Koala-ty Time on Magnetic Island ~ Part 2

The next morning on Maggie was a special treat for me as a birthday present from my husband. A bit childish maybe, but definitely my cup of tea – breakfast with the koalas!

Bungalow Bay Koala Village offers a chance to have a buffet breakfast, surrounded by animals, at their purpose-built koala park!

Everyone booked for this experience arrived and were shown through to the area, where we were introduced to the various cockatoos and parakeets, and a koala! Then we enjoyed a nice buffet breakfast, which included a bit of native Australian and campfire cooking, plus a glass of native guava champagne.

After brekkie, it was time to meet some more critters! There was a gorgeous coastal carpet python – I saw one of these outside our apartment shortly after moving in, these snakes are harmless to humans, and are very beautiful.

A selection of lizards

A sugar-glider

And then some more koalas! Like this mum and baby

After seeing all of these animals, we then had a chance to get a photo taken holding a koala. We thought that this was included in the price, but it turns out it’s an extra $16 each for this. Queensland is apparently the only State to allow people to hold koalas, so I hope it doesn’t distress them. I must say though, the koala we held did not seem distressed at all, but I think that maybe the practice of getting them used to being held can be a bit distressing for them.

All too soon and the koala cuddling is over, but we still feel the need for some more caffeine, so we headed to Nourish café at Horseshoe Bay again for some coffees. The café is across the road from the beach, which has a tiny strip of park next to it. On one of the park tables I can see loads of the beautifully coloured rainbow lorikeets have descended to make a meal of some fruit that has been left there.

I go over with my camera to see if I can get some photos, but the birds aren’t at all bothered by me and I actually get to sit at the table and watch them! They are squawking and pecking away like mad, and are so comical!

After a while (and many many photos!) I leave the birds to it, and we head off to find a different trail for some more hiking. This time we take the Forts trail which you can easily pick up from the main road not far from Horseshoe Bay.

We follow the trail, and Adam gets to indulge in some military history, as this walk takes us to some key features from the defence of Australia during WW2, while I get all excited about animals again as we spot another wild koala! 

The Forts walk is a pathway that ends in a loop, so we follow it round and spend time reading about all of the different features, such as the gun emplacements, and the control buildings. 

The sun gets lower very rapidly when you’re this near to the equator, so the light is changing quickly by the time we are heading back along the loop. We join up again with the outward path and follow it back, looking out for the koala again. We spot one, a sleepy little thing in the trees :)

Then Adam spots another koala a bit deeper into the trees. This one is wide awake and very active – climbing up and down trees, even leaping between branches that are not too far apart! I never knew that koalas leapt around so energetically, and it certainly is fantastic to watch!

The light is too dim now to get clear photos, but I do my best to capture his antics :)

Eventually we leave – I’m nervous about walking in the bushy areas when you can’t see where you’re treading. With snakes around that have names like ‘death adders’ I don’t want to put a foot wrong! After getting back to our accommodation, I decide to walk to the end of the road to spend some time with the rock wallabies again – they are too cute to stay away from.

Hiding down in the rocks amongst the wallabies is a little possum – I’ve never seen one before and I love his great big eyes and big pink ears!

It gets dark and I go home again, but we still have one more day left on the island.

In the morning we have to clean up the cottage, then we go out for a leisurely breakfast. We have time for one more walk, so we pick a different trail. This one starts across the road from the Forts trail, heading off in the other direction.

The vegetation and scenery is really different here, despite being so close. The plants look fantastic, to us having moved from the UK it’s like walking through a botanical garden showcasing exotic plants.

We keep an eye on the time as we have to meet the ferry home, so when Adam says it’s time to go back I ask if we can just go a little bit further, just to the next bend in the path to see if we can spot any animals. He agrees – we have mostly walked uphill so the return should be quicker.

We get to the next bend and there are still no animals to be seen. I turn back to tell Adam that there is nothing there and we can go now, and in the tree above his head is another koala! 

I could stay and watch it for ages, but we have to get back to the ferry, so reluctantly I tear myself away.

Over 3 days on Maggie, we managed to see wild koalas every single day. I assumed that this was normal, but I’ve since heard of lots of people who have been there without seeing any, so I feel especially lucky in my wildlife spotting!

Maggie is certainly somewhere that we will return to before we leave Townsville, there is plenty more to do that we didn’t get around to – and I can’t wait for the marine stinger (potentially deadly jellyfish!!!!!!) season to be over so that I can follow some of the self-guided snorkelling trails around the island.

It’s amazing here!

Koala-ty Time on Magnetic Island ~ Part 1

A major tourist destination near to Townsville – just off the coast in fact, and visible from the town if you can see out to sea – is Magnetic Island, or Maggie as it’s known locally. 

I had wanted to visit Maggie as soon as possible, but we held off until near my birthday in November to head over there for a few days of hiking and enjoying the wildlife (you can do watersports and snorkelling too, but this time of year is jellyfish season, and they can be pretty dangerous here).

Magnetic Island, viewed from Castle Hill, Townsville.

It’s really easy to get to Maggie as several ferry companies take foot passengers over, with plenty of sailings every day. We wanted to take the car with us though, so we used FantaSea’s car ferry to make the 25 minute journey to the island.

