After the Airlie Beach Marathon: Magnetic Island
The Route: Airlie Beach → Townsville → Magnetic Island → Townsville Airport Logistics: Drive or coach north along the Bruce Highway to Townsville, then the SeaLink passenger ferry to Nelly Bay. On the island, buses, hire cars or small open-topped cars. Marathon Month: July Duration: 2 nights
Airlie Beach ──(approx. 3.5 hrs by car, Bruce Hwy via Bowen)──> Townsville ──(20 mins SeaLink ferry)──> Nelly Bay, Magnetic Island
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Townsville Airport (TSV) ◄──(20 mins ferry + approx. 15 mins by car)──────┘
The Airlie Beach Marathon finishes on the foreshore in mid-July. Magnetic Island, 8 km off Townsville and about 270 km north of Airlie, is the choice for runners who want a different piece of coast rather than more of the same islands: granite headlands, hoop pines and eucalypt woodland running down to a dozen bays, and one of the largest populations of wild koalas in northern Australia.
July on Magnetic Island is the best of the dry season, with clear days in the mid-20s, cooler evenings and low humidity. The summer stinger season is over, though the island's swimming enclosures and stinger-suit advice still apply. Townsville's dry winter is also when the island's grass goes gold and the woodland is easiest to see into, which helps with the koalas.
The drive north on the Bruce Highway, through Proserpine, Bowen and Ayr, takes about three and a half hours. Coaches also run the route; check the timetable before relying on one. In Townsville, the SeaLink passenger ferry leaves from the Breakwater terminal for Nelly Bay about every hour, and the crossing takes about 20 minutes. Leave the car in Townsville unless you have booked a vehicle ferry.
Nights One and Two: Magnetic Island
Captain Cook named the island in 1770, believing it had upset his ship's compass. Nobody has found the magnetism since. The island was later fortified in the Second World War to protect Townsville's harbour, and those forts are its best-known walk.
The first day should stay flat. Horseshoe Bay, on the north coast, has the island's longest beach, a flat foreshore path and a row of cafés, reached by the island bus from Nelly Bay. Walk the length of the beach at the waterline, sit down, and repeat. Nelly Bay and Arcadia, on the south-east coast, have short, level foreshore paths close to the ferry.
The Forts Walk is for day two, if the legs agree. It runs about 2 km each way from the road between Horseshoe Bay and Arcadia up to the wartime gun emplacements and command post, on a formed track with a steady climb and some rough sections. Koalas are regularly seen in the eucalypts beside it, usually asleep, and rock wallabies sit on the boulders around Arcadia's Geoffrey Bay late in the afternoon. Go slowly. The descent is harder on sore quads than the climb.
Where to stay: Peppers Blue on Blue Resort, beside the marina at Nelly Bay, is a short walk from the ferry and the easiest base without a car. For a quieter stay, self-contained holiday apartments in Horseshoe Bay put the island's longest beach outside the door.
Where to eat: Horseshoe Bay's beachfront cafés and restaurants are the island's main dining strip and suit a long, slow lunch looking over the water. Several are closed on some weekday evenings, so check before walking out.
Getting to Townsville Airport
Take the ferry back to the Breakwater terminal in Townsville, about 20 minutes, then a 15 minute taxi or car ride to Townsville Airport (TSV), which has direct flights to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Allow at least two hours from Nelly Bay to check-in. If returning a hire car to Whitsunday Coast Airport (PPP) instead, allow three and a half hours for the drive south.