Townsville & Magnetic Island

We arrived into Townsville after lunch and spent the afternoon trying to get Georgie an opticians appointment (her contact lenses are playing up...Rowan: Georgie needs laser for her b-day)....failing at that we went for wander along Esplanade playing on the numerous kids playparks and exercise machines - all provided free of charge! Ok, so not the most exciting day but Townsville was pleasant enough! Ate our 1kg of cold beef that night made into a Roast dinner (of sorts!).
Caught the first ferry in morning across to 'Maggie' Island and on first impressions are hostel looked pretty good....large pool and bar area! That was until we were shown to our tiny 10 bed dorm and even smaller kitchen, 2 hotplates for 150 guests!!! Went off that afternoon to explore the island via the numerous walking tracks.....these turned out to be through some of the most bland scenery ever, in the World, Universe, Galaxy....etc. That evening on the island was the highly anticipated 'Full Moon Party'....everyone was going not including us, so there was a real vibe to our hostel, everyone up for getting on the lash! But not in the bar (far too expensive), instead we had big party in room two doors up from us hosted by a couple of Scots guys we knew from our Surf Tour. All against the hostel's no BYO rules, to the extent of getting a visit from the on site security guard...he however was ignored by all and in the end had to adopt an 'if you can't beat them, join them' policy - stood in the corner of the room drinking a beer, fantastic!!! Can't beat a bit of healthy rebellion! All the party goers dissappeared about midnight ready to spend a lot of money on a night very few of them remembered the next day! Turns out you couldn't even see the moon!
The 2nd day saw us take ona 28km walk by mistake....supposed to heading for a beach to go and chill out, instead found ourselves wandering a long dusty road with very little to see....on closer inspection of the guide book we realised we'd mucked up by only looking at the pictures and not reading about it - turns out there was no beach until the very end of the 14km road!!! Bloody good exercise, much better than lying in your pit all day (like everyone else had!). Had a more relaxed evening, beers on the beach whilst the sun went down!
Left the following day heading North to Cardwell!