The Forts Walk - Magnetic Island |
We departed from the marina in Townsville on the morning of the 17th and headed back to an old favourite, Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island, where we caught up with Gail and Ian Pearse (L'etoile)from down south who have been enjoying a few days with friends at the Lotus House. We decided rather than rush off we would enjoy a few more nights at Maggie, especially as the weather is continuing to be rather nice. We enjoyed this time and did the walk to The Forts, which was the forward defence for Townsville during the Battle of the Coral Sea which was pretty much fought on the door step of Townsville. We also walked down to Acadia which is the other main town on Maggie Island and stopped in at Gilligan's cafe' for a coffee and morning tea.
Maggie Island Local |
View from Maggie |
Site of Leper Colony - Fantome Island |
Navy on Patrol -Juno Bay |
Zoe Falls |
Zoe Bay |
As Zoe Bay is totally exposed to the East we figured it is a better option to anchor up for the night in Little Ramsay Bay which is only a further 5NM north and has much more protected and ended up spending a couple of nights there on the pick which were a bit rolly but certainly worth it to get to spend some time on Hinchinbrook. The anchorage is quite spectacular as there is jungle down to the beach and has the mighty Mt Bowen as a back drop. There are also the well known Achtung Signs around warning that Crocodiles have been seen so we are pretty careful when making our beach landings! The world re-known Thorsborne Walking Trail extends for 32kms along the eastern of the island with camping sites along it length. Luckily enough we were able to walk on some of this trail from the anchorage at Little Ramsay to the north end of Zoe Bay and return which was fantastic and can see why so many people make the effort to walk this track. During our stop in Little Ramsay we were also joined by some of those very intrepid Sea Kayakers that were also enjoying their visit to Hinchinbrook.
View of Mt Bowen - Hinchinbrook Island |
As we are moored right next to the reef we figure it is a good opportunity to hit the water again and enjoy some snorkelling and we weren't disappointed as the bay has some beautiful hard corals. We also took a dinghy ride down to Pioneer Bay (about 1nm) to see if we could have a look around the James Cook University Research Centre but unfortunately our timing is not good so that one got ruled out however, we did go and have a look at the Giant Clam Garden which was very impressive with huge numbers of clams over 1mt across. As our visit was at low tide we also got to see the Squirting Giant Clams which very much reminded us of the water feature in the Crown Casino at home - it is worth googling this as their are a number of you-tube clips showing this phenomenon
View from Orpheus Island |
Luckily the good weather is continuing so I think we might be off for another snorkel this arvo or at least a couple of swims. Tomorrow the plan is to head off early to meet the tide going into the entrance of the Hinchinbrook Channel at Lucinda and head up to Haycock Island for the evening.
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