#MagneticIslandFortWalk

It was about 4:30pm by the time we were settled and ready to explore the island. I invited a nice girl from Denmark to join us on the walk called Steiner.

We set off from my hostel to do the short 15 minute walk to the fort. Steph caught a bus to meet us and relief washed over us as we saw her stepping from the bus. We had no signal and no internet so if she had gotten lost, we would have had no idea!

We entered the forest and within 5 minutes we saw a little wallaby sitting on a rock. We stopped to take pictures when suddenly Steiner shouted out, "look!"
Sitting in a tree was the smallest koala I had ever seen! Clearly a baby, he was by himself just munching on some leaves and having a scratch. A good start!

Minutes later Steph pointed out another, this time there were two in the tree, one sleeping and one eating happily. The walk was one of the best things I had done in Australia with the beautiful views and the excitement of seeing wild koalas.

We explored some of the old World War Two buildings that were used to store weapons and saw some gun stations too. Two of the buildings sat high up on the rocks and we made it to the top just in time for sunset. The clouds turned pink and everything looked slightly different to ten minutes before. We wished we had food and drink for a sundowner but we settled for a mint and one of Steph's cookies to compensate.

As we walked back it began to get dark. We jumped and screeched as twigs the shape of snakes came into view and every sound or movement was a mystery and probably something capable of killing us. Bats the size of parrots flew out the trees and Chelsea practically jumped on my shoulders when a bat fell from its tree.

We made it back alive at last and collapsed in a heap onto the soft bean bag chairs at the hostel, all of us too tired to talk or move.