We Found Paradise

On our drive to Airlie Bay we got a hot tip from the proprietor of a roadhouse where we stopped for icecream bars.  He said Magnetic Island off Townsville was our best bet.

So we drove 4 hours north through mango orchards

The big Mango, Bowen, Qld

and sugarcane fields and caught the 35 minute ferry from Townsville  (no seasickness required).

We stayed in a motel in Arcadia,

one of 4 settlements on the island, each about 5 minutes away from the next.

Connie's dream cottage in Arcadia

We liked Arcadia best because it had no large developments and because of the excellent protected swimming beach at Alma Bay a few steps from our motel.

We had roast supper at the local RSL (Returned and Services League, the Aussie Legion).  I was telling Leo it was our most nutritious meal yet in Australua, 3 vegetables!  Although it came with a fair sized slab of crackling pork rind!

We were told to go to the rocky point at the end of town to see the rock wallabies that cone down to be fed every evening.  We don't sanction the feeding of wild animals (although we maintain bird feeders ourselves) but we're not fussy when it comes to taking photographs.

This one has a joey!  See its little foot?

At least they were feeding them vegetables instead of cheesie bops.
Rock wallabies are tiny kangaroos but bigger than a pademelon.  There was some dispute about which was cuter.  Pademelons win!  In my estimation, by virtue of being tinier.

The next morning we got up at 6 am to climb up to the Forts, where we were told was our best chance to see koalas.  The locals in the know were already returning from their morning walks.  We and the rest of the tourists struggled up in the heat and humidity.  Nobody was seeing any koalas.

Good views though.

Hot and sweaty tourist trying to hide her disappointment

But on the way back we spotted

Spot the koala

not a koala, but a dead stub of a branch!

Following a shower, some rest and recuperation in the AC, a dip in Alma Bay, a few more showers, a driving tour of the settlements of Magnetic Island, including fish and chips in Horseshoe Bay (barramundi!), another shower, it was evening and we ventured outside again.  

One last chance to find a koala.  We hike up into the hills again and as the sun went down we knew we had to turn around before dark.  We walked the last 250 metres to the Spynx lookout and lo and behold

Money shot! And just as we imagined it.

As dusk fell and we returned to our motel through the residential streets we saw these improbable guys wandering about:

The Orange-footed Scrub Fowl like the brush turkey builds a mound and buries its egg in it.

The orange-footed scrub Fowl mates for life, which we humans seem to love, but they also abandon their offspring after they lay the egg, leaving them to dig their way out of the mound and negotiate their many predators alone (boo).  They toil industrious lyrics (ysy)  building their huge mounds (up to 4 m high and 15 m long!) communally (yay), sharing with several other pairs (yay). But then they may decide to build their huge mound in your yard, using up to 50 metric tons (wow) of organic material from your garden (oh no), and then squawk and screech (boo) all night (a characteristic they share with many Australian birds) fighting (boo)to protect their territory against other pairs.  It's so confusing!  We vote yay, and name the orange-footed scrub fowl the Bird of the Day!