Sailing adventures on Olivia 2017 and beyond: More Maggie Island 13th to 22nd August

Goodbye Friends

Lexie curls up for a sleep while Ric has dinner with us on Olivia

Arkaydes, Blu Glass, Moor R&R, Blue Pointer and our other Lake Macquarie friends have left us now and headed back south to the Whitsundays. The night before they left we had a "Pot Luck" dinner on Moor R&R. What a delicious selection of food was on offer. It was a lovely evening and a great way to say goodbye for a while. Peter may see them when he and Mike Clarke head that way next week. We have been having plenty of light northerly winds so lets hope it continues, to see them on their way.

The Walks

The lookout walk between Florence and Arthur Bays. Beautiful!

We have now walked every track on this island. Today we climbed over the hill to Radical Bay and then on to the lookout on the promontory between Florence and Arthur Bay. I have never done that walk before and it is a very pretty walk, lots of Magnetic Island Pines and piles of boulders that this island is known for. The bush is looking very dry and many of the leaves on trees and shrubs are frizzled up from lack of water. Amazingly the Kapok Trees are flowering and despite the thirsty landscape these trees burst forth with their beautiful, clear, yellow flowers. They provide an optimistic touch to the parched hillsides. Peter and I are getting very fit now. We have been walking 9-10kms a day. Our walks always include a trek over the ranges as Maggie is very steep. I hope I can keep up the exercise when I get home.

Kapok Trees - no leaves, parched bushland - the definition of optimism

A couple of days ago we did the Forts Walk. There are always koalas there and we found two that were attracting the attention of the tourists doing the walk. One was a mother with a baby clinging to her tummy. SOOOOO cute!! We have come to the conclusion that the Parks and Wildlife people put them there. They are always conveniently at just above eye level and are always on that walk. We rarely see them elsewhere. There are well worn tracks into the bush where the koalas rest in the fork of a tree. If they do put them there it would at least be a useful activity for the P & W to do (entertaining tourists etc) Setting fire to uninhabited islands all the way up the Queensland coast the way they do, seems to be an exercise in stupidity. So many of the islands and many of the Capes are scorched from fires supposedly lit to control weeds. Strange! When I observed where a fire has been weeds seem to thrive. Even Magnetic Island has an area that has been burnt. Did anyone think about the 1500 koalas that are supposed to be here before they set fire to the place? I still think about those huge racehorse type goannas that live on Lizard Island, as when we were there two years ago, 'Sparks and Wildfires' set fire to the place in front of us.

Forts Walk

Tomorrow we are saying goodbye to Magnetic Island for this year and are off to the Breakwater Marina for a week. Here we will have a clean up, catch up with the family and pack me up ready for the trip back home. I have 3 weeks of teaching, in Albany, for my cousin. I am starting to get my head around the idea of work. Actually I am looking forward to it. Peter will be able to have a wonderful time with his ol' mate Clarkeii and won't have me nagging him to do stuff.