Flew into Townsville and got a bus straight to the ferry terminal to catch the 20 minute ferry to Magnetic Island. We’d booked this trip on a whim about 6 months ago, and as I’d started a new job, I wasn’t sure that I’d get the leave approved – but here we were!
We stayed at the Mercure Magnetic Island in a self contained apartment, which worked for us so we could cook most of our own food. It’s located on the south side of the island. The accommodation itself was nice, but there were a few stuff arounds with the price of our room and what was included (which was a breakfast hamper – I had seen that they had noted that we were vegan, but when we arrived in our room it was ham and eggs – gross! And dairy milk and honey). We settled in and then went for a walk to check out our surrounding. We ended up going to a little place called Scallywags Cafe for lunch that we had recommended to us. We ordered a tofu burger and tofu salad. The tofu was a bit too salty for our tastes, but they had other things on the menu so we ended up going back a few days later and got these mushroom burgers which were AMAZING!
Thursday was a bit of a slow day for us as I wasn’t feeling too good. We took it easy most of the day and took a little walk in the afternoon towards the east side of the island. We were going to turn around and come back, but we kept going and we’re so glad we did because we came to a part of the island that had little rock wallabies! They were so adorable, and quite tame – was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.
Later that evening, we went to another food place recommended to us – a Thai restaurant called Thai Again. We ordered a Vegan Chicken dish and rice to share – the service was a bit slow, but the food was incredible. So flavourful and delicious!
Friday we walked towards Picnic Bay and got a bit lost around the headland, but there was some great bird life around, and we saw a few eagles!
Saturday we wanted to hire a car but they were all booked out so we booked it for Sunday instead and went on another hike – 6.4kms from Nelly Bay to Arcadia circuit. It was full. on. It was the first day the sun had been out and it was a bit scorching when we weren’t in the shade. Didn’t see much wildlife either. The saving grace of the walk was that at the end we came across a general store called Arcadia Store which had heaps of vegan snacks and lovely people running it. It gave us fuel to walk the extra kilometre home! Highly recommend this shop to anyone (vegans or not) that is going to Magnetic Island.
Sunday we picked up our little mini Topless Car from Tropical Topless Car Rentals. The people that worked there were also really lovely. Highly recommend this place too! We took a little road trip to Horseshoe Bay and it was lovely over that side of the island. There was a little market on and we ended up buying some really nice pieces of pottery that will probably be featured in future food recipes! It’s a lot quieter over that side of the island, but definitely worth visiting.
All in all we had a lovely little getaway on Magnetic Island! It’s a great little place for hiking, bird watching, relaxing and you can get vegan options there too!