After a very fuss-free journey, we disembarked at the small Nelly Bay terminal on Maggie, and turned right towards Geoffrey Bay where we were staying for a couple of nights.

Maggie has very few roads, so it’s pretty much impossible to get lost there. All of the routes are serviced by buses too, that make stops at all the visitor sites – including the start/end points of walking trails where they meet the roads. If you want more independence though, you can hire a variety of vehicles – cars, topless cars, mini mokes, or scooters – to get around by yourself.

One of the main reasons for visiting Maggie is that it has the largest colony of wild koalas in Australia - Very Exciting! What I hadn’t realised however, is that there are also rock wallabies there. I hadn’t heard of rock wallabies before, but the lady we had booked our accommodation through had mentioned them, saying they were like small wallabies. I must say, this description does not do justice to just how DAMN CUTE they are!

The little self-catering place that we stayed in turned out to be sited a 2 minute walk from the best place to see the rock wallabies, which was fantastic.

Having discovered that rock wallabies were so near to where we were staying, I obviously wandered down there to see them pretty often. It turned out that there were loads of them – or ‘heaps’ of them, as we say here in Australia. They are fairly comfortable around people too, so long as you move gently and are quiet, and don’t try to bother them. It was great to just sit there amongst these little creatures, you could even see the baby ones when they poked their heads out of their mum’s pouches.

Sometimes the rock wallabies would be a bit bolder, and come right up to you to check you out - and investigate any cameras pointed at them...

Having caught an early ferry over, we then had a whole day of exploring ahead of us – starting with a good Aussie breakfast. Continuing along the main road around the island, we got to Horseshoe Bay. Another little town – all of the towns on Maggie are little – this one has a touristy strip by the sea, with a couple of cafés, bars and shops to explore.

Fuelled up, caffeinated and refreshed, we were ready to hike one of the trails on the island. From Horseshoe Bay there is a trail that leads up through eucalyptus trees and across to a couple of other beaches. Knowing that koalas live off eucalyptus this seemed like a good place to begin if we wanted to spot this iconic Aussie wildlife.

It was about 11.30am by now, so the day was getting quite hot. and the trees provided sparse shade. Keeping an eye out for any snakes or other dangerous wildlife, we climbed the hill and walked deeper into the eucalyptus forest. The trail was well marked and maintained, and so was easy to follow, and we passed a few people along the way. One couple coming from the other direction stopped to say g’day, and informed us that there was a koala in tree near the path a hundred metres or so further along. I could feel my excitement at the thought of my first encounter with a koala, and the further we walked the more nervous I felt that maybe we would miss it, or it might have moved away so we wouldn’t spot it… No worries though! Some way further along, the koala was easily seen – down on the ground by now as it was clearly in the process of swapping trees. 

Apparently it was a strange time of day for a koala to be active – they sleep a lot, and especially during this hotter part of the day, but I was very happy to have seen such a great view of a wild koala. I had expected to maybe see a little grey koala bum in the distance. A proper close-up view of a koala was far beyond my expectations!

Eventually Adam managed to tear me away from the koala, and we continued along the trail. It really was hot now, and despite having plenty of water, my head was thumping with even the minor exertion of walking up the hill. At the top, the trail split so you could follow it to two different beaches. Walking towards the first beach, I felt that I wouldn’t be at all comfortable to walk back up the steep path for the return leg, so we followed it a short way until the descent became steeper and then turned back. We reasoned that we are in the lucky position of being able to return easily when the weather is a little cooler, and so there was no point spoiling things this time around by giving myself heat stroke.

We did the same with the path to the other beach, following it along until it became steeper, and then turning back. This time we continued all the way back to Horseshoe Bay, stopping along the way when we passed the koala again. He got on the move when we were watching him this time, staggering along the ground like a little drunken creature, stumbling and tripping over branches and falling into tree trunks. It was so funny to watch! After a few false starts, eventually he found a tree he liked the look of. Sitting down at the base of the tree he wrapped his arms and legs around it. I thought he would climb up, but clearly he felt too dozy to attempt that and instead he just sat on the ground, hugging the tree. Very cute!! Once I again I didn’t want to leave, but Adam was gasping for an iced coffee and in need of lunch, so I reluctantly left the sleepy koala to head back to the little town.

Trekking to spot Koalas: well and truly successful :)

Moving Down Under!

On 30^th September 2014, I got a lift with my mum from my home of Pembrokeshire, to meet up with my brother in Swansea, south Wales. We had a nice lunch together, before moving on to the train station. Having a coffee at the station, the three of us stayed together for as long as possible, before I needed to board my train. It had cost very little extra to buy a First Class ticket from Swansea to London, so as this then included all food and drink and guaranteed me a comfortable seat, I had gone ahead and indulged in the First Class ticket. I met my husband in London and he showed me to our hotel for the night.

On 1^st October 2014, my husband officially joined the Australian Army, having transferred from the British Army, and that afternoon we were taken by minibuses – along with several other families in the same situation – to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong.

