The approach to Magnetic Island was fascinating. There are beautiful bays all around it, and a wonderful giant cairn of rocks piled up beside it. It is called Orchard rocks. There was a lot of small boat traffic; local tour boats, a rescue boat zoomed past us doing 22 knots, and many sailboats. We rounded the north east point and came into Horseshoe bay. Such a pretty place. Lots of room for boats to anchor behind the local boats on moorings. After a “second breakfast”, and being sure the anchor was holding, we kayaked to the lovely beach. We walked across the boardwalk, found a convenience store with a friendly chap that directed us to the Koala Park. It was a pleasant walk to get there. Huge trees full of noisy cockatoos and melodic magpies graced both sides of the road, a sign proclaimed, “caution, wildlife!” This was a bit unnerving....what sort of wildlife are we being cautioned against? Turns out it’s mostly wallabies hopping across the road. Whew! The Koala Park was amazing, a beautiful venue where you can stay at the back packer’s inn, hang out in the comfy common area, swim in the pool, listen to music, eat yummy food, grab a drink and register to go on various tours. We chose a two hour multi animal meet and greet and were not disappointed! We’d arrived at 13:15, and our tour was to start at 14:30, so we indulged in a very good pizza, nachos, and drinks. At 14:30 we met Jen our park ranger, and began to meet the critters; lizards, skinks, crocodiles, snakes, ant eaters, wombats, and the absolutely adorable, cute, cuddly, koalas! We also held a big red tailed cockatoo and hand fed wild Lorikeets. Funnest day ever! I’ve wanted to hold a Koala since I was eight years old...today that dream was wonderfully fulfilled! After our animal adventure we paddled back to the boat and Captain barbecued the chicken we’d bought in Airlie in the calm night air.
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