Townsville, Maggie and Brisbane

I came into Townsville on Saturday via one of the most irritating bus rides ever. The driver was hard of hearing and thought we should listen to music at the decibel level of a jet engine. There was no stopping the music. Not with earplugs. Not with my own ipod. It overpowered them both. I had asked him to turn it down, which worked until the next stop, about a half hour, then it went right back up to deafening levels.
I was able to visit my friend Deane in Townsville. I hadn't seen him since I lived in Europe, 11 years ago. We met on our way to Greece and later in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day in May. It was the year of foot and mouth disease and they had postponed St. Paddy's until May.
Townsville is full of very interesting people, though Deane told me they normally aren't that strange. As we sat at the pub and caught up I noticed there were a large proportion of Townsville folks wearing costumes and silly hats. Apparently there was a big horse race in town, so all the women had to get out their best and most ridiculous hats. I'm not sure about the guys in full Bert and Ernie costumes.
Sunday I headed over to Magnetic Island (Maggie), just a short boat ride from Townsville. It's a beautiful island with plenty of wild koalas and WWII history. I hiked most of the island Sunday, seeing a koala and a wallaby. Luckily I didn't see any death adders. The hike was what I like to call an ankle breaker. Loosely jumbled rocks up and down a mountain. I'm glad I ended up bringing my hiking boots despite the weight they add to my pack. I saw no one on the entire trail. I guess I was the only one crazy enough to hike it in the heat and humidity. Along another path (a much easier one) there were plenty of WWII fortifications. This trail is where the koalas often hang out. Since they and the wallaby were a bit shy, there are no pictures. You would have only been able to see trees. I did, however get a picture of the TARDIS (zoom in on picture below).

Sunday night I ended up talking to locals who were hanging out at the bar at the hostel (there are limited establishments on the small island). They were telling me how it was very nice to live on such a nice island, if it wasn't for the bloody tourists. That was the same thought I had about living in the Mount. For all those thinking, but wait, you're a tourist: I believe I lived in the Mount long enough to qualify as non-tourist.
One of my roommates had nightmares and woke up screaming that there was something furry in his bed (in German). Though there were several possums and wallabies that hung around the hostel at night (I almost stepped on some trying to break into someone else's room), there were none in our room.

Monday, after a beautiful sunrise I took the bus to the ferry to Deane's car to the airport to fly to Brisbane to get on a train into the city. The flight was a bit late, but otherwise it was uneventful travels via many methods.


I was helped by a military guy after getting to my train stop. He pointed me in the right direction to the hostel. He happened to be walking that way as well and managed to talk to me about 50 different subjects in the span of the 10 minute walk. I wandered around town after I had dropped off my bags. For you Minneapolis folks, imagine Nicollet Mall, only without buses and much bigger. The pedestrian mall was very nice, though there were a disturbing number of strip clubs next to Gucci shops and posh restaurants. Today, Tuesday, I wandered some more. I went to the South Bank of the city which has some nice walkways along the river. Brisbane reminded me a lot of Minneapolis with much better weather. However, they have a London Eye like ferris wheel and a Nepalese pagoda near the river.
I'm now off to Byron Bay, followed by Port Macquarie. Then it's on to Sydney to meet up with Kaleb and Skog.