On 5^th October 2014, after a 2-night stopover in Hong Kong, we finally arrived in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, for a different kind of adventure: EMIGRATION.

I had never been to Australia before, and emigration brings about many mixed feelings, but I was excited about my new home. Since coming here I have been enjoying it more and more, a trend that I hope continues as long as possible!

South Wales Walking

You have a drastic new hairdo planned for your move to Australia, the consultation has been had, the appointment is made… …and then you get a phone call from your brother, saying that he has to take some annual leave so he’s booked a few days off for you to hang out together in the Great Outdoors… What do you do?

A quick phone call and the appointment is cancelled, and you book your train tickets to Swansea where you will meet your brother. No contest.

The original plan was to involve some rock climbing, but the weather is too damp for that, with rain forecast. I vote for us to head out in my brother’s canoe – a wedding present for him and his wife from their gift list, how cool? – but for some reason this doesn’t happen and we head for the hills instead.

Driving to Brecon Beacons National Park, the particular hill we are aiming for is the highest in South Wales and indeed southern Britain, Pen-y-Fan (pronounced Pen-e-Van – in Welsh, ‘f’ represents an English ‘v’ sound, while ‘ff’ is equivalent to the English ‘f’). At 886m, this is no giant, but it’s still a good walk and is often used by the British Army, including their Special Forces, for fitness and navigation training.

Today the weather is pretty gloomy and misty, but we are following a clearly defined track and my brother walks up here regularly. It is very peaceful, being a work day with less-than-great weather there are few other walkers around. I struggle to keep up conversation with my brother as we walk, and it’s only when we whizz past some other walkers that I realise how fast a pace my brother is setting. This pace must be the reason we’re feeling fine in shorts and t-shirt, while other walkers look more appropriately attired for the weather.

The track, and a walker in Gortex

Following this track, we also pass over Corn Du, the second highest point in the Brecon Beacons. We walk over the saddle between the two high points, with Pen-y-Fan shrouded in mist ahead of us.

Then we are soon at the top of Pen-y-Fan. Pen-y-Fan has a relatively large plateau for a summit, and it is worth looking for the rippled rocks on this plateau. These rocks are fossilised sea bed, from when the highest point in southern Britain was once underwater, and you can see the exact same pattern as you notice at the beach in firm sand when the tide is going out. Amazing.

Atop this plateau is a cairn, supporting a summit plaque. I hadn’t known at the time, but apparently this cairn had been a burial chamber in the Bronze Age. If I had known, I would have a) got a better photo of the cairn, and more importantly b) not posed on it for a photo. Having put the summit plaque on top of the cairn though, this is a natural place for walkers to pose and there was even a queue for the photo-op when we were there. It must get really busy there on a popular day.

We don’t hang around for too long at the top, there are no great vistas to take in thanks to the mist, and besides, my brother has a tip for a real ale pub he wants to find: the Ancient Briton. 

We reverse our route for a little way before turning off to vary our route back, following a path down the grassy valley side and back towards the road.

Once back at the car, we set off for a late lunch and some real ale sampling. This has been an excellent day, although perhaps not the best preparation for my evening’s plans of going to a bootcamp fitness class with my sister-in-law!

More walking is on the program for the next day, this time heading to the Gower Peninsula and Worm’s Head. This head belongs not to a little wiggly worm, but rather a big fierce Dragon, or ‘Wurm’ in the Viking invaders ancient language.

This is the most westerly tip of the Gower, and is a strip of land at low tide, while it’s a string of small islands when the tide is high. This means that walking here is only safe a couple of hours either side of low tide. At least if you do get cut off from your return, you can wait it out on one of those tiny islands for the next low tide.

We set off from the village of Rhossili, along a well-maintained level path to the old Coastguard lookout. 

Then we simply pick our own route across the uneven rocks of the causeway. 

We walk to the top of the inner head, which is the first higher ground we come to, and is therefore the first island when the tide comes in.

It's a little steep, but not very high and it gives us some great views of the interesting routes we've just taken and that lie just ahead.

We continue on to follow a mixture of dirt tracks and rocky scrambles to get out across the Devil’s Bridge (the rock bridge just visible in the picture above) and to the outer head. You aren't permitted to go right to the end during the sea bird breeding season, but we are there after the season's end so are free to carry on.

This is a great place for wildlife, and we watch the aerial acrobatic antics of a peregrine falcon; watch a swooping cloud of choughs, the UK’s once-rare coastal members of the crow family, that now seem to be making a comeback; and get watched by a cute and curious seal. I do love seals.

Today’s weather is in stark contrast to yesterday, so out at the outer head we stay a while to enjoy the sunshine. We eat our snacks and watch the wildlife, chat about the future, and only reluctantly drag ourselves away from this peaceful place to make the return journey across the rocky causeways. 

 

Heading back, the view is fantastic and I can't help wishing that I had longer to spend in South Wales, and that I had made more of my time in the years preceding. But Australia beckons, and I leave in less than a week.

Information:

Our route up Pen-y-Fan was pretty much this one: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356405780951/

Information for walking Worm's Head is here: http://www.explore-gower.co.uk/explore/gower-landmarks/gower-geology/worm-s-head