Our first stop of the day is a 20 minute walk from the hotel – the Sealink ferry terminal

It’s hot out, the ferry terminal is rammed

We grab coffees and board to the top deck

20 minutes and we arrive at Nelly Bay on Magnetic island – home to the largest population of Koalas in northern Australia

Originally named Magnetical Island by James Cook in 1770, it was thought that the topography caused his ship’s compass to behave erratically.

We make it to land after getting a little wet from some big waves, and take a stroll through the bush and along the coast to Geoffrey Bay where we stop at The Bikini Tree Cafe & Restaurant for a couple of Baramundi and chips

Post lunch we head to the dive shop to check out a snorkel hire for the Geoffrey Bay Snorkel Trail – but alas they warn us the water is so murky we will see nothing – in fact a whole school trip is just waiting around as they were meant to go and it just wasn’t any good

So we head around the bay to the rocks – and see a couple of rock wallabies saying hello! But then.. a baby rock wallaby shows up ????

We venture further around the boulders and encounter another 3 in a cave – 2 are skittish but one stays put, had some noms on some pellets and even lets us stroke its butt

We then head up to the Forts walk (via bus this time) and do the 5km loop taking in the old ww2 camp – we even see a load of micro bats nustling in the old ammunition store!

On the way back we even spot 2 koalas – one high up but the other nice and close

We then catch the bus to Horseshoe Bay where we head to the beach and go for a swim in our first stinger net! We have a lovely swim watching the sunset

Post swim shower, we head to Marlin Bar Tavern for a bite to eat as we watch the waves slowly go into darkness

Some beers and pizzas for us

We catch the bus back to the ferry – but this time it’s dark and the bus driver is a little mental – so it turns into a party bus – including a cracking rendition of “the wheels on the bus” with real life honking and window wipers, etc

Our rave bus drops us at the ferry terminal, we get on board and have an extremely choppy ride back!

To recover a few beers back in the Townsville brewery co before we stumble on home