Magnetic Island 24 – 26 August 2014

We awoke on Sunday morning to another beautiful sunrise, picked up Judy and Bill and caught the barge across to Magnetic Island, a short 20 minute trip. We didn’t know what to expect, but we had hired a delightful (but old) house right on the beach at Nelly Bay. A friend of ours (Ingrid James) was preforming at the Magnetic Island Jazz Festival, so we headed off to catch up with her. The concerts were held in a pub just across from the beach at Arcadia. Magnetic Island consists of a number of villages with their own beaches, surrounded by national park. Each beach has a different aspect and its own delightful character. On Monday night we drove south to Cockle Bay to watch the sunset. We found a sheltered spot right next to an old fisherman’s shack that was literally right on the beach that can only be accessed across the sand, in fact we were told that during king tides they moor their boat on the front veranda! The next day we went to Arcadia and snorkelled at beautiful Alma Beach. This is a tiny sheltered beach in the shape of a horseshoe and we saw lots of tropical fish and some large coral. The next day we went to Picnic Bay for a seafood lunch in the pub – another attractive village with a row of Curtain Fig Trees growing along the esplanade. We explored the rest of the island and watched another beautiful sunset at West Point, a tiny settlement on the western end of the island. We were surprised with how much we packed into four days and will defiantly come back again.