Day 38 – Townsville to Magnetic Island

On the ferry to Magnetic Island
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The Great Barrier Reef is bit out of reach from Townsville as it is much further out than at Cairns. However, the best diving spot is a shipwreck that sunk just in front of the coast. Similar to Cairns, the dive boats leave early in the morning and we missed this. The second best thing to do (so we decided) is to visit Magnetic Island. This island is located just a twenty minute ferry ride from the mainland. The island is quite small and the sealed roads all together are just 12 km long. We did not take our car across but rented a small topless car, because we didn’t pre-book, we ended up with a nice pink one. They drive a bit like a go-kart without power steering, no side doors and very low. But they are fun and an easy way to get around the island.

Our car.. nice colour!
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We checked into our Hotel just after arrival and then made our way to the beaches. Not used to such small distances, we overshot the first beach and landed all the way up on the last one. We drove back and had a first snorkelling trip there. The water is very shallow and you can walk for a good 50 meters without being more than knee deep in water. The water is warm. However, the visibility was maybe only 5 meters. We saw some corals and fishes, but the majority was seagrass. After about an hour we decided to move on.

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According to a recommendation the best snorkelling beach is Florence beach which we cannot access with your car, but need to walk for about 25 minutes. We parked our car, took our snorkelling gear and started to walk. The street was steep downhill and after about 10 minutes we reached a small bridge. Four guys with spears and snorkels were just making their way to the bushes and told us that snorkelling on this beach was great as you can see corals and quite a number of different fishes. Heated up from the afternoon sun, we followed them to a secluded beach and while they were going to the right to hunt we went to the left for snorkelling. The visibility was a bit better and there was much more marine life. We swam quite a fair bit out along the coast, between stones, seagrass, corals and fishes. We had to swim back to shore against the tide and we got a bit tired after 1 ½ hours of snorkelling.

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We climbed the street up to our car and drove back to the hotel. It was a good time to see and enjoy the swimming pool and had a drink at the bar. We decided to have dinner at the hotel too. The food was good and the portions quite big. Tonight the hotel is not busy with only 4 rooms rented. We enjoy the quiet tropical sunset and have an early night so we get up early for the diving.