Our Train to Magnetic Island

This is the second of four entries that I've accumulated while out of internet touch. Please make sure your read all four.

May 8
Magnetic Island
Hot and muggy early, breezy and milder later

We are in our room at the end of our first of three days on Magnetic Island. I'll write about our tour today, but first I'll write about the train ride.

But before that, I should mention that my colleague has found game shows on tv just now. He's watching Deal or no Deal -- now he's watching Family Feud. Both are Australian versions of the US shows, although it is possible that our shows are the copies.

About the train: we boarded the Sunlander Sunday morning and arrived in Townsville on Monday morning, sleeping on the train over night. This was a first-time experience for most of the students, and I think it was a mixed bag for them. Some students enjoy the change of pace, others found it boring. For me, I enjoy just looking out the window and watching Australia go by. I saw several species of birds, one kangaroo, and four emus. Th emus were especially surprising, as I saw them in sugar cane field that had just been planted. The meals on the train were reasonably priced and quite a good value. I had also brought a few snacks along, so I was not going hungry. They showed movies in the club car to pass the time, too. But the movie they showed was National Treasure, one I had already seen and was not interested in seeing again. I am assisting a student via e-mail as he completes a study of dynamical systems, so I spent most of the rest of my time finishing up one of the chapters of that.

. . .

It is now the morning of May 9. I am sitting on the porch of our cabin at Magnetic Island, looking out over the resort. It's a quiet little park at the end of village street. The resort consists of a-frame cabins and cottages, with island wildlife roaming through. very tranquil and refreshing.

We hired a group tour for yesterday, and I'm very glad we did. We had been on the island several years ago, when we were first figuring out the course, and we had no guide then -- just some stupid 'party' bus for the resort we stayed at (not where we are now). We missed so much as a result! Our tour took us from Picnic Bay, nearest the mainland, to Horseshoe Bay on the far side. Our tour guide Steve is well on his way to becoming a classic Aussie character: a curmudgeon with a soft heart. But he was a lot of fun, and what he said was true most of the time. He did show us some great views of the bays and beaches; that's easy enough. But we also saw, fed, and petted rock wallabies living in a colony in the rocky crevices near the car ferry landing. We found a free range koala nearby Horseshoe Bay -- to the consternation of my colleague who had made it an assignment for the students to find a free range koala while they were here. (I'm sure they'll find others).

We will eat breakfast shortly, and then I'm off to hike about and explore. There a a lot of places that I hope to revisit today, and I'll tell you about it later.