Koalas on Magnetic Island

May 28th, 2003 at 12:00am

Getting very monotonous, these entries about long days, the heat, the traffic, and not much scenery. Today was another of those days. Good news is that I’m closer to Cairns. Bad news is that the new parts for my handle bar bag never arrived in Townsville and I’m stuck having to tie the stupid bag to the back of the bike. And I STILL cannot find bungy cords anywhere in this country. Very frustrating! I’ve been dealing with the Canadian company Arkel, trying to get new parts sent, but no far to no avail.

Yesterday I had a very enjoyable rest day and took a trip to Magnetic Island for the day, only 20 minutes by ferry from Townsville. The island itself is nice with several good beaches, but the best thing for me was doing one of the walks through the forest and seeing 4 koalas in the wild. I was so excited! They’re not easy to spot because they sit in the crook of the branches and sleep all day so I was really happy to have found four! Apparently the koala population on the island is around 2000 so you have a good chance of finding one if you look. There’s only 12 km of road on the island and I used the bus service to go up and down and check out the beaches as well.

Today I got a late start out of Townsville because I was checking for any parcels at the post office and then doing email to try to find out what’s happening with the bike parts. I also stopped at 3 bike shops before leaving in hopes of someone having any type of mounting system I would try to use but it was hopeless.

So I’m a bit closer to Cairns now, maybe 4 days to go from here. I’m staying at a beautiful caravan park right on the beach with absolutely nothing else around and I have the only tent in the unpowered area so I’ve got no neighbors tonight, only the sound of the ocean waves and that’s cool with me.

Distance: 79.96 km
Time: 3 hr 58 minutes
Avg Speed: 20.2 km/hr

Koala!

Another koala!!

Views from the Fort Walk, Magnetic Island

Entry Filed under: Australia,Cycling,Townsville