Magnetic Island

It would have cost quite a bit to take the van across to the island so we decided to go as foot passengers and booked a little villa in Nelly Bay near the beach. It was a chance for a little luxury after all the communal toilet blocks and dirty showers.

The place was beautiful and very quiet. We arrived to find the key was simply sitting in the lock and we let ourselves in.....There was a mezzanine bedroom that overlooked the lounge diner, a big soft bed, fluffy pillows, a sofa, a massive wide screen tv....all a little bit of an extravegance but we never said we we're going to rough it the whole time : )

From reading the visitors guide the best place to see Koala's in their natural habitat was on a 4km walk to the top of the island called 'The Forts' It was where all the forts were built in WWII as look out points and some of the ruins remain. The guide said afternoon was best to catch the little fellas, so after spending the morning sunning ourselves at Horseshoe bay we wandered across to start the climb. We started slowly, eyes pealed, continualy looking up, left and right (nevermind what we were steping on! apparently there were 'DEATH ADDERS' in the area which we had to watch out for, you can tell from the name that these weren't friendlys)

After walking up hill, on rough terrain, in the baking afternoon sun for about 1hr and still not seeing a bloody thing we were getting a little bored. Then, typically, as soon as you stop looking I saw one! I glanced across to the right and squinted, firstly it looked like just part of the tree but as I looked harder I could see that it was furry. Our first Koala sighting and not only that, it was a mum and baby! How very exciting and incredibly cute. I was so pleased we got to see them in the wild in their natural habitat rather than a zoo for example. It made the climb all worth it. We continued up to the top but sadly didn't see anymore but then, again while I was not really looking, I saw a furry grey bum hiding in the trees, sadly didn't get to see his face but he was there none the less.

A really good afternoon spent walking on magnetic island. Oh and the view from the top was bloody amazing too!

We saw more wildlife on magnetic island than we have seen our entire holiday so far, and to think we weren't going to bother going across, I am so pleased that we did.