Magnetic Island, Tropical North Queensland

** WARNING: smarmy, boastful traveller alert **

Day 1: Where am I? How does this work? What should we do?

Day 2: Magnetic Island is me. There is no Sydney. Sorry, friends who are reading this, but you do not exist. This is Island Time.

The island looks like a huge James Bond set - massive boulders jut out of tropical plants - I'm sure Dr No has an evil lair somewhere under all those boulders. Only he's kind of mellowed out and goes snorkelling these days, rather than plotting mass destruction. More like 'Dr No Worries', rather than Dr No. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it's beautiful here.

If I haven't been eating exotic fauna, I have been ploughing through undergrowth trying to photograph it. I think I saw a Brahmin Kite yesterday, a Sea Eagle, a Potteroo and some weird yellow and white birds that attacked us. Plus something nibbled on my finger in the ocean today (God knows - it's Queensland), so maybe the fauna are fighting back. The campsite rings to the mournful cries of big-eyed curlews, who sneak in amongst the tables begging for food.











Day 4: Water visibility has been crap so far, so I rented a scooter yesterday and whizzed up and down the island. Got to see ultra-cute Rock Wallabies that bounce out as soon as they hear a motor, hoping to be fed. The wildlife is rather carefully semi-tame in these tourist spots - everything is bribed to hang around - birds, reef fish are all fed.









Some of the creatures in QLD look prehistoric. Weird bits hang off their faces for no reason. QLD is another space and time to Sydney - something gets quite warped on the way up here - but I like it.

Possums - Mum and baby? - hang out right outside my hut, lorrikeets whiz around, curlews give you the wide-eyed orphan treatment. Cornucopia. Albino lizards jump around the toilets and you have to step on big ants to go to the urinal - they never go away.









Day 5: Went to Kelso reef today. Much better snorkelling than we'd feared due to choppy seas and threat of Rain at Magnetic. Apart from a bumpy trip (much puking on board) it was fine; the sea at the reef was smooth, due to fringing reef, and the sun blazed.

Good job it did in some ways - I'd hate to see the coral on a dull day. It's already 50% paler than the coral I saw off Cairns (in my memory, at least). It's like coral viewed via SBS on a rainy day.

The fish were fin-tastic, though. I must have seen 50 species of fish, all beautiful. It's a living work of art out there, constantly recreating shapes and patterns. We even saw two turtles fucking. "Can't you go a bit faster, dear?".

And so ends a lovely holiday. Magnetic Island is lovely, slow, bountiful and tropical. But six days has covered it nicely!