The Jo Guest Posse – Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island is located just off the coast of Townsville, just a short boat ride away.  Supposedly it got the name after Captain Cooks ship compass started to go wrong leading him to believe that the Island had magnetic properties. To date this has not been proven.

As well as this it is another well trodden path on the backpacker trail with everyone pretty much staying in the only hostel on the Island.

The hostel itself was a bit rough around the edges but it did the job. After all, we had stayed in worse places already.   We hadn't counted on being wooken at stupid o’clock on the first morning by the weirdest noise we had ever heard and were convinced that this was the end and we were being called to judgement.  We later found out that this was just the call of the Curlew, a native bird to Australia and quite common place on Magnetic Island.  Wildlife was rife on Magnetic Island and every night the Hostel played host to a visiting Possum who came in to see if there was any food he could scrounge.  He would climb in through the roof and come down the pillars before grabbing anything he could lay a paw to and then head off back to the roof to consume his ill-gotten gains.

The main beach on our side of the island is Horseshoe bay, i am guessing it was given this name because the beach is shaped like a horseshoe.

One day we decided to hire jet skis, we had a great laugh.  We were under orders to keep our distance from each other.  We had to stay 10m apart the whole time.  We took out 3 vehicles, 2 wave runners which allow you to sit on them and one actual Jet ski which is really hard work as it has no seat so you either have to stand or kneel to drive them.

The owner was not impressed when our time was up as I came back in on the Jetski that Ian had taken out and he turned up on my wave runner.  Ian had got tired while on the Jet ski so we had swapped while we were out.

My confidence in the water was getting better by this point, I was still not a great swimmer but I was less worried about sinking and there were people around looking out for me.  This was best demonstrated when we all went out on a boat trip.  We actually went out on a catamaran so there was no hull on the boat.  First of all we sat in the cargo nets at the side of the boat and let the waves splash up onto us then the captain told us we could jump off the boat…...We could actually jump off the front of the boat while it was moving.  I was still a little undure of this st first but once I had done it and grabbed hold of the rope beneath the boat I loved it.  I must have done it 3 or 4 times and each time I stayed underneath the boat for a little longer and let it pull me along before I made my way back onto the boat.  Even this could not prepare me for what happened next, we pulled up into a small cove and were shown a rock on the beach.

The captain asked if anyone fancied jumping off this, naturally not many people stepped forward until he assured us it was safe.  The trek up to the top wasn’t easy, we had to negotiate razor shells and sharp rocks and we were all barefoot as we were all going off the top, 40 foot down into 9 foot of water.  It is amazing how things look different with a new perspective. The rock didn’t look very big from the boat, from the top it was a very different story but we were filled with Bravado and thought that the first person to go off the rock would really impress the Italian Girl, this may have been true but the Italian Girl was the first one to go.  After this we all felt a little silly and didn’t want to be there anymore.  A few other brave souls went followed by Steve.  This just left me, Ian and Kev as the 3 cowards of chicken rock.  Ian kept asking me if I wanted to climb back down.  I kept saying I did but never moved.  He looked at me and said “You are going to do it aren’t you” I half nodded, I did want to do it. I was scared but I wanted to do it.  Next thing I knew Ian was in the water.  He told me later that he had no intention of being stuck up there in his own.  As he surfaced and started the swim back to the boat I was on the way down, his jump was all the encouragement I needed.  This left Kev as the last Brit on the Rock.  What I should have mentioned is that the jump isn’t that simple, there is a bit of an overhang so if you just jump off the rock you will catch the overhang on the way down, you need to take 2 steps down the rock face and jump out rather than down, We saw Kev step down a few times, look into the water and then step back.  The third time he did it he seemed to decide on the jump then changed his mind only to lose his footing and stumble.  He did kick away from the rock at the last minute but the splash was not the neat little ripple that everyone else had demonstrated, he went with a crash.  Everyone on the boat screamed and even the captain winced.  After what seemed like minutes but could have only been a few seconds Kev surfaced, unhurt but shaken.

After our traumatic day we needed a drink so we got a few beers from the bottle shop and somehow decided on a game of Trivial Pursuit, Australian edition.  Someone produced a bottle of Bundaberg Rum and it turned into a drinking game. As it was the Australian edition we really struggled with the questions so decided that we’d change the rules slightly and the other 3 would have to drink if you got the question right.  For some reason we decided to stitch up Steve. His glass was always the fullest and pretty soon we could show each other the answers without him noticing.  Steve was really funny when he was drunk and ate more toast than anyone I have ever seen.

Next day was a subdued one, we went to the zoo. We saw Wombats, and lots of other native Australian animals and got the chance to hold a Koala.  
The Kangaroo enclosure was pretty intense.  This was a paddock that we could walk around and get close to the kangaroos.  Maybe a little too close, one Japanese girl was trying to get close and take a picture of one of the big reds but instead of getting the photo she was grabbed by him and he started to lash out at her.  We all ran to assist and he reared up in his hind legs, I think Steve must have still been suffering from the night before as instead of backing down he put his fists up and shouted “Come on then”.  The 7 foot beast backed off and hopped away.

A few days later we were at the bus depot it Townsville seeing Steve off, he said he’d catch up with us in a few weeks but we never saw him again. I think he enjoyed his time with us but it may have veen just a little too much for him.