Wind  SE  10knts Sunny                      HT 5:30

Woke up to a beautiful calm morning after a good nights sleep. Over the other side of the bay I could see birds diving for fish and a turtle surfacing nearby.

After a relaxing breakfast on board we dinghied ashore fo a day on the island. Anne and I walked along the entire length of the four kilometre beach with Morgan chasing the ball and looking for fish.

The horse riders had already been down on the beach swimming their horses leaving tracks in the sand. Horseshoe Bay must be one of the last horse riding ranches you can go on a trail ride then ride along the beach then swim your horse in the crystal clear water.

 

 

 

John and Barry caught the bus to Nellie Bay ferry terminal to hire a moke for the day. It was a little expensive at $107 per day but not too bad when the cost is shared between the four of us.

There are not too many roads on Magnetic however we enjoyed the drive across through Arcadia, Nelly Bay and onto Picnic Bay.

More than half the island is National Park, with Mt.Cook in the centre rising to 497 metres. Huge granite boulders are softened by tall Hoop pines, eucalypt forest and small patches of rainforest. As of 2013, there were over 800 koalas estimated to be present on the island although we didn’t see any. The name of the island came about because of the apparent “magnetic” effect it had on the ship’s compass of Captain Cook as he passed the island when sailing up the east coast of Australia in 1770. As most of the Queensland coast has been this year, the island is very dry and  suffering from lack of rain.

 

 

We strolled along the jetty at Picnic Bay and saw what looked like a large fluorescent green parrot fish rolling round nibbling at the coral below us.

We pulled up and enjoyed lunch at the Arcadia Hotel and ordered the best pizza we’ve had in years. The restaurant which is separate from the hotel advertises as pizza made by original wogs. Apparently the Calabrese family brought genuine Southern Italian and Neapolitan flavours to the island. With a crispy thin base the prawn, smoked salmon and mozzarella pizza with baby spinach was absolutely delicious.

Drove back to Horseshoe Bay which was very busy with the weekend crowds. John returned the car to the hire joint and caught the bus back while we relaxed on board Ovive.

Moor R & R arrived about 4:30 and anchored behind us. Paul and Kath dinghied over to us for happy hour then we all went ashore to the pub again for another delicious meal.