More Island Hopping

Refreshed and re-stocked,  we departed the small city of Townsville on a grey windless Saturday morning, motoring the two hours across the bay to Magnetic Island. Maggie Island as it is sometimes known is a popular holiday destination with pretty bays, nice beaches, forest covered hills and excellent ice-creams. We spent the night anchored in Horseshoe Bay, along with scores of boats of all kinds.

We took a long beach walk and we sampled the ice-creams. Of course.

One the beach we saw an Osprey with a decent sized catch of the day

We spent only the one night there, with a spectacular sunset.

Sunday was another windless day and so we motored 3 hours to our next anchorage in a narrow passage between two islands named Herald and Rattlesnake. 

It was an eventful journey. We saw dolphins and lots of whales including a mother and calf that were really close. And biggest surprise of all, I caught a fish! The previous owners of Pegasos had left us with some fishing tackle and lately I've taken to dragging a spinner behind the boat and today I had some success, a spotted mackerel. It made a fine dinner.

Herald, Rattlesnake and a couple of other nearby islands are part of yet another military practice area and every now and then the Royal Australian Air Force use the islands for live firing exercises. But there was no military exercise going on and we had both islands to ourselves, so we ignored the warning sign and went ashore on Herald Island for a short walk ...

... and to gut and clean my fish ...

... and take a skinny dip.

On Monday it was still calm and so yet again we motored to our next destination, Havannah Island.

It is always a bit disappointing when you can't use the sails on a sailboat and have to rely entirely on the noisy diesel engine to get anywhere. But we knew it was going to be calm for a few days and we used this as an opportunity to visit islands that don't have protected anchorages and are not often visited. And so at Havannah Island we were once again the only boat there and we had the entire island to ourselves.

Some of the beaches that are gleaming and white from the distance are not sand but coral rubble which is not so nice for walking on and certainly not without shoes.

The island has quite a nice fringing coral reef and we took the opportunity to do a bit of snorkeling.

Next day was still calm but our destination was close, only an hour of motoring past a couple of little islands.

We were entertained by a dolphin surfing our bow waves

Next up was Great Palm Island, another pretty, forested, hilly island but this one is inhabited.

It's home to a small Aboriginal community with a sad history of forced settlements, alcoholism and violence, but they seem to be doing alright nowadays.  I took a brief outing ashore (without my camera) and bought a few expensive pieces of fruit from the only shop. The place has lots of colour: in the clothes, the buildings, murals and of course the lush vegetation. With crowds of cheerful noisy people just hanging about it doesn't feel at all like rich white Australia, or any other first world country for that matter. But it's certainly not a third world village and there are no free ranging chickens or skinny stray dogs running about or desperate vegetable patches or any similar signs of poverty, yet the people are clearly not nearly as well off here as on the mainland.  There can't be any chance for employment outside of government services, but these people are obviously looked after.

We anchored near the end of the airstrip on Great Palm Island, which is served with several flights a day by little eggbeater airplanes.

We spent only one night before moving on again to Orpheus Island just 13 miles away. The trade winds have returned and so we sailed all the way and gave the engine a break. It was a pleasant trip with whales and dolphins. 

Orpheus is yet another stunningly beautiful, jungle covered, hilly coral-fringed tropical island paradise. There's some really nice coral here but it was windy and a bit too cold for swimming so we indulged in a lazy and comfortable way to view the reefs. The coral is shallow enough to be seen quite clearly from above the surface. So we took the dinghy out and slowly drifted over the reef and every few minutes we would don some goggles and hang over the sides of the boat with just our faces and my camera in the water.  

We saw lots of giant clams ...

... and pretty corals ...

Because that was so much fun we decided to stay here an extra day and do some more snorkeling and dinghy based reef exploring.  We went ashore to yet another gorgeous beach ...

and walked along a forest track to the top of the hill in the middle of the island.  

Pegasos anchored way off beyond the coral far below ...

Townsville

It's fabulous to experience a well maintained, clean, safe town with so many amenities freely available to the public and an efficient public transport system. Its an eye-opening experience for the average South African to see what could be achieved with our taxes instead of going into the pockets of corrupt officials. All along the Queensland coast we have enjoyed such towns and Townsville is no exception.

Needing to stretch our legs after a long sail, we went ashore on Sunday afternoon for a walk along The Strand promenade. It was busy with people strolling along the two and a half kilometre walkway along the beach front. There are several playgrounds for children, the usual BBQ facilities for families and a fantastic Water Park for children.

Green lawns, palm trees and a long beach - with great view of Magnetic Island across the bay.

We noticed several sculptures exhibited along The Strand and discovered that there were more than 30 exhibits - it's the biennial Strand Ephemera sculpture festival. Some of the exhibits are fragile, most can be touched and lasts the 10 days outdoors without being disturbed, removed or vandalised. Another new experience.

The following day we walked to Queens Botanical Gardens. Some interesting trees, especially the rain forest section. It was a bit disappointing in size but as Capetonians we are rather spoilt with magnificent Kirstenbosch. Queens Gardens is state heritage and dates back to 1870 and still has some of the oldest cultivated specimens in Australia. A huge multi rooted White Fig is one of the biggest I've seen.

Beer and pizza at a local pub went down well afterwards.

It's always intriguing for us to notice exotic (to us) birds such as the red-tailed black cockatoo flying noisily amongst the trees above our heads. We have only seen these types of birds in cages as people's pets. Sad really as in nature they are usually in groups clearly enjoying the social interactions.

On Tuesday we visited Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium which is the world's largest living coral reef aquarium. We had a great time and Robert managed to get up close with the cousin of the large groper that hung out under our boat in Nara Inlet. We have been told that they are curious gentle fish but we still need more convincing before swimming with these giant fish.

The Reef HQ aquarium lives up to its description of a reef aquarium and has lots of colourful reef fish, including reef sharks and rays.

We were invited for sundowners to a catamaran anchored close to us by Mike and Caroline on Vasco Pyjama. I was quite envious of their lush herb garden doing so well. I miss fiddling with my bonsais and herbs at home. Maybe next time around, I'll try growing herbs onboard too. And a bonsai or two.......

Still needing my green fix, we caught a bus on Wednesday to another botanical garden, The Palmetum. This one is spectacular. It features palm trees almost exclusively, about 300 species in a scenic setting. It covers a range of habitats from dry tropics to rainforest. I didn't know palm trees grow in a rainforest!

We heard rustling sounds in the rainforest undergrowth and discovered it was a few wallabies. Smaller and cuter than the bigger kangaroos and one had a baby wallaby in her pouch.

After my tree fix it was Robert's turn for his mountain fix so on Thursday we set off for a walk up Castle Hill. It's midwinter here but the temperature was 27 degrees. Robert chose the longest track up - over 1 km of about 1,420 steps. I felt the heat get to me immediately and regretted every 1,420 step as I huffed and puffed sweatily along the trail behind Robert who could have done it in half the time. The views at the top are super but I was too absorbed with staying in a small bit of shade to appreciate much viewing so Robert was left to climb a few more steps to a better lookout point.

The best part of the day for me was a quick swim off the beach when we got back to The Strand. The water here is murky and shark infested but I didn't care - it was so nice after the hot walk and the beach appeared to have a swimming net.

We decided that Friday would be our last day in Townsville so Robert topped up with water and fuel at the marina and we went for a walk around the oldest part of the town before topping up with provisions. We stopped at a local pub in one of the historical buildings for Queensland's favourite XXXX and enjoyed the beer and fashion ensemble of some local patrons.