Friday 12th June - Magnetic Island

Friday 12^th June

On Friday we went on a ferry to Magnetic Island. At Magnetic Island we collected coconuts.
After collecting coconuts we went to Horseshoe Bay for lunch. After lunch we went paddling in the sea and saw sea slugs washed up on the beach.

This is a Sand Bubbler Crab hole on the beach.

This is me collecting coconuts.

This a sea slug washed up on the beach.

After the beach we went on a BIG walk around where there was a war. There was lots of ruins and in one of the ruins there were two micro bats together on the roof. Then we went for a butterfly walk and saw flying foxes.

This a drawing of the micro bats.

This is a flying fox.

Mum's note:
We really enjoyed Magnetic Island. The first thing of interest to the kids was the flag on the back of our ferry.

The Fantasea car barge flying the Australian Red Ensign

On the first beach we visited, we found pumice, which we had great fun floating in a moat, and we saw sand bubbler crabs throwing balls of sand out of their burrows after they had eaten what they wanted.

Floating rocks! Now that is fun!

A Sand Bubbler Crab going about his business. They are very small, amazingly quick and very very well camouflaged.
The crab is just to the right of its hole, which is about the diameter of a standard pencil.

Caleb pretending that his coconut is a penguin's egg!

The BIG walk, which was pretty long for little legs, was the Forts walk. It takes you up to a high point on the island and through the WWII base that was set up to protect Australia from possible Japanese invasion. There are still visible foundations of the ablution blocks, the workshop and the kitchen. There is also the ammunitions bunker (where the micro bats hang out), the gun mounts, the range finder mounts and two observations/signals forts.

The trees on the Forts walk are full of Green Ants' (also known as Weaver Ants) nests.

The friendly local who told us where we could collect coconuts also informed us that these ants are a traditional food and are very high in Vitamin C.

The WWII fort from a distance. During the war it was covered with camouflage.

One of the gun mounts. 

Getting to the fort. It was very windy! The section at the top of the first ladder was the Officer's bunk.

The view out of one of the slit windows in the fort.

Another lovely thing about Magnetic Island is the migratory Blue Tiger butterflies that arrive there to spend the winter. We did see some of these near Horseshoe Bay during the day and on our lagoon walk at dusk, although the flying foxes stole the show fighting over the eucalyptus blossoms on the latter.

When these guys open their wings they are the most beautiful azure blue set into black.

Our final treat before catching the ferry home was pizza, made the traditional Italian way. Very nice, but pineapple was definitely not an option, and I was actually a little scared to get caught removing my olives......

If you didn't catch it the first time.....