Travel Biography - Week 82.

Green Island and Holiday Tariff Comparison - 1997 and 2024.

Note: All pics posted here are my own, taken in 1997.

Before I detail my arrival at Townsville, I want to express my curiosity about a typical snorkelling trip from Cairns to Green Island, as well as the price comparison of the Australian leg of the RTW trip. This included the currency exchange rate as it stands now, that one Australian Dollar (AUD) is approximately equal to £0.52, or £1.00 is AUD 1.97 (Source, the Internet currency exchange website.)

Throughout this week, in an attempt to refresh memories of the 1997 experience for accurate blogging, I also noted some of the prices, especially of the Big Cat day tour to Green Island from Cairns, still operating at present. According to the Tripadvisor website, a day trip on the Big Cat today would set me back at least £64. That would be just over AUD 126. That compares with the AUD 20, give or take, I paid for the same catamaran trip in 1997, which would have been somewhere between £10 and £12. 

Whether the rise in price over the last 26 years was due purely to currency inflation, or whether the tour operator had deliberately and subtly pushed up their price as the demand for tourism rose, or a combination of both, I find this 600% rise over that period quite astonishing! Coming to think of it, a 600% inflation rate over 26 years is around 23% for each year, a phenomenal rise. I'm far more convinced that the operators pushed up the fare tariff under the growth of tourism. And here, I'm talking about the fare an individual would pay. How would an average family with teenagers fare?

In my day, the trip from Cairns-Port Douglas-Low Isles wouldn't have been much different. If I recall, somewhere in the region of 25-30 AUD covered the whole journey from Cairns to the Cay. According to Tripadvisor, the price at present just from Port Douglas is in the region of £80, or AUD 154.

And here is the advantage of staying at a backpacker's hostel over a hotel. The presence of a member's kitchen and the need to shop for groceries had a positive impact on the budget, especially for someone like me who was "living on a shoestring". The lack of privacy I might have felt while sleeping in a shared dormitory was a price worth paying. However, in 1997, the average night's stay at a hostel, whether it was YHA-affiliated or privately unaffiliated, would be in the region of AUD 18, or £9.36. Today, the Cairns YHA would set me back £63 a night, or AUD 124. In all, if I were to backpack just the Indo-Pacific Highway between Cairns and Sydney for forty days and nights at current prices, including hostel accommodation, food, and the two trips to the coral cays, the overall tariff wouldn't be far short of, £3,000. And that's without the cost of all the flights, food and accommodation in Singapore and California. In 1997, the entire RTW trip, including flights, cost me around £1,700.

The twin peaks of Castle Hill over Townsville.

Fountain at Townsville Esplanade.

Arrival at Townsville.

After I arrived in Townsville and found accommodation at a privately unaffiliated hostel, I explored the city. It's Queensland's second largest city after Brisbane. It had a less touristy and more industrial feel. Flinders Street, where the hostel was, had its usual supply of shops, banks and general commercialism. After Cairns and Port Douglas, whose economy was centred on the Great Barrier Reef tourism and a plethora of diving schools, I found Townsville a bit of an anticlimax, at least where wet activity goes. However, the city is backed by the 286-metre-high twin monoliths of Castle Hill. Thoughts about hiking up that hill, if such a trail existed, crossed my mind, yet without a proper reason, I never made it to the summit. One possibility was from where I was, near the esplanade, the hill looked far away.

The beach was a gently curving strip of sand that sloped with equal gentleness into the Coral Sea of the Pacific Ocean. However, every few metres, signs were warning us of the Box Jellyfish, apparently abundant in this part of the world. However, there was a thoroughly unconvincing bathing enclosure meant to protect swimmers from the stingers. By checking the beach on Google Maps, this enclosure had apparently since disappeared and the beach was modified to make it more attractive to tourists.

Therefore, I didn't bathe in the sea at all, and Townsville was the first of "the dry stops" where I didn't get wet except in the hostel shower. And that includes visiting the world's largest reef aquarium located at the east end of the esplanade, near the harbour.

The exterior of the aquarium featured a squat cylindrical tower, all with a modern, recently built look.  One afternoon, I paid for entry, and looking at the carefully managed coral reefs, the same species as found on the Reef itself, along with various species of coral-dwelling fish, made for a spectacular sight. In addition, a notice was posted and I read that Box Jellyfish thrived in the coral tank until around April, and then they died without any apparent reason. Scientists at the aquarium weren't able to give a reasonable cause for the stinger's mysterious death. Also included was a shark aquarium and other accommodations for different species of marine life. Furthermore, I must have visited during off-peak, as there weren't many people at the aquarium. 

Flinders Street, near my hostel.

Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, Townsville.

Again, by researching Google Maps and also Google Earth Pro, I saw that the original building was recently demolished, and a new aquarium was built next door to the original. This modern version, now known as the Reef Headquarters Aquarium, looked less imposing than its predecessor but probably houses more astonishing marine life. On the other side of the empty site, the Queensland Museum Tropics now stands where nothing of the kind existed in 1997.

I stayed three days in Townsville. Activities include a visit to the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, and checking out the city. And poorly done too, as flowing past the back of the aquarium building, the River Ross flows constantly until it empties east of the city centre - a river I had failed to see. I suppose that is one of the downsides of independent travel. Unless there is someone to tell me, I could miss several interesting sites and not find out about them until a long time later. On the contrary, there were many interesting places worth visiting that I made an effort to visit by word of mouth. For example, Sea World, the Old Town, Little Italy, and Mission Beach, all in San Diego California. I became acquainted with those venues by socialising and making friends while I was staying at the HI AYH hostel two years earlier in 1995.

Magnetic Island.

I believe that visitors to Townsville arrive to use it as a base to explore Magnetic Island, so named in 1770 by Captain James Cook after the compass on his ship went awry as he sailed past. Despite the lack of any scientific evidence that the island has any unusual magnetic properties, the name stuck.

Ferries sail daily across 8km or five miles of water to Nelly Bay, on the southeast coast of the island. On the second morning at Townsville, I made my way to the harbour to board a ferry to the island's port, Nelly Bay, the terminus for both foot passenger boats, on which I was on board, and a car ferry. 

Magnetic Island is a continental island, a one-time area of high ground jutting out from the mainland when the sea level was lower. When the sea level rose to cover the coastal shelf, the land bridge was submerged. Yet, as with many continental islands fringing the eastern coast of Australia, coral reefs grow around these islands, and these corals are appropriately named Fringe Reefs. Had I known Magnetic Island better than I did on the day I set foot, chances were I might have snorkelled over one of the fringe reefs, especially those near Nelly Bay. Instead, a hiking trail led northward to a dramatic section of the coast, Radical Bay, along with the neighbouring sweeping curve of Horseshoe Bay. Looking inland across a wide valley, Mt Cook, the island's highest elevation, towering at 497 metres above sea level.

Hiking trail at Magnetic Island.

Remains of World War II Fort, Magnetic Island.

Radical Bay as seen from the Fort.

However, to enjoy such panoramic views, the trail led me up a hill, on which the remains of a World War II fort are approached. The fort was originally built as a lookout for any threats of a Japanese invasion.

From the fort, I carried on walking until I arrived at Radical Bay. After arrival, I saw broken coral scattered along the beach. It would have been easy, and tempting to pick up one or two of the coral skeletons to take home to grace the shelf. After all, I was alone at the beach with no one else around. However, I was aware that collecting such items was illegal, and I could end up in trouble if I was caught leaving the country carrying these pieces. Broken coral washed up and lying on the beach is government property. And so, I left them be.

It took a day for me to hike approximately five miles or 8km to Radical Bay from Port Nelly and then back to the harbour. The trail back took a different route, hence, I did not climb the hill to where the fort stood. Instead, I just followed the trail until it joined the road that would lead me safely to the harbour where a ferry awaits.

My experience on Magnetic Island was perhaps the loneliest hike I had ever completed. Throughout the day I had hardly met another soul. It was as if I was the only person on the island, a modern Robinson Crusoe for the day. How would I have compared Magnetic Island with the yardstick hike down into the Grand Canyon - the Hike of all hikes? Well, the Magnetic Island hiking trail was one-fourth the length of the Canyon's Bright Angel Trail, and far less strenuous. At Bright Angel, I couldn't help but pass one hiker after another on the first three miles leading to the start of Tonto Plateau, where the 3-mile rest stop makes a popular turnaround point. But along the Tonto Plateau itself, and into the Devil's Corkscrew, I had the trail to myself, right to the point of arrival at Phantom Ranch.

Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island.

Mt Cook, Magnetic Island.

By contrast, although the Magnetic Island hike was much shorter and easier to navigate, I didn't meet anyone. I would not be exaggerating if I were to say that as evening was beginning to draw near, I began to feel a little queasy until the ferry terminal came into view. 

Cooking a meal in the hostel's kitchen to round up the day was a pleasure. And then an evening stroll along the esplanade, at times looking up at the Milky Way streaking across the sky and dominated by the Southern Cross Constellation.

The next day was the final day before leaving Townsville for Arlie Beach with the nearby town of Cannonvale, and the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands.

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Next Week: As I travel to Arlie Beach, something astonishing happens!