Big things road trip day seven - Magnetic Island & a Rodeo

On day seven we had a full day in Townsville to explore!

Townsville seemed kinda boring so we decided to head over to Magnetic Island, which is 8 kilometres and about a 20-minute ferry ride from Townsville. To get around the island we hired one of the island iconic "topless" cars, which was very entertaining for both us and the people who were watching me attempt to drive it. We booked a package deal with Magnetic Island ferries which cost $150 and included return ferry tickets for us both and the car hire for the day, which included the petrol.

The whole island is speed limited to 60km/hr and the roads are very simple and easy to navigate. We spent a few hours exploring the island in our little car. We stopped in for freshly squeezed juice at Shaka, which has the perfect position under the trees next to the water. They have heaps of picnic rugs and bean bags set up so you can lounge around and enjoy the view.

We then headed further along and came to the Reef bar cafe and grabbed some sandwiches and salad for lunch, before heading over the hills to Horseshoe Bay.

The Forts walk is the most famous walk on the island and would offer you spectacular views, however, on the day we went the road up was closed due to construction so we were not able to do this.

We returned the hire car and jumped back on a ferry to Townsville, We went back to the hotel for a swim. We met some friendly randoms in the pool and discovered that we were all going to the same place tonight - the Professional Bull Riding Grand Finals at the Townsville Entertainment centre.

We got ready and headed to the Ville Resort & Casino, which is right beside the entertainment centre to enjoy the sunset and have some dinner and drinks before heading to the show. We enjoyed quite a few drinkies here.

I had never been to a rodeo before and I was a bit worried that they might be cruel to the animals, but it all seemed pretty good and the bulls seemed really well looked after. It was entertaining to see the cow jockeys get thrown off and the rodeo clowns come to the rescue. There were a few close calls but no one seemed to get too badly hurt.

We walked back to the hotel after the show (because I was too chicken to get on a Lime Scooter) and hit the sack, as we were pretty tired from our big day out.