Living the Island Life at Maggie

As a bit of reward for getting though the mid-semester week, myself and a bunch of friends from James Cook decided to take a little weekend vacation at the beautiful Magnetic Island, just off the coast of Townsville. Known to the locals as Maggie, it's just a 20 minute ferry ride from downtown and it's hard to believe it was a totally different world over there. Maggie has everything your standard island in Australia would have- beautiful beaches, palm trees everywhere and awesome views.

But there really was so much to do there. Once we settled in, we visited the local markets, caught a bit of culture, and met some local islanders for a few games of pool. The locals made the night for us- they were so different some people we've met already, and really were living the island life. Saturday we went to the beaches, swam in the hostel pool, and rented scooters for the night to drive around the island with. We caught a few sighting of my favorite bird, and my friend Hannah got a great picture.

We woke up early on Sunday, and headed off to a horse ranch to do some riding. It was easily the best part of the weekend. It was a two hour ride, consisting of walking, trotting and cantering through the bush, on the beach, and even some bareback riding in the ocean. Running the horses up a sand dune and emerging onto the beach was one of the most amazing views/ experiences ever. It was awesome.


And now, after such a cool weekend, it's back to work. I've been working on another paper, and a presentation that I have due for neuroscience. Only about 10 days until the Outback trip!! Just got to keep working hard!