A little Maggie heaven

My delicious week on Magnetic Island…

 

Horseshoe Bay

Sitting out the front of Noodies Cafe eating pecan pie and drinking excellent coffee while I watch my teenagers crisscross the china blue water in their catamaran. The sky is cloudless and the shade of the giant Morton Bay fig tree on the foreshore is expansive and welcome. Music filters out from inside the cafe and blends with the shush of the waves as they break on the sand under the palm trees. The occasional moke trundles past and people… well they saunter. No one hurries here. I could get used to this.

 

The Lagoon

I came to see birds. Myriads of waterbirds: ducks, herons, egrets, swamphens, curlews, magpie geese, and maybe even a jacana. It’s eerily quiet. Only the sound of my footfall on the boardwalk that snakes between the waterlilies. This is how many birds I see: NONE.

 

West Point

We’ve come for the sunset. Done some four wheel driving to get here. My first time. The teenagers in the back hooting and cheering whenever the windshield is sprayed with mud and our backsides lift off the car seats.

When we arrive it is deserted apart from one moke and a welcoming party of curious curlews.

 

Easter Sunday

We decide to try the local Baptist Church and find they’ve had a bit of a change in focus.

 

Reef trip

We’ve paid a mint. So I’m expecting our transport to be an equivalent of the huge cat we took from Port Douglas out to the reef four years ago. But when we arrive at the terminal slightly late, it’s not there. My heart sinks. We’ve missed the boat. But a young man approaches us and asks if we’re booked on ‘The Adrenalin’. I say yes and he ushers us onto a small boat loaded up with oxygen tanks and wetsuits. It’s a dive boat and it bobs and dives for the three hours it takes to get to the reef.

However every queasy minute is worth it – even the effort of pouring myself into a wetsuit that feels about three sizes too small, en route, trying not to topple off my seat and over the side. When we arrive, all is forgotten the moment I plunge into the ocean with snorkel and facemask to be greeted by a curious turtle in the mood for a game.