the 7.45 am ferry to Magnetic Island. It’s about 8 km from Townsville and the trip takes about 20 minutes so the day was still young by the time we got there. Allan loves being a Senior and can’t wait until mum is too – the adult fare (mum) was $29 while mine was only $14.50. I shouldn’t complain too much because just about every time there’s been a Senior concession I’ve been able to get it for mum as well – rarely does anyone ask to see the Seniors Card. Having said that, Sunsea Ferries weren’t going to give the concession without sighting a card for each of us!
We both thoroughly enjoyed Magnetic Island – we were totally unprepared for the rugged nature of it – lots of granite outcrops and steep hills. The bus service runs around the villages and for $3 each (Seniors price of course!) we had unlimited on/off travel for the day.
We began at Picnic Bay and walked to a lookout with a fabulous view over parts of the island and across towards Townsville. On the way back down we met three Dutch backpackers who were excited because they’d been in Australia for 8 months and just seen their first snake!
We walked over the hill and back to Nelly Bay where the ferry terminal is. Mum was a bit concerned that walking was going to take too long but we saw a number of information signs and things we wouldn’t have seen if we’d taken the bus. From Nelly Bay we climbed over the hill to the next bay and a place called Arcadia. It was on the shore of an attractive bay with a beautiful sandy beach – mum was happy because she found a lot of coral and shells.
Over the next hill and we came to one of the most attractive places on the island, Alma Bay. It was only a small beach but with attractive rocky outcrops coming all the way down to the beach at each end. The park behind the beach was beautiful with a green lawn with picnic shelters and a playground below lots of shade trees.
The next bay, Horseshoe Bay, was a bit far to walk to so we caught the bus and were very glad we did as it was quite a climb. Horseshoe Bay was also a very attractive place and the largest and most commercial of the villages/towns.
When we got to Horseshoe Bay we were in mobile range and there was a call from the repairer. He had an exchange torque converter but Brisbane had informed him that our torque converter wasn’t really faulty and it appears the problem may also be in the gear box. He’d indicated last Friday that he and his off-sider weren’t completely convinced that the whine was coming from the converter. They thought it was, but couldn’t be certain. As a result he’s going to “open-up” the gear box and see what’s going on. My reaction was something like, “Oh no!” He said he could put the converter back in but if the noise was still there the whole thing would have to come back out again. We’ve got our fingers crossed but it doesn’t sound good.
We just heard on the news that over 80 000 people attended last week’s Culture Fest. It was the biggest ever!
These Queenslanders are just so parochial. Last week when the women’s 4 x 200 relay team won gold it wasn’t the Australian team; it was the team of “four Queenslanders”. Emma Snosill’s gold in the triathlon has been won by “Queensland, Gold Coast competitor”. Question just asked on the news – “Why are Queensland athletes dominating the medal count?”