Some views of my journal do not allow back-dating of posts. This entry should be dated 2005-10-11.

Days 5—7; Magnetic Island, Townsville, Home
Spent the day hiking to The Forts, a (now disused) military base and artillery emplacements errected on Magnetic Island during WWII. The guns on the base could cover a significant number of bays and waterways, protecting the approach to Townsville. It's said that the guns were never fired in anger, but were fired once in 'mild surprise' when a United States warship arrived unannounced.

All up this was about a 12km walk through undulating and sometimes uneven terrain. Most of what remains of the forts are just concrete slabs and other foundations, however the more permanent structures including the ammunition stores, gun emplacements, and command towers have survived, although much of their 'fake rock' camoflague has not.

The walk, combined with Magnetic Island's hot tropical weather, had both Jacinta and myself feel very glad to arrive back at our hostel, at which point we had dinner and quickly fell asleep.

The next day had us travel back to Townsville. This provided a much needed chance to establish a proper network connection. The second half of the day was spent in the aquarium, which while as not as large as its sisters in Melbourne and Perth, was nonetheless very educational and gave us a chance to identify and learn about many of the critters we had seen and photographed on the reef.

In the evening we undid much of the good work from the previous day of hard exercises and healthy food, and instead had a number of pints and tasty-but-unhealthy pub food.

Today (Tuesday) is the day of our flights back to Melbourne, with our shuttle bus arriving in about 80 minutes time. Jacinta is exploring the nearby Maritime Museum, while I'm taking a break to catch up on my mail, journal, and plans. Our travel arrangements, once they start, are hectic. We're flying from Townsville to Brisbane to Melbourne, where my very kind sister-in-law and her husband are picking us up and whisking us away to a friend's surprise 30th birthday party.

Tomorrow it's back to work, catching up on a week's worth of things that will have landed on my desk.