Secluded, relaxing Magnetic Island

Tuesday, November 18th

I naturally woke up around 7am to go for a run. My running wasn't so successful, since I hadn't run since Melbourne. Pretty out of shape. Hey at least I tried. I ran along the beach, out to the jetty and down the road. It was pretty relaxing. I even stopped to sit on the rocks to appreciate the sea...also so I could catch my breath. Running gives me some time to think, to reflect about what I really want out of life and what's really important.

At 8am, I got back to the hostel to shower and Bernice and Steph slowly woke up. First thing on our to do list was laundry. All our stuff smelled pretty crap, especially after sailing. It was nice to do washing even though the machines were not all that great. We ate breakfast, and then took a cat nap while waiting for the washing and drying. By the time we waited for everything to dry, it was already 1pm.

Magnetic Island is just a chill place, nothing that special, but it was what we needed. It was named by Captain Cook in 1770. This island was originally part of the mainland, but separated from it by rising sea levels between 6000 and 7500 years ago. The center of the island is a national park with lots of trails. It's good for wildlife watching. Locals call Magnetic Island "Maggie."

Since it's a chill place, we had no rush to get anywhere quickly. When we were ready we took a bus from Picnic Bay where Base backpackers hostel was to Horseshoe Bay for lunch and some chilling. Horseshoe Bay has a stinger net to make it safe to swim without a sting suit by the beach. While we listened to the waves, I did my blogging for the Whitsundays trip; Bernice and Steph read their books. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. When we needed to use the toilet, we went to a public cubicle one. It was actually pretty amusing since you press a button that opens the door, and when you are inside a computer voice let's you know you have tens mins to do your business, and then elevator music starts playing. We wondered what would of happened if you needed more than ten minutes. Would the door just bust open?

By 6pm, we were ready to leave and get some groceries for our tuna pasta salad. At foodworks, we got all the ingredients we needed. It was a good deal, for AUD10 ($7) each we got water, dinner, and lunch for tomorrow.

The kitchen at Base was pretty gross. It was a mad house in there with people waiting to use the burners that barely heat up and ants crawling everywhere. People didn't even wash the silverware and plates properly. We saw one girl drop all the washed silverware on the dirty floor and just picked it up and put it in the draw. How gross. It was a good thing that we each had two beers to keep us sane in there. Our food was delicious and healthy...and cheap.

At dinner we had the company of Tal and Peleg, who happened to check into our rooms, and Robin and Natalie. Robin (Canadian) and Natalie (British) are traveling south together to Sydney. They met in Sydney while working. Real jet setters. We shared stories of our families, our trip experience, and our home. It was nice. At around 11pm, we started to get ready for bed.