Scuddleston In Oz (and other places): Wild Maggie

We got an early start today and were the first customers to Townsville’s information center this morning. Estelle and Gaila – two lovely elderly ladies wearing bright pink lipstick who volunteer at the tourist info center – stocked us with books, warned us to be croc wise, told us some funny stories and sent us on our way.
After a quick stop at McDonald’s for our WiFi fix we hopped yet another ferry to Magnetic Island, or “Maggie” as it is known by the locals. Twenty minutes later, armed with sandwiches and our snorkeling gear, we were on the shores Maggie ready for our day’s adventure. Yet again our camper had to stay on the mainland (only a few lonely hours this time) so we were at the mercy of public transport (gasp!) and our feet to get us around the island. We hopped off the bus at a lovely swimming beach, but decided to start our walk before getting wet. We crossed a well manicured field by the beach and came upon an echidna – nature’s cross between a porcupine and an anteater. About the size of a bowling ball, this spiny critter was shoving his long nose into the ground searching for (we think) bugs or ants or some such deliciousness. We were able to get pretty close and he seemed wholly unaware that he was the subject of our photo shoot. (We may have been the equivalent of crazy foreign tourists who take pictures of squirrels, but we didn’t care – the little fella’ was so neat!) 80 photos later, we commenced our walk up the island’s hills. We followed a walking trail that was for sure ridden with Death Adders and other scary things that could kill us, and ended up on a cool path where we spotted wild koalas in the trees. They are so interesting! Frankly, they don’t do very much other than look cute, and their furry grey bums are quite hard to spot, but we enjoyed the search nonetheless. We eventually made it down to Arthur Bay – beautiful blue waters emerging from giant boulder fields on the side of the protected cove. There was great snorkeling in the fringing reef just offshore. We saw lots of corals and colorful fish and snorkeled till it was too cold to do anymore. We hoofed it back up a serious hill, spotting a rock wallaby (like a mini kangaroo) en route and caught a bus to the ferry back to the mainland. A great day